Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

As the operation begins, Eversmann notices burning tires near the target building. Burning tires are often used to summon local militias to fight American troops. The first Delta men land and move toward the target. Their specialty is “taking down a house like this” (13). Chalk Four’s Black Hawk helicopter hovers 70 feet up as the men lower their ropes. Eversmann can hear gunfire below. The helicopter is one block north of where they had planned to land. As he jumps from the helicopter, he realizes they are higher than he thought, and far higher than they had ever “fast-roped” in training.

Todd Blackburn, the youngest member of Chalk Four, is unconscious and bleeding when Eversmann reaches the ground. Blackburn missed the rope and fell. Militiamen are firing at Chalk Four in the street. Eversmann attempts to radio Captain Mike Steele to order an extraction for Blackburn, but he gets no answer. He reaches Lieutenant Perino on a walkie-talkie, and soon two medics arrive to help Blackburn.

Officers watching the battle on screens see thousands of people, many armed, converging on the market below the hovering helicopters. Bowen notes: “Whenever there was a disturbance in Mogadishu, people would throng to the spot. Men, women, children—even the aged and infirm. It was like some national imperative to bear witness” (18). The presence of civilians is a problem because the rules of engagement only allow the rangers to fire on someone who is pointing a weapon at them, and the crowd makes it hard to see who might be armed.

Eversmann repeats that someone needs to extract Blackburn, and someone replies that the Humvees cannot reach him. He orders two men to carry Blackburn to the Humvees. They advance under fire, setting the wounded man down every few steps to return fire. 

From the command center at the Task Force Ranger’s air force base, General Garrison watches the fight. The Delta Force operators, referred to as “D-boys,” have the prisoners. Garrison has been under pressure from Washington to capture Aidid for six weeks. He prefers to perform the raids at night but cannot pass up the opportunity to grab Aidid’s men at the meeting.

Garrison has served two tours in Vietnam and spearheaded squadrons of soldiers whose sole aim was to assassinate the enemy leaders in Vietnamese villages. He is tough, cynical, “a blunt realist who avoided the pomp and pretense of upper-echelon military life” (24). His men love him and are loyal. 

A teenage student named Ali Hassan Mohamed is in his father’s hamburger shop when he hears shooting. He looks outside and sees Rangers sliding down ropes. Ali describes them as “cruel men who wore body armor and strapped their weapons to their chests and when they came at night they painted their faces to look fierce” (30). A helicopter descends, shooting its machine guns. The bullets kill Ali’s 15-year-old brother, Abdulahi Hassan Mohamed, who is near the gate. On the street, men with megaphones shout for Somalis to come out and defend their homes. Ali retrieves an AK-47 from where he has hidden it in a nearby house and meets with several friends. They begin firing at the Rangers. Two of Ali’s friends fall victim to gunfire, but he is determined to shoot a Ranger, thinking, “Who were these Americans who came to his neighborhood spraying bullets and spreading death?” (32).

Sergeant Paul Howe and three Delta men are the last to enter the target house. As they search upstairs, someone fires at them through a window. Howe believes the attack is coming from a Ranger outside who is mistaking them for an enemy. He is disappointed in the Rangers and remembers why he joined Delta Force, “because he did little to disguise his scorn for lower orders of soldiering, which pretty much included the whole regular US Army” (34). He is proud that the D-boys are the best-trained and most-skilled men in the Armed Forces, which makes him impatient with other forces. Howe radios Captain Scott Miller, the Delta ground commander in the courtyard outside, and tells him to get the Rangers to stop shooting at their own people. 

Specialist John Stebbins is a 28-year-old Ranger, the oldest in the group. Previously, he had worked in a bagel shop in New York, but he had enlisted in the army to get medical insurance after the birth of his baby. He was an office clerk for two years, but he craved adventure and began to fear that he would never see action. He finally received orders to report to Mogadishu to replace an injured Ranger, but was disappointed to find that he was assigned to guard the hangar while other Rangers went on missions. When the time comes for the Aidid raid, however, another Ranger has come down with an elbow infection and Stebbins takes his place. He is quickly pinned down in an alley by sniper fire.

Mike Goodale and Aaron Williamson are across from the alley. Goodale had just gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Kira, before leaving for Somalia, and he’s thinking of a voicemail he left for her the previous night.

When a Somali man shoots Williamson in the hand, he and Goodale open fire on the man, killing him. Goodale is conflicted by the incident, thinking, “A life, like his, ended. Was this the right thing?” (42). 

Specialist John Waddell descends. His lieutenant orders him to provide covering fire for a man named Nelson as he sets up a large gun called a “pig.” Nelson shoots at an old man who is firing on the Rangers. It takes a surprising number of bullets to kill the man. Nelson then sees another man lying prone on the ground, pointing a rifle. Two women on both sides and four children are shielding him with their bodies. Nelson throws a flash grenade, and the women and children scatter.

A Ranger named Sergeant Yurek sees a tin shed near the target house. There is movement inside. He opens the door and sees a female teacher with a group of children. He urges them to stay inside and closes the door.

Nelson sees a huge crowd of people moving toward him. Shooters step from the crowd, fire on the Rangers, then disappear back into it. Nelson chooses to fire on the crowd since they are hiding the shooters, and he can’t always distinguish between them. “One minute there was a crowd, the next minute it was just a bleeding heap of dead and injured” (49).

Staff Sergeant Jeff Bray shoots a Somali man who runs at him in an alley. The man is reckless, and Bray does not understand what he could have been thinking. In the target house, the Delta men cuff the prisoners, including three high-profile Aidid lieutenants. It is 3:50 pm. Besides Blackburn, who fell from the helicopter, the mission has gone smoothly. The team expects to leave within 10 minutes.

Sergeant Jeff Struecker is the lead driver in the convoy of 12 vehicles. When the D-boys finish with the prisoners, he will lead the convoy to collect them.

Struecker has not adjusted to the city easily. The people seem, in his view, to live a purposeless existence. Like some of the other Rangers, “he felt sorry for the kids. For the adults they felt contempt” (51). Sometimes he wonders why American troops are in Mogadishu. In the back of Struecker’s truck is machine gunner Sergeant Dominick Pilla. Pilla loves practical jokes and often performs skits with Nelson that mock the officers. He’s a company favorite.

Struecker receives orders to go to the target house but takes a wrong turn. He manages to rejoin the convoy after several blocks. Officers assign Struecker the task of evacuate Blackburn when he arrives. After men load Blackburn into the Humvee with a medic, Struecker leads three vehicles toward the base. The shooting worsens with each block, and Pilla sustains a gunshot wound and dies instantly.

Ali Hussein is in his hamburger shop when three American trucks roll by. He throws himself behind a door for protection. 

There are thousands of Somalis in the street, and Struecker does not know how to get through. He tells the driver not to stop moving. The driver rams a slow truck ahead of them even though men are hanging off the back. The remaining men reach the compound safely. When they stop, Struecker looks at Pilla. Enough of his head is gone that Struecker does not recognize him. 

Private Clay Othic is the smallest member of the company and is nicknamed “Little Hunter” because of his rural upbringing and love of hunting. His best friend in the unit is specialist Eric Spalding. They are jealous of the D-boys, who often take the Black Hawks to hunt wild boar.

Othic is manning a turret gun on a Humvee during the raid. There are so many unarmed people that identifying shooters is difficult. Bullets begin hitting his vehicle, and he starts shooting everywhere, thinking of a Ranger saying: “When the going gets tough, the tough go cyclic” (62).

Spalding is in a truck farther up the line. An RPG hits the truck. Othic sees the shooter, opens fire, and kills him. Othic sustains a shot to the arm, but he continues shooting anyone he can see before Sergeant Ruiz takes the gun from him. 

Sergeant Galentine and his friend, Specialist Jim Telscher, are under fire behind two cars. As they run for an alley, a Somalian shoots Galentine in the hand. His thumb dangles from a small strip of skin. He and Telscher run across a street and reach Eversmann and his men. Eversmann takes Galentine’s thumb, tucks it into Galentine’s palm, and tells him to hold on to it.

As Part 1 ends, Specialist Dave Dimer tells Evermann, “I think I just saw a helicopter get hit” (67).