Read Black Hawk Down while in Africa

– Hello once more! Back writing a little review over the final book I had read while in Africa, this one being Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. I had watched the film starring Josh Hartnett when I was much younger, but had forgotten the plot and where events had taken place. In the lead up to my deployment in Africa, i.e. our pre-deployment training, this event was constantly referred to as we would be operating around the region, specifically near Somalia. I had never been to Africa, and wanted to study as much as time would afford. Bowden's history was both enlightening and heartbreaking, speaking accurately on military affairs from the top down.

– I am a huge fan of history, and my studies center around this discipline. I believe in writing history with as little bias as possible, and can be a stickler of accuracy if a work is presented as academic. I have also been in the military for nearly 15 years, and sometimes it is difficult to not have one interest clouded by the other. In saying this, my favorite thing that Mark Bowden does with this book is gives us much of the perspective of the people of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia where this horrific event takes place. Often as military folks we are fairly patriotic, sometimes extremely so, and it can blur our outlook on reality. The world is not black and white, and wars don't always follow a good vs. evil script. So many times we rush head first into battle, with destroy the baddies on our minds, only later to find out we were the baddies. In my opinion, this was one of those events.

– This is not to take away from the many soldiers who lost their lives in Mogadishu on that fateful day in October of 1993. Their courage and sacrifice should still retain honor, even if the bureaucracy behind the operation was complete chaos. But, this is sort of tough for me to write, as there was exponentially more deaths of Somali men, women and children that never get remembered outside of Mogadishu- whose deaths never are honored or commemorated… Maybe this is Mark Bowden's attempt to do so.

"It didn’t matter that none of the men in these helicopters knew enough to write a high school paper about Somalia."

"Warlords had so ravaged the nation battling among themselves that their people were starving to death. When the world sent food, the evil warlords hoarded it and killed those who tried to stop them. So the civilized world had decided to lower the hammer, invite the baddest boys on the planet over to clean things up. ’Nuff said."

These sentences among many others describe the crux of this conflict. Delta Force and the Army Rangers, two teams I had no idea had a history of not getting along, were tasked with finding a Somali Warlord, Mohammed Farah Aidid and his upstart terrorist group Habr Gidr in the incredibly impoverished city of Mogadishu. On its face, the mission seemed like a good thing.

"Soldiering was about fighting. It was about killing people before they killed you. It was about having your way by force and guile in a dangerous world, taking a shit in the woods, living in dirty, difficult conditions, enduring hardships and risks that could— and sometimes did— kill you. It was ugly work."

"Some people needed to die. It was how the real world worked."

– Again, Mark Bowden doing an excellent job of getting readers into the psyche of these elite men of the 90's, who grew up watching G.I. Joe and wanting to serve their country by fighting. But, when conflict reaches a point of confusion, or when shit really hits the fan, this psyche can help you survive. It can also prevent a peaceful resolution from coming about unfortunately.

"Somalis were famous for braving enemy fire, for almost suicidal, frontal assaults. They were brought up in clans and named for their fathers and grandfathers. They entered a fight with cunning and courage and gave themselves over to the savage emotion of it. Retreat, even before overwhelming enemy fire, was considered unmanly. For the clan, they were always ready to die."

– The very general overview of what happened here is after a culmination of events and mishaps by the U.S. military mixed with clever propaganda by Habr Gidr. The people of Mogadishu were initially glad when the Americans first entered the region much earlier then this event occurred. Americans in these poor cities meant food and aid. However, operations had made life tough for these Somalis, many of whom lived in makeshift huts and shacks. Black Hawk helicopters flying over the city would often blow houses and shops apart from the winds it created, often repeatedly in a week with no care or empathy from the Americans. Midnight abductions and raids conducted by the U.S. Rangers confused and frightened the Somalis, especially when the wrong residence was raided which happened more than once. And, after months of being in the region, they had failed to capture Aidid. People began to look at this fugitive as a mythical hero as their sentiments towards American troops began to sour. On this fateful day, perspectives on American Operations in Somali had reached enough of a low, where the Somalis determined themselves to fight back no matter the cost.

“The city was shredding them block by block. No place was safe. The air was alive with hurtling chunks of hot metal. They heard the awful slap of bullets into flesh and heard the screams and saw the insides of men's bodies spill out and watched the gray blank parlor rise in the faces of their friends, and the best of the men fought back despair. They were America's elite fighters and the were going to die here, outnumbered by this determined rabble. Their future was setting with this sun on this day and in this place.”

– From the American side, once the wave of chaos hit during a daytime raid of a hotel Aidid's lieutenants were said to be residing in (which they were), a city of thousands turned hostile towards a handful of men from a few separate units. That has got to be scary as all hell. I don't care if the American weapons were much more advanced, when a city of thousands are creeping down alleys, over buildings, and using women and children as meat shields (along with the women and children shooting, lobbing Molotov cocktails, etc)- that just has to be an incredibly horrorific scene…especially as the sun began to set. A mission projected to take less than an hour became a two-day fight for survival for these servicemen. Absolute dread must have permeated the units…especially when Somali RPGs began downing Black Hawks from the sky.

"To kill Rangers, you had to make them stand and fight. The answer was to bring down a helicopter. Part of the Americans’ false superiority, their unwillingness to die, meant they would do anything to protect each other, things that were courageous but also sometimes foolhardy. Aidid and his lieutenants knew that if they could bring down a chopper, the Rangers would move to protect its crew. They would establish a perimeter and wait for help. They would probably not be overrun, but they could be made to bleed and die."

– This book is written in a minute by minute, play by play of exactly what went down. I warn you, it is graphic and brutal. There are descriptions here of Somali women being hit by helicopter bullets and literally being blown apart. There are narratives about what the Somali people did with the bodies of the dead pilots in one of the Black Hawks shot down that is absolutely barbaric. It was something pilot Michael Durant, one of the downed pilots who actually survived his capture and captivity, had on his mind while he was dragged through the streets by the mob. Awful. I think it is worth the read in that, sometimes we need to be reminded just how mortal we really are. Some days we need to appreciate what we have, absolutely including myself here, in that…we have never had to endure such poverty, or warlords, or occupation. We have never had to be trapped in a foreign city, in a fire fight, while our buddies we went through basic training with are slaughtered around us. We don't bear the crippling handicaps and disfigurements many of these combatants, on both sides, had to go on living with. AND ARE STILL LIVING WITH, as this battle only took place in fucking 1993.

-Mark Bowden tries to tell the story from both sides, and from both sides it is grisly and horrible. There were no winners, as his sobering epilogue will reveal. Only two sides whose tragic and courageous fighters are largely forgotten. Barely anyone knows anything about Mogadishu and the Somali event of 1993 is seen as merely a failed military operation. That isn't fair to those who were center stage as total war raged for 2 days, and Mark Bowden makes sure their voices are given ample pages to tell their tale.

“And yet these Americans, with their helicopters and laser-guided weapons and shock-troop Rangers were going to somehow sort it out in a few weeks? Arrest Aidid and make it all better? They were trying to take down a clan, the most ancient and efficient social organization known to man. Didn’t the Americans realize that for every leader they arrested there were dozens of brothers, cousins, sons, and nephews to take his place? Setbacks just strengthened the clan’s resolve. Even if the Habr Gidr were somehow crippled or destroyed, wouldn’t that just elevate the next most powerful clan? Or did the Americans expect Somalia to suddenly sprout full-fledged Jeffersonian democracy?”

"Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart. Give him money to speed his departure since we wish not to die in that man’s company. Whoever lives past today and comes home safely will rouse himself every year on this day, show his neighbor his scars, and tell embellished stories of all their great feats of battle. These stories he will teach his son and from this day until the end of the world we shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for whoever has shed his blood with me shall be my brother. And those men afraid to go will think themselves lesser men as they hear of how we fought and died together."