Black Hawk Down

by Mark Bowden

  INTERVIEWS

  Hassan Yassin Abokoi; Abdiaziz Ali Aden; Aaron Ahlfinger, a state trooper now in Colorado; Abdikadir Dahir Ali; Steve Anderson; Chris Atwater, W. F. “Jack” Atwater, Abdi “Qeybdid” Hassan Awale; Mohamed Hassan Awale; Abdullahi Ossoble Barre; Alan Barton, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and now works for the Phoenix City Post office; DeAnna Joyce Beck; Maj. Gen. E. R. “Buck” Bedard, U.S. Marine Corps; John Belman, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and now works for a newspaper publishing company in Cincinnati; Anton Berendsen, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and is now attending college in Georgia; Matthew Bryden; John Burns, who received the Bronze Star for Valor Device and is attending college in Georgia; Lt. Col. L. H. “Bucky” Burruss, U.S. Army, ret.; Tory Carlson, who received the Purple Heart and now works as a high-line electrician in Florida; SSGT Raleigh Cash, U.S. Army, who is still serving with the Ranger Regiment; John Collett; Col. Bill David, U.S. Army, who is now garrison commander at Fort Bragg; David Diemer, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and now does construction work with his father in Newburgh, New York; CPT Tom DiTomasso, U.S. Army, who received the Silver Star and still serves with the Ranger Regiment; Col. Peter Dotto, U.S. Marine Corps; GEN Wayne Downing, U.S. Army, ret.; CWO Michael Durant, U.S. Army, still with the 160th SOAR, who received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star; Abdullahi Haji Elia; Abdi Mohamed Elmi; Mohamed Mahamud Elmi; SSGT Matt Eversmann, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and still serves with the Ranger Regiment; Abdi Farah; Halima Farah; Hussein Siad Farah; Ibrahim Roble Farah; Mohamed Hassan Farah; David Floyd, who is attending college in South Carolina; Willi Frank; Scott Galentine, who received a Purple Heart and is now attending a community college in Auburn, Georgia (surgeons reattached Galentine’s thumb and he has partial use of it); Hobdurahman Yusef Galle; Chief John Gay, U.S. Navy, who is still a SEAL; CWO Mike Goffena, U.S. Army, who received a Silver Star and was killed in February 1998 in a helicopter crash; Kira Goodale; Mike Goodale, who received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for Valor and now lives with his wife Kira in Illinois and is completing studies to become a high school social studies teacher (he still serves in the National Guard); Gregg Gould, who now works as a police officer in Charleston, South Carolina; Jim Guelzow; Ali Gulaid; SFC Aaron Hand, U.S. Army; Abdullahi “Firimbi” Hassan; Bint Abraham Hassan; Hassan Adan Hassan; Mohamed Ali Herse; Adm. Jonathan Howe, U.S. Navy, ret.; MSG Paul Howe, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star for Valor; Mark Huband; Abdullahi Mohamed Hussein; Ali Hussein; Mark Jackson; Omar Jess; CWO Keith Jones, U.S. Army, who received the Silver Star, and is still flying with the 160th SOAR; LTC Larry Joyce, U.S. Army, ret.; SGT Ed Kallman, U.S. Army; Jim Keller; Michael Kurth, who is working as a waiter in Houston, Texas; Abdizirak Hassan Kutun; SFC Al Lamb, U.S. Army, who received the Silver Star and is still with Special Forces based in Tampa, Florida; Anthony Lake, who teaches at Georgetown University; CPT James Lechner, U.S. Army, who received the Purple Heart (doctors were able to stimulate enough bone growth to save Lechner’s leg and he is now based in Hawaii); Phil Lepre, who works for an advertising firm near Philadelphia; SFC Steven Lycopolus, who works as a senior instructor at Fort Lewis, Washington; SFC Bob Mabry, U.S. Army; MAJ Rob Marsh, M.D., U.S. Army, ret.; COL Thomas Matthews, U.S. Army; LTC Dave McKnight, dec.; SGT Jeffrey McLaughlin, U.S. Army; Lt. James McMahon, U.S. Navy, ret.; CPT Drew Meyerowich, U.S. Army, who received the Silver Star; Yousuf Dahir Mo’alim; Elmi Aden Mohamed; Kassim Sheik Mohamed; Nur Sheik Mohamed; Sharif Ali Mohamed; Abdi Karim Mohamud; Jason Moore, who works for an investment company in New Jersey; Gunnery Sgt. Chad D. Moyer, U.S. Marine Corps; Shawn Nelson, who was working as a trail guide in the Grand Tetons before getting married and moving to Atlanta; Ambassador Robert Oakley; Clay Othic, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and the Purple Heart and now works as a special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Wichita, Kansas; Capt. Larry Perino, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and still serves with the Ranger Regiment; Rob Phipps, who received the Purple Heart and now lives in Augusta, Georgia; Benjamin Pilla; Gen. Colin Powell, U.S. Army, ret.; Randy Ramaglia, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and now helps manage a rock band in Columbus, Georgia; S. Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez, U.S. Army, based at Fort Lewis, Washington; Omar Salad; Daniel Schilling, who works as an administrator at the University of Phoenix in Provo, Utah, and is finishing his master’s degree; SFC Kurt Schmid, U.S. Army, based in Japan; LTC Mike Sheehan, U.S. Army, ret.; Stephanie Shughart; SSG George Siegler, who is still with the Ranger Regiment; Dale Sizemore; CPT Jim Smith, U.S. Army, ret.; Eric Spalding, who serves as a special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Arizona; LT Scott Spellmeyer, U.S. Army; Peter Squeglia, who works for an investment company in Boston, Massachusetts; SGT John Stebbins, U.S. Army, who received the Silver Star; MAJ Mike Steele, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and now serves with the 82nd Airborne; MAJ David Stockwell, U.S. Army; SGT Jeff Struecker, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and still serves with the Ranger Regiment (in 1997, Struecker won the coveted “Best Ranger” award); Osman Mohamud Sudi; Abdi Tahalil; Jim Telscher; SSG Brad Thomas, who still serves with the Ranger Regiment; Keni Thomas, who received the Bronze Star for Valor and now works with delinquent children and plays in a rock band in Columbus, Georgia; Lance Twombly; SPC John Waddell, who is in training to become a Special Forces medic and is bound for medical school; SFC Sean Watson, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star for Valor; T. Sgt. Tim Wilkinson, who received the Air Force Cross and still serves as a pararescueman based at Hurlburt Field, Florida; Jason Wind; LT Damon Wright, U.S. Army; CPT Becky Yacone, U.S. Army, ret.; CPT Jim Yacone, U.S. Army, ret., who received the Silver Star, who now works for the FBI; Jeff Young, SSG Ed Yurek, U.S. Army, who still serves with the Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning; Bashir Haji Yusuf; Brig. Gen. Anthony Zinni, USMC, who is now commanding general of USCENTCOM.

  BOOKS

  Hazardous Duty, COL David H. Hackworth, U.S. Army, Avon Books, 1997. Hack-worth herein continues his war against the status quo in the U.S. Army, and offers a brief but fairly accurate account of the battle in Chapter Six, “Unfortunate Casualties.” There are inaccuracies (as noted below and in the Epilogue) and some slippery reasoning, but Hackworth’s highly opinionated account is basically correct and makes for spirited reading.

  Losing Mogadishu, Jonathan Stevenson, Naval Institute Press, 1995. This is a critique of the overall UN/U.S. effort in Somalia and is a classic exercise in summing up policy mistakes in retrospect, rife with “flagrant misreadings” and “precisely wrong” approaches, which is the easiest of all academic sports. The battle itself gets very short shrift.

  Mogadishu, Heroism and Tragedy! Kent Delong and Steven Tuckey, Bergin & Garvey, 1994. A hasty, sincere effort at a re-creation of the battle based on interviews with a few of the participants, most of them pilots. It is full of mistakes, everything from misspelled soldiers’ names to screwed-up time sequences, but it is well-meaning and right out of the old rah-rah school of military reporting.

  On the Edge, Elizabeth Drew, Simon & Schuster, 1994. Drew’s book is an account of President Clinton’s first two years in office, and affords the best insights into the decision making (or lack of same) that led to the battle, and the administration’s reaction in its aftermath.

  Out of America, Keith Richburg, A New Republic Book, Basic Books, 1997. Richburg is a Washington Post reporter who wrote about the events in Somalia as they happened. His book records his mounting disillusion, as an African-American, with Africa after traveling and reporting there for several years. Some of his insights into Aidid and the situation that led up to the battle are excellent, although understandably much colored by his anger over the brutal deaths of Dan Eldon and Hos Maina on July 12 at the hands of a Somali mob.

  The Road to Hell, Michael Maren, The Free Press, 1997. This is a well-written book about the international policies that led to the complete collapse of
Somalia, and ultimately to the UN intervention and this battle. Maren offers fresh insights into the sometimes destructive role played by international goodwill.

  Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s, Daniel P. Bolger, Presidio, 1995. I found this to be a very impressive and accurate book. Chapter Seven on Somalia, “Down Among the Dead Men,” is the best thing I had read about the battle and the entire intervention from a military point of view. Bolger is fair, thorough, and accurate.

  Somalia and Operation Restore Hope, John L. Hirsch and Robert B. Oakley, United States Institute of Peace Press, 1995. This is the definitive narrative account of the UN and U.S. intervention in Somalia, much of it through Oakley’s eyes (he is a former U.S. ambassador to Somalia and served as President Clinton’s envoy to Somalia after the battle).

  The United Nations and Somalia, 1992–1996, The United Nations Blue Books Series, Volume III, Department of Public Information, UN, 1996. This is the definitive reference book for the UN interventions in Somalia.

  ARTICLES

  “Experiences of Executive Officer from Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and Task Force Ranger during the Battle of the Black Sea on 3–4 October, 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia,” Capt. Lee A. Rysewyk (published in-house by the Combined Arms and Tactics Division, U.S. Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia). A good overview of the battle that includes the official operational time line.

  “Fast Rope into Hell,” Dale B. Cooper, Soldier of Fortune, July 1994. A spirited account of part of the fight, in true guts-and-glory style, primarily based on interviews with air force PJs Fales and Wilkinson.

  “Heroes at Mogadishu,” Frank Oliveri, Air Force Magazine, June 1994. An account of the actions of air force personnel Wilkinson, Fales, and Bray.

  “Mission to Somalia,” Patrick J. Sloyan, Newsday, December 5–9, 1993. A superb analysis of how and why the battle took place, with some good bits from the fight itself.

  “Mogadishu, October 1993: A Personal Account of a Rifle Company XO,” Capt. Charles P. Ferry, Infantry, October 1994. A rather dry account of the actions of the 10th Mountain Division.

  “The Raid That Went Wrong,” Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post, January 30, 1994. An excellent and amazingly accurate account of the battle from both the American and Somali points of view.

  “Rescue of the Rangers,” Ed Perkins, Waterdown Daily Times, October 2, 1994. A very ambitious, readable, and accurate account of the actions of the 10th Mountain Division.

  “A Soldier’s Nightmare,” Philip F. Rhodes, Night Flyer, 1st Quarter 1994. Another account of Fales’s experiences, also packaged as “Courage Under Fire” in Airman, May 1994.

  “Task Force Ranger Operations in Somalia 3–4 October 1993,” U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office, June 1, 1994 (unpublished). The official twelve-page summary of the battle with fifty-six pages of brief accounts of individual heroism.

  NOTES

  The Assault

  1 “At liftoff ... usually amounted to nothing,” Eversmann, Diemer, Sizemore, Nelson, McLaughlin, Galentine. In the early days of air mobile assaults, aircraft loads were noted with a numeral chalked on the side of the fuselage. Hence the term, chalk. One of the unique things about today’s army, especially elite units like the Rangers, is that the men assigned to it live and train together, often for years. Mission statement and overall design is from “Task Force Ranger Operations in Somalia 3–4 October 1993,” prepared by the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOC) and the USSOC History Office, dated June 1, 1994 (hereafter called USSOC report). “Waiting for the code word ... on a taut rope,” Details of the armada are from the USSOC report and Matthews, McMahon, Durant, P. Howe, and Jones. “There were signs ... ‘Be careful.’” Dave McKnight, Struecker, Eversmann, Schilling. Description of Garrison also from Ranger snapshots. “The swell ... festering urban rot,” Eversmann, Nelson, Diemer, Lechner, M. Goodale, Stebbins, etc. Description of the city is from my trip to Mogadishu and from videotape and photographs taken by Rangers and by army observation helicopters and the spy plane. (I have seen a total of about an hour and a half of highlights from the approximately fifteen hours of battle video shot from the plane and observation helicopters, extremely high-quality color videotape for the most part.) “In his bird ... was among them,” Eversmann et al. and the USSOC report. The acceptance rate for those soldiers invited to try out for Delta varies from class to class, but 10 percent is a fair average according to Howe and Burruss, who served as Garrison’s second in command when he commanded the unit. Some of the more general insights into Ranger mentality came from conversations with M. Goodale, Nelson, Sizemore, Squeglia, Floyd, Anderson, Waddell, Perino, Othic, and Spalding, who gave me the “all-star football team analogy.” I interviewed the P-3 pilot, Jim McMahon, who was airborne over the city until about dusk, at which point the OH-58Ds took over surveillance and taping.

  2 “It was only a three-minute flight ... alerted Eversmann,” Eversmann, Matthews, P. Howe, USSOC report. Quotes in italics set off by the long dash are of radio transmissions and in the text are meant to indicate a voice being heard on the radio. Most are taken directly from transcripts of command-net radio traffic during the fight, which was recorded. Some from the Ranger company net or Delta assault net are based on interviews. References to time here and throughout come from the operational time line constructed by Task Force Ranger’s operations cell, which notes every significant event in the fight from “Oct. 3, 1993, 1350—CISE reports possible Salad/Qeydid mtg at house near VIC olympic Hotel,” to “Oct. 4, 1993, 0916— Ground commanders report all pers accounted for except for the 4 crewmembers and 2 snipers inserted into crash site 2.” “The Little Birds moved ... fired a shot,” radio transcripts, USSOC report, and battle video. “Delta rode in on benches ... assault’s outer perimeter,” P. Howe, USSOC report, battle video, Jones, and various written accounts of the battle prepared in the days after the fight by members of the Delta teams. Descriptions of the actions of Howe and Rierson come from my interviews with Howe, who spoke with Rierson at length about the gunfight immediately afterward. Rierson was killed on October 6 in a mortar attack on the airfield. Hooten’s memories are from his written account of the battle. “As ropes dropped ... one going in,” Thomas. “Hovering high ... something overripe,” Eversmann, Diemer. “Blackburn was bleeding ... behind two parked cars,” Eversmann and an account of Good’s actions prepared by USSOC historians who interviewed dozens of participants in the days after the fight. Eversmann recalls the chopper jerking suddenly just as Blackburn leapt for the rope, but no such movement is visible on the videotape, which clearly shows the young Ranger tumble out the door. Blackburn, who I did not interview, has reportedly made a full physical recovery, but has no memory of his fall or of subsequent events on October 3. “Eversmann shouted ... weren’t being heard,” Eversmann, Moore. “Eversmann tried ... sharpshooting me,” Eversmann, Perino. “The radio call brought ... an IV,” Schmid and an account of Bullock’s actions by a USSOC historian. “Fire was growing ... roll out of here,” Eversmann, Diemer, McLaughlin. Rick Atkinson’s excellent reconstruction of the battle in The Washington Post (January 30, 1994) quotes Somali militia leaders who described efforts to bus fighters to the market area primarily from the north, which would help explain why Chalk Four was so embattled. “Schmid, the Delta medic ... ‘he’s gonna die,’” Schmid, Eversmann. “Eversmann called Perino ... on his own,” Eversmann, Perino, McLaughlin, Schmid.

  3 “On the screens ... near that part of town,” Dave McKnight, Marsh. The description of how events in Mogadishu had deteriorated after the Marines withdrew is from J. Howe. “It was the one place ... lose the war,” Garrison’s prescient memo was quoted in Samuel Bolger’s book, Savage Peace, and also in news accounts subsequent to the battle. “The timing was also ... that much more deadly,” Matthews, Goffena, Durant, Jones, Yacone. “Night afforded ... worst possible time,” Dave McKnight, Burruss, Bryden, and my observations in Mo
gadishu. “Still, the chance ... pressure for success was mounting,” Matthews, Dave McKnight, State Department and Task Force Ranger memos. The line from Smith is from a September 17 letter to his parents. “Just that morning ... go and be stupid,” description of Garrison is from Dave McKnight, Marsh, Burruss, and Rangers. Details of the general’s frustration come from his three-page October 3 memo to General Hoar, entitled “To Keep You Informed.” Gosende’s memo was written September 15. “And just that morning ... rockets on the Little Birds,” USSOC report, Steele, Matthews, Rangers. “Lieutenant Jim Lechner ... ‘Roger,’” Lechner.

  4 This section is primarily based on my interview in Mogadishu of Ali Hassan Mohamed. A number of the Somalis I interviewed were clearly making up stories about where they were and what they saw on October 3, but thanks to the detailed accounts I’d gotten from American soldiers it was pretty easy to sort fact from fiction. The “Rangers” Ali saw were most likely men from the Delta command Black Hawk who roped in about a block off target, and initially cleared out a courtyard about a block west of the target building, where they consolidated before moving back out on the street. The shot that killed Ali’s brother probably came from a minigun providing covering fire for their movement.

  5 This section is based largely on my interviews with P. Howe, although the overall impressions of Delta were also influenced by interviews with other present and former members of that unit, and with the Rangers who fought with them in Somalia. Friction between Steele and the D-boys started on the first day they trained together at Fort Bragg. Steele’s company had been involved in manuevers at Fort Bliss when they were summoned quickly to Bragg. When they arrived, according to Steele, Delta wanted to throw his men right into a training exercise. Steele said he demanded more time to get his unit organized, and wanted a more precise plan of action for his men than the operators were inclined to present. I have seen a videotape purporting to show the friendly fire incident on top of the target building. It shows Howe and his team crouched defensively behind a low concrete wall as chunks of it fly around them. There is no way from the videotape to tell exactly where the shots were coming from, but several sources in Delta and the Rangers confirmed the shooter was a Ranger with Chalk Two. Sergeant First Class Steven Lycopolus, then a staff sergeant, took the blame for the shooting, which he said was actually done by a junior member of his chalk. According to Lycopolus, he refused to turn over the culprit when Captain Steele demanded to know who the shooter was, so Steele told him, “Then you will have to accept the responsibility.” Other Rangers discount this story and point the finger at Lycopolus, who was unpopular anyway because of another alleged fratricide incident described in Part III. The source of the earlier shooting was not identified.