Blackhawk Down Blog

The book that I decided to read for the independent reading project was Blackhawk Down by Mark Bowden. This book has been very interesting to me since I am interested in military events (at least the ones that have occurred World War II and after). It has been very interesting so far, and I have also watched the movie, which was very good but considered by many to downsize parts of the true events of the day. The book details the events of the first Battle of Mogadishu (which went under the code name Gothic Serpent). They entered the Bakara and anticipated a quick one hour mission which would end in the capture of two tier one aides of Mohammad Farrah Aidid with very few injuries to American forces. Local spies had reported where the two personalities would be meeting and the Army had soon set up a plan. Members of the Army Rangers would set up positions on corners of the block where the building was to prevent anyone from entering. Elite Delta force troopers would then enter the building using flash bang grenades, stunning the people and getting them on the grounds before they could react, as they had been taught to do.
This would be most easily done using helicopters, which normal pilots would be hard pressed to navigate in the narrow allies of the Bakara market. However, the army had the 160th division (also known as the Night Stalkers) which was an elite force of pilots who had even trained themselves to fly during the night. The Rangers would be brought in on MH-60 Blackhawk helicopters while the Delta force flew in on the smaller MH-6 Little Birds (which would be armed with mini guns and 2.75 inch rockets). At the same time a ground force would leave for the base and meet up at the house where the prisoners would be loaded on and taken back to base. All of this went terribly wrong when two the Blackhawks got shot down by Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG’s). The army started talking massive casualties as they fought to the crash sights while all of the market continued to rise against them. Eventually they got to the crash sights after suffering casualties to find many of the pilots dead. After all that they had to set up posts for the night where they had to defend themselves from the constant Somali attacks, eventually being rescued by the UN peace keepers also in a peaceful part of Somalia. At the end many of the Rangers and Delta forces couldn’t fit in the cars and had to run the distance to the stadium, while being shot at, after a night of constant fighting. This magnificent run became known as the Mogadishu Mile. I was greatly disturbed by the fact that people called US forces out for accidentally hitting women and children, when in fact, these women and children were running towards the fighting, running towards the Americans and thus blocking the Somali fighters from being hit. They involved themselves in the fight, when kids sit on top of a Somali shooter to protect him they involved themselves and made themselves combatants.
This book really brought to light the massive sacrifices our armed forces make for us. Many suffered debilitating wounds such as having their finger shot off, or suffered through unendurable pain while they slowly died after trying to save one of their friends. Not only has this book been very interesting, but it has made me respect those who serve our country much more than before.