Black Hawk Down

by Mark Bowden

  18 Radio tapes.

  19 “In the convoy’s ... Humvee,” Burns. “They were still pointed ... lying down again,” Schilling, Moore. “Not long after ... needed him,” Carlson. “In the second ... he was fine,” Kallman. “Dan Schilling felt ... ‘all fucking dead,’” Schilling, radio tapes, Matthews. It was Schilling’s impression that McKnight seemed “dazed.” Rierson had told Howe the same thing in their conversations after the battle. It was the impression of the men I interviewed, mostly Rangers, that the experienced Delta operators kept the convoy together, moving, and organized under these hellish conditions. The voices of the commanders in these radio transmissions convey their distress and mounting frustration more compellingly than their words alone. One hears confusion, anger, and disbelief.

  20 “Specialist Spalding was still ... everything that moved,” Spalding. “To make room ... those still shooting,” Othic, Hand. “Many of the vehicles ... four flat tires,” Schilling, Gay. “When the RPG hit Kowalewski ... out of here ASAP,” Schilling, radio tapes. “They weren’t home yet ... another vicious ambush,” Gay, Spalding, Diemer, Eversmann, Burns, Moore.

  Overrun

  1 “Too many things ... it would be dark,” USSOC report, Dave McKnight, operational time line, David. “Shortly before ... felt this way,” Wilkinson, Lamb, Barton, Belman, Phipps, Mabry, Marsh. Dr. Marsh told me about the battles fought to lug his trauma kits everywhere. The title PJ, for “parajumpers,” has recently been upgraded by the air force to the more descriptive “pararescuemen,” even though everybody still calls them PJs. Tim asked me if I would consider calling them “pararescuemen” in the book, and I declined. I feel guilty about it, hence this confession. “As Jollata called back ... upright and intact,” Wilkinson, battle video, operational time line, radio tapes, Mogadishu: Heroism and Tragedy! Phipps insisted that he had remembered to kick out the bags, but I went withWilkinson’s account, which explained Super Six Eight’s delay in getting up and out. A videotape of the incident shows Super Six Eight begin to pull up and away, then settle back into a hover.

  2 “Wilkinson heard the snap ... bodies to cover,” Wilkinson, Belman, Barton, Lamb, Phipps, Mabry. According to John Burns, Delta sergeant John Macejunas was the only member of that unit who routinely still wore the K-pot. The description of the neighborhood into which Super Six One crashed is from my viewing of the videotape, my visit there, and from intelligence photos taken the morning after, which show pieces of the rotors widely scattered. “Sergeant Fales was at the front end ... bent tail boom,” Mabry, Wilkinson, Air Force Magazine (June 1994), Night Flyer (first quarter, 1994), and Airman (May 1994). “The injury to his partner ... to get him out,” Wilkinson.

  3 Abdiaziz Ali Aden.

  4 “Sergeant First Class Al Lamb ... Rob Phipps,” Lamb, Gould. “Phipps had roped ... out of the fight,” Phipps, Lamb, Belman, Gould, Lycopolus. Both Phipps and Gould hold Lycopolus responsible for their injuries. Lycopolus feels he has been unfairly blamed. “I threw six grenades in all,” he says. “The first five exploded, so obviously, with all the stress and excitement I was remembering to pull the pin and remove the safety strap correctly. I would have done exactly the same thing with the last one as I did with the first five.” Lycopolus believes Somalis behind the wall threw over an American grenade of their own. He attributes the hard feelings about the grenade to the fact that he was new to the Ranger unit, so it was easy for them to blame him—someone they didn’t know well. Both Phipps and Gould were shipped out with their injuries immediately after the battle, so Lycopolus never had a chance to address their accusations at the time. By the time Bravo Company flew back to the States, the story of how he’d screwed up was so entrenched he couldn’t defend himself against it. That and the friendly fire incident resulted in his being transferred out of the Ranger Regiment. He is still in the army.

  5 Goffena, J. Yacone, Matthews, operational event time line, USSOC report, command-net tapes. Colonel David explained that the QRF’s roundabout route was necessitated by mines and ambushes his troops had encountered in driving straight through the city in the past. Given the hammering McKnight’s convoy was taking at the same time (which David knew nothing about), it would appear to have been prudent.

  6 The description in this section, presented mostly through the eyes of Dale Sizemore, is based on dozens of interviews with Rangers, Delta operators, and air force personnel. I asked all of the men who lived in the hangar to tell me about it, and the various anecdotes emerged from that. Some of the description is also based on the many photographs men sent me of the hangar. “And even though the ocean had sharks ...”—It seems that a big Somali slaughterhouse was located on the waterfront, and for years the remains of butchered carcasses had been dumped in the ocean, feeding happy herds of voracious sharks. Up the beach, the navy hung a big net offshore to provide a safe swimming area, but at least one U.S. soldier was severely injured in a shark attack. This did not, however, deter Rangers from swimming. The guys on vehicles would drive up the beach and post a lookout (for both sharks and officers) while the others frolicked in the surf. “Right after take-off ... and racked out,” P. Howe. “They taught little tricks ... absolutely fearless,” descriptions of the Delta operators are from my interviews with many Rangers. In my initial interviews with Rangers at Fort Benning, which were conducted with a USSOC press officer in attendance, there was no mention of the Delta soldiers who were at the heart of the mission. The Rangers did their best to tell their own stories without mentioning who was actually raiding the target house, although sometimes their own accounts were forced to mention “a soldier from another unit.” Even when I started tracking down and interviewing Rangers on my own, working on leads given me by the original group, most were reluctant to discuss the D-boys, whose very existence is, at least officially, secret. Eventually I found some who felt comfortable talking about men who were killed, and would discuss the others without mentioning their names. Those who were out of the army generally were more relaxed about this. Macejunas made such an impression that just about every Ranger I talked to had a story to tell about him, “this unbelievable guy with a blond flattop.” I was able to attach a name to the stories when I obtained accounts of the battle written by Delta soldiers and SEALs. “Specialist John Collett ... ‘I was gasping!’” Floyd, Collett. “One of the air force PJs got a blow-up love doll ...”—This was mailed by Schilling’s wife and a girlfriend of one of the other PJs as a joke. The sex doll was placed on a chair outside the air force’s little sector in the hangar with a crude cardboard sign advertising rates. “Across the road, spooked air force personnel ...”—Not to be confused with Schilling, Fales, Wilkinson, Bray, and the other PJs and combat controllers living in the hangar with the task force. These less combat-ready air force folks, male and female, were mostly assigned to medical units. “Guys always crowded in to watch CNN ...”—The Rangers were not the only ones watching CNN. According to Warren Strobel’s book Late Breaking Foreign Policy, Aidid was a regular viewer and used CNN to communicate to his own people and the world, even after the UN manhunt reached full swing. “‘Black time’ ...”—The “quote” from the radio is from Othic’s diary. I encountered no overt racism among the Rangers I interviewed, but I was surprised to learn that Sergeant Dave Wilson and Specialist Mike Kurth were the only black soldiers in the task force. The Ranger Regiment and Delta, at least as of 1993, seem to have been relatively untouched by the much-heralded integration of the army. The Delta soldiers I interviewed, and there were only a few, all blamed swimming requirements. “Relatively few blacks grow up swimming,” one explained. I asked Colin Powell why, and he said he believed the de facto segregation still evident in the army’s two most elite units was “a perfect example of what happens where you don’t have affirmative action.” Given the strenuous qualification requirements for both units—particularly Delta, where fewer than one in ten of those invited to try out successfully complete selection—implementing an affirmative action plan would pose unique
difficulties. A few of the Rangers and D-boys I talked to suggested that blacks may not be as inclined as whites to volunteer for dangerous work on behalf of a country and establishment that is primarily white. Still, as Powell pointed out, the relatively high percentage of blacks in other elite army units, like the 82nd Airborne, argues against that. The paucity of blacks suggests to me that there is still something about the culture of the Rangers and Delta that either doesn’t welcome or actively excludes black soldiers. Kurth told me he never had any special problems in Somalia, but that Wilson had been taunted as a “traitor” by Somalis for his skin color. “In the evening they practically wore out the collection of videotapes ...”—One of the favorite movies shown in the hangar was Groundhog Day, the comedy classic starring Bill Murray, where the hero is trapped in Puxatawney, Pennsylvania, forced to keep living the same day over and over again until he gets it right. Many of the men, frustrated by the long delays between raids and the monotonous long sunny Mogadishu days, saw the film as a metaphor for their mission. “Listening to the sounds ... Not now.” Anderson, Sizemore. “The horror hit home ... scraped it from the interior,” Struecker, B. Thomas. “Sizemore saw all this ... showed none of this,” Sizemore, Cash, Anderson. “Not everyone ... rest of the men,” Struecker, Sizemore, Anderson, Cash, B. Thomas. I included the scene with Brad Thomas not to humiliate him, but to illustrate how difficult it was for men who had emerged safely from the intense fighting to drive right back into it. The important part of this anecdote is that Thomas, like Anderson, did his duty despite the terror. There were men in Mogadishu, including Thomas and Anderson, who went back repeatedly.

  7 “You’re going to go ... ‘the backseat,’” Struecker. “Other volunteers ... start to move,” Squeglia. “As Struecker steered ... out the back gate,” Struecker, radio tapes. “In a Humvee behind ... a roaring fusillade,” Cash. “In another of the rear ... take a shot,” Anderson. “The lead vehicles ... directly ahead,” Struecker, radio tapes. “Durant would say ... was at hand,” Durant. “Box the roadblock ... hanging by threads,” Struecker, Cash, Anderson, Sizemore. “Squeglia saw ... to get there.” Squeglia, Struecker, Sizemore, Anderson, Cash.

  8 “Up in their Black Hawk ... ready to go down,” Goffena, J. Yacone. “Up in the command bird ... the downed crew,” Matthews. Matthews did not tell me Harrell’s name. I learned the Delta commander’s identity from interviews with Rangers and from battle documents. “When Goffena’s crew chief ... thumbs-up,” news accounts quoting Hall. “There was a small opening ... began moving that way,” Goffena, J. Yacone, battle videotape.

  9 “More than a mile ... had ever shot,” Yurek, P. Howe, Twombly, DiTomasso. “Specialist Lance Twombly ... such a bad shot,” Twombly. “Yurek could not believe ... until nightfall,” Yurek, Nelson, Barton, Waddell, DiTomasso.

  10 Nelson, Barton, Twombly.

  11 “Sergeant Paul Howe and the three ... going to be fun,” P. Howe. “Captain Steele saw ... front and rear positions,” Steele. “They hadn’t run more ... ready to roll,” Perino, M. Goodale, P. Howe, Steele. “Specialist Stebbins ... ‘Just keep moving,’” Stebbins. “Steele, who had a radio ... robot-Ranger formality,” Steele. Asked to explain some of the problems he had with Delta soldiers, Steele told me a long story of difficulties he encountered on one the task force’s earlier missions with a veteran soldier he identified as a member of the unit. The soldier had ignored Steele’s orders on several occasions and, in Steele’s opinion, had placed a chalk of Rangers in needless danger before being shipped back to the States. In reality, the soldier in question had been thrown out of Delta long before the Mogadishu mission, and was with the task force as Special Forces medic attached to the Rangers. So at least some of Steele’s feelings about the Delta unit were founded on a misunderstanding. “When Steele cracked down ... Steele’s captaincy,” Nelson, Diemer, Sizemore, Phipps, M. Goodale, Moore, Burns, Lamb, Watson, etc. The account of the arm-wrestling contest is from my interview with Diemer, and general feelings and perceptions about Steele are garnered from my interviews with dozens of Rangers. “The disdain was mutual ... Hoo-ah discipline,” Steele. Paul Howe feels Steele’s characterization of Delta planning sessions is unfair and inaccurate. I suspect it is just a difference in perspective. It points up the culture clash between the Rangers and Delta. It is not surprising that Steele would see the relatively informal give-and-take of a more egalitarian Delta planning session as chaotic. “Like the time ... when it was,” Nelson, P. Howe, Steele. “In short order ... getting pinned down,” P. Howe. “The Rangers followed ... he was worth,” Stebbins. “Sergeant Mike Goodale who had once ... This is for keeps,” Goodale, P. Howe, Perino, Stebbins, Lechner, Watson, radio tapes.

  12 Mohamed Sheik Ali.

  13 “The odor of spent gunpowder ... out of this alive?” Floyd. “He was against the wall ... other Rangers,” Floyd, Siegler, Ramaglia, Young, Watson, K. Thomas, Kurth, Collett. “Watson led the group ... what-the-fuck!” Floyd, Ramaglia, Young, K. Thomas, Kurth, Collett. “Sergeant Keni Thomas was closer ... like a failure,” K. Thomas, Watson. “Collett was feeling good ... back to the wall,” Collett, Siegler. “Rounds poked through ... resilient men could be,” Floyd, K. Thomas. “Specialist Mike Kurth was helping ... everyone was intact,” Kurth, Collett, Young. “Further down the slope ... pointing at the two Ranger officers,” Steele, Floyd, Hooten.

  14 “What Hooten was trying ... in that spot,” Hooten. “Steele motioned ... out of this mess,” Steele. Steele’s gesture is based on my interview with Floyd, and the description of what he was doing is from my interviews with him. Steele did not remember seeing Hooten gesturing in the doorway until after the shots hit close. “Beside Steele, ... miniguns were blazing,” Steele, Floyd, Lechner, C. Atwater, K. Thomas, Collett. “It was just after that ... the street to help,” Steele, Atwater, Lechner, Hooten. The circumstances surrounding Lechner’s injury became controversial after the battle, with Delta soldiers accusing Steele of abandoning Lechner on the street, a very serious charge, especially to a Ranger, whose code is to never leave a fallen comrade. In my opinion the charge is baseless. Lechner, who was the man supposedly left, said Steele reacted correctly and as anyone would to take cover when rounds started hitting close. He said seconds were all that elapsed between his getting hit, Steele and Atwater scrambling for cover, and Bullock running out to pull him to safety, hardly long enough for Steele or anyone else on the street to take cover, figure out what just happened, and retrieve him. Atwater, who was lying beside both men, confirmed Lechner’s and Steele’s accounts of the incident in every particular. None of this takes away from Bullock’s bravery. He left the safety of the courtyard and moved out into fire in order to drag the lieutenant inside. “Steele took the radio mike ... Have more casualties, over,” Steele, radio tapes. Steele’s voice in the recording, a kind of gasping shout, shows the extreme duress of the moment. “Sergeant Goodale ... pouring from a jug,” Goodale. According to Lechner, who is now a captain based in Hawaii, the bullet effectively removed a section of bone several inches long from his shin. Doctors were able to stimulate regrowth of the bone, however, and after a long period of recovery and rehab, Lechner has full use of the leg.

  15 “At roughly the same time ... edge of his seat,” Durant. “The Black Hawk had flattened ... face and legs,” Howa and Bint Abraham Hassan. They still live in a shack alongside the remains of Super Six Four. “The dazed pilots ... was no rescue team,” Durant.

  16 Mo’alim.

  17 Goffena, J. Yacone, radio tapes. Hallings lost the lower part of his leg, but has reportedly made remarkable progress with a prosthesis and is back with his unit.

  18 Durant, P. Howe. In Durant’s memory and in the official account (including the Medal of Honor citations) Randy Shughart was killed first and Gary Gordon came back around the helicopter, gave Durant a weapon, tried to radio for help, etc. Paul Howe, who knew both men well, convinced me that it was the opposite. He heard Randy’s distinctive voice radio twice for help (not Gordon�
�s). Also, Shughart and Gordon carried different customized weapons. The one handed Durant was almost certainly Gordon’s, not Shughart’s. Shughart carried an M-14, and the weapon handed Durant was, he says, most likely a CAR-15, but certainly not an M-14. Gordon would never have handed Durant his own weapon while he was still capable of using it. Lastly, in his witness statement, Durant said he recognized Gordon because he had frequently attended flight briefings. Actually, says Howe, it was Shughart who routinely attended those briefings. Durant told me while he was reluctant to see the official account altered, he could not be certain which man was which. He did not know either of the men by name.

  19 “Hassan Yassin Abokoi had been shot ... parts of the Americans’ bodies,” Abokoi, who showed up at the Hotel Sahafi with two friends carrying Durant’s and Cleveland’s helmets (their names were attached with little black stick-strips to the back). They wanted me to buy them for three hundred dollars apiece. I liked the idea of bringing the helmets back and returning them to the 160th, but I was not inclined to reward Abokoi and the others for their war trophies. I told them I wasn’t interested. They protested through an interpreter that it was rude of me not to even bargain with them, so I told them if they wanted to leave the helmets I would pay them twenty-five dollars for returning them. They left disgusted, with the helmets, but not before Peter Tobia took pictures of them posing with the trophies on their heads. “When Mo’alim ... the layers away,” Mo’alim, Durant.