Re: [semi-OT] black hawk down?

>>The worst part was where the medic and an SSG were
>>working on a kid's severed artery.
>
>DYM Hollywood added this bit?

not if the book is accurate.  the poor kid takes a shot through the
femoral
artery, and then slowly bleeds out over the course of several hours, as
the
higher-ups refuse to send in a medivac (which probably would have been
shot
down), and the on-scene medic runs out of options...

>Horrible timing, but they figured the prize was worth it.  20/20 says
it 
>was dumb, but if the Blackhawks don't go down and screw everything up, 
>would it have caught Adid? Don't know.
>But I agree, backups to backups.  The planning wasn't where it should
have 
>been.

They weren't actually after Aidid on that op.  They were going in to a
meeting of a group of his senior henchmen.

>>
>>They knew they were inserting into Aideed's stronghold
>>and they knew that every adult male in Somalia carries
>>a weapon.  Even those who aren't fulltime fighters are
>>part of local neighborhood self defense militias.

even worse than this.

not only were vast numbers of the local men armed, but women joined the
fight when the men were shot, and plenty of people turned up unarmed and
stayed in the fight just in case someone was shot and they could get a
gun.

the Somalis used tactics like advancing up alleys with a group of women
in
front - forcing the Americans to make some really tough choices...

>There was a CSAR team in case a chopper went down.  From the movie 
>(remember, I'm only a chapter into the book), it seems like the CSAR
team 
>wasn't beefy enough.  What if it was two Blackhawks, a squad in each
and a 
>couple of gunships?  They get the pilots and crew out, the Rangers evac
as 
>per the plan, and US fatalities are 5-6.  A lot fewer Somali's die too.

Something that doesn't show up in the film is the wide variety of forces
that were actually involved.  The action included Air Force CSAR
pararescuemen (one or two of whom, IIRC, were decorated for bravery) and
Navy SEALs - though certainly it was primarily Delta and the Rangers.

What struck me most, when I read the book (and this doesn't come across
as
strongly in the film, I think) is the complete breakdown of command and
control at all levels above the guys on the ground.  They had it hard
enough, but the commanders in helos and the ones back at base were quite
out of touch with what was actually going on.  The relief convoy was
misdirected continuously.

The film is quite good, however.  It stayed very close to the book, as
far
as movies go, and did an excellent job of capturing the "feel" of the
book.

It isn't a "fun" film, for sure, but it is well done.  More of a
docu-drama, than anything else.

Worth the viewing, absolutely.

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Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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