Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Howe approaches Nelson’s position near Wolcott’s Black Hawk. After knocking down the gate to a residence, he leads his men into a courtyard, getting them off the street. They secure and explore the house, which will be their command post for the rest of the night. Captain Miller tells Howe to go back to the street and help the team. Howe, a Delta man, resents the order. It seems to him that “most of the men failed to grasp how desperate their situation had become” (207).

Outside, Howe sees Nelson across the street shooting at one of the windows in the building Howe has just cleared for use as their post. Nelson does not know Delta has occupied the building. Howe is furious when he sees Rangers selectively shooting armed Somalis, and he begins throwing grenades wherever he sees people, just to clear space. He does not believe that they can afford to adhere to the rules of engagement if they are to survive. Howe finds a protected spot to fire from and watches Perino, Smith, and Elliot moving down the other side of the street. 

Nelson sees a bullet hit Corporal Smith. Delta medic Kurt Schmid reaches him and drags him back into the courtyard. Sergeant Ken Boorn and Private Rodriguez also sustain gunshot wounds. Boorn has a wound in his foot, and Rodriguez in the groin. “Eight of the eleven Rangers in Perino’s Chalk One had now been hit” (211). Elliot and Perino reach the courtyard of the house Delta has secured.

To stop Smith’s femoral bleeding, Schmid pulls the wound open with his fingers and clamps the artery. In his condition, morphine would kill Smith, and the pain sends him into shock. Perino radios for help and learns that no one can reach them. 

Stebbins is terrified. It will be dark soon, and they did not bring their NODs (night observation devices) because it was supposed to be a quick daytime mission.

The pilots of the Little Birds have now seen enough of the city to start making shooting runs to keep the crowds at bay. The Rangers on the ground begin setting up flares to mark their positions so the pilots do not shoot at their outposts.

Stebbins almost dies several times as rockets explode all around him. When it is darker, it becomes easier to target the enemies, because the muzzle flashes of their weapons show their locations. 

Sergeant Fales, the wounded parajumper, gets a radio call for a medic. Schmid needs help with Rodriguez and Smith. Fales and Wilkinson are working on their own wounded men and are still expecting the rescue convoy to arrive at any moment.

Wilkinson runs across the street to the courtyard and examines Rodriguez. Everyone watching is amazed that Wilkinson makes it safely. A bullet has entered one side of Rodriguez’s buttocks, passed through his pelvis, and blown off one of his testicles. Wilkinson stops the bleeding, but he needs more fluids for IVs. He runs back across the street and then returns safely, prompting one of the D-boys to say, “Man, God really does love medics” (222). 

A grenade explodes near Stebbins and flips him over. He gets up, feels like his left leg and foot are asleep, and he falls. Wilkinson helps him get to the room with the medic and cuts Stebbins’s left boot off. A huge piece of shrapnel has become in his foot and the whole left side of his lower body is burned. Wilkinson gives him a rifle and props him up by a window but tells him he shouldn’t stand or move from his position.

A block away, Private David Floyd and Specialist Melvin DeJesus are shooting at everyone they see. Captain Steele has ordered everyone to come to the courtyard. They both make it across the street safely.

Around the same time that the mob overcomes Durant’s helicopter, Major Rob Marsh watches as truckloads of wounded men from the lost convoy arrive at the Ranger’s airfield base. Marsh has been the Delta unit’s surgeon for eight years. He has two other surgeons, a nurse anesthetist, and two physician assistants ready to help in his operating tent. Nurses from a mobile Air Force surgical facility are on standby to assist as needed. The trucks open, and he sees Griz Martin slumped, holding his own entrails. Marsh doesn’t believe Griz will survive, but tells the other surgeons to begin working on him. The wounds he sees that afternoon are horrific, but he has prepared for a day like this for his whole career.

Garrison orders Chief Warrant Officers Stan Wood and Gary Fuller to take Black Hawk Super Six Six and drop supplies to the men in the courtyard. They successfully deliver water, ammunition, and IV bags under fire.

Howe is unhappy with the way that Steele and the Rangers are handling the situation. Steele is content to stay in his position because it is temporarily safe. Howe believes that they are all being reactive and are not seeking to improve their positions, which he considers the hallmark of good soldiering. He studies the neighborhood and tries to think of solutions.

Schmid is disappointed that the resupply drop did not contain blood for transfusions, which would help him with Smith. He authorizes a mild morphine drip for Smith, now that he is in critical condition and the hopes of rescue are slim. Smith calms down with the drug and begins talking about his family.

Steele is frustrated with himself for not allowing the men to bring their NODs. “They were in the fight of their lives, at night, lacking the most significant technological advantage they had over their enemy” (238). Twice, Captain Miller had asked to talk to Steele on the radio, but Steele had declined, knowing that Miller wanted him to move his men up the street. Steele is determined not to put the men back in the line of fire outside the courtyard if he can avoid it. Miller tells his Delta men that they must move out, and they prepare to leave the courtyard, but as they step onto the street, there is so much gunfire that they dive back inside.

Smith dies of his wounds and his “prolonged agony and death would haunt” (243) Schmid for years. He second-guessed himself for every decision he made in trying to save Corporal Smith’s life.

Stebbins feels euphoric. He compares his near-death experiences in combat to the intensity of surfing. Combat has been “A state of complete mental and physical awareness” (250) where he had no connection to the larger world. He is happy to be alive and is completely calm.

Abdiaziz Ali Aden has been hiding in the house the Rangers have occupied. The Rangers blow a hole in a wall to give themselves more space to treat the wounded, making Aden nervous that he may be discovered. He manages to escape by pulling himself up over an outer wall and dropping down into an alley. 

Late that night, the four D-boys, a crew of Rangers led by Sergeant Watson, and several other men decide it is calm enough to move up the street as Captain Miller had wanted. They make it to another building and secure the courtyard and residence. They find large drums of water and fill their canteens. 

The commanders watch the neighborhood through infrared and heat-sensitive cameras. The Little Birds keep shooting at small groups of Somalis who are patrolling the perimeter of the areas where the Rangers and D-boys are stationed.

Steele receives a report that two large forces of Somalis are moving toward them. He knows that if the Somalis find the entrance to the courtyard, “he and his men would kill a lot of them but probably couldn’t stop them” (255).

Howe is beginning to feel that he won’t make it out of the mission alive. The quiet unnerves him. He tells his team to conserve ammo prior to what might be their last conflict of the battle.

By midnight, the rescue convoy is getting close. “The men pinned down listened to the low rumble of nearly one hundred vehicles, tanks, APCs (armored personnel carriers), and Humvees” (257).