Black Hawk Down (54 page)

Mark Bowden

November, 1999

SOURCES

So many of the men who fought in this battle agreed to tell me their stories that most of
the incidents related in this book were described to me by several different soldiers.
Where there were discrepancies, one man's memory generally worked to improve the others'.
In some cases, comparing stories was a useful check on embellishment. I found most of the
men I interviewed to be extraordinarily candid. Having had this experience, they seemed to
feel entrusted with it. Most were forthright to the point of revealing things about
themselves they found deeply troubling or embarrassing. Once or twice, having been unable
to corroborate a story, when I pressed the soldier who originally related it to me, he
backed down and apologized for having repeated something he himself did not witness. I
have stayed away from anecdotes told secondhand.

With very few exceptions, the dialogue in the book is either from the radio tapes or from
one or more of the men actually speaking. My goal throughout has been to recreate the
experience of combat through the eyes of those involved; to attempt that without reporting
dialogue would be impossible. Of course, no one's recollection of what they said is ever
perfect. My standard is the best memory of those involved. Where there were discrepancies
in dialogue they were usually minor, and I was able to work out the differences by going
back and forth between the men involved. In several cases I have reported dialogue or
statements heard by others present, even though I was unable to locate the actual
speakers. In these cases the words spoken were heard by more than one witness, or recorded
in written accounts within days after the battle.

For understandable reasons, very few of the Delta operators who played such an important
role in this battle agreed to talk to me about it. Their policy and tradition is silent
professionalism. Master Sergeant Paul Howe, who has left the unit, obtained official
permission, but risked the opprobrium of his former colleagues for speaking so candidly
with me. Several current members of the unit also found ways to communicate with me. I am
grateful to them. I also obtained the written accounts of several key members of the Delta
assault force. It enabled me to provide a rare picture of these consummate soldiers in
action, from their own perspective. All told, this input represents a small fraction of
the unit, so the Delta portion of this story is weighted more heavily from Howe's and the
others' perspectives than I would have liked.

INTERVIEWS

Hassan Yassin Abokoi; Abdiaziz Mi Aden; Aaron Ahlfinger, a state trooper now in Colorado;
Abdikadir Dahir Al; 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. B. R. “Buck” Bedard, U.S. Marine Corps; John Belman, who received the
Bronze Star with Valor Device and now works for a newspaper publishing company in
Cincinnati; Anton Berendsen., who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and is now
attending college in Georgia; Matthew Bryden; John Burns, who received the Bronze Star
with Valor Device and is attending college in Georgia; LTC. 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 Colett; COL Bill David, U.S. Army, who is now garrison commander at Fort
Bragg; David Diemer, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and now does
construction work with his father in Newburgh, New York; CPT Torn 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 with Valor Device; Abdullahi Haji Elia; Abdi Mohamed Elmi; Mohamed Mohamud
Elmi; SSGT Matt Eversmann, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and still serves
with the Ranger Regiment; Abdi Farah, Halima Farah; Hussein Siad Farah; Ibrahim Roble
Farah; Mohamed Hassan Farah; David Floyd, who in 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 with Valor Device 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; Mi Gulaid; SFC Aaron Hand, U.S. Army; Abdullahi “Firimbi” Hassan; Bint Abraham
Hasten; Hassan Adan Hassan; Mohamed Ali Herse; Adm. Jonathan Howe, U.S. Navy, ret.; MSO
Paul Howe, U.S. Army, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device; Mark Huband;
Abdullahi Mohamed Hussein; All Hussein Mark Jackson; Omar Jest; 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.; SOT Ed Kallman, U.S. Army; Jim Keller; Michael Kurth, who is
working as a waiter in Houston, Texas; Abdizirak Hassan Kutun; SEC 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; SEC Steven Lycopolus, who works as a senior instructor at Fort Lewis,
Washington; SEC Bob Mabry, US. Army; MM Rob Marsh, M.D., US. Army, ret.; COL Thomas
Matthews, U.S. Army; LTC Dave McKnight, dec.; SOT 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; Kassin Sheik Mohamed; Nur Sheik Mohamed; Sharif
Mi 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; CPT 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 with Valor Device and now helps manage
a rock band in Columbus, Georgia; SSGT 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; SOT John Stebbins, U.S. Army,
who received the Silver

Star; MM Mike Steele, US. Army, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device and now
serves with the 82nd Airborne; MM David Stockwell, U.S. Army; SOT Jeff Struecker, US.
Army, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device 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;
Kern Thomas, who received the Bronze Star with Valor Device 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 with Valor Device; 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. Hackworth 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_, Americana at War in the 1990s, Daniel P. Bolger, Presidio, 1995.1 found
this to be a very impressive and accurate ~ok. 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_, 1992-1994 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
paints of view.

“Rescue of the Rangers,” Ed Perkins, Watertown Daily Times October Z 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.