Re: [semi-OT] black hawk down?

On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, John Atkinson wrote:
<<snip lots of good stuff on what went wrong>>
> The
> Rangers, as a matter of fact, acted more like Boy
> Scouts on a camping trip than the highly professional
> elite troops that they claim to be.  
> Lessons Learned:
> 
> 1)Do your damn PCC/PCIs.  Take freakin' water, NVGs,
> and ALL YOUR BODY ARMOR.

PCI = Pre-Combat Inspection? PCC = ??

> 2)Testosterone does NOT make you bulletproof (Rangers,
> Airborne, Light Infantry take note).

I read the book just a few months ago, finally, but haven't seen the
movie
yet.

I've got to say the Rangers come out looking really, really stupid in
the
book - way too much hoo-rah & testosterone nonsense, which all came
apart
when the 'cunning plan' did. The Delta guys were impressive - the only
real mistake they made seemed to be saddling themselves with the Rangers
for perimeter security...

> 3)Failing to coordinate with relief forces is lethal.
> 4)Failure to make contingency plans (ie, what happens
> if a helicoptor goes down?) sets yourself up for
> failure.

There was a SAR Blackhawk - it was the 2nd bird to go down; there wasn't
a
backup beyond that, AFAIK. 

> 5)Failure to take your opponent seriously causes
> mental shock and failure to think clearly on the part
> of your leadership.

See your Point 2 - the Rangers came unglued, it seems.

> 6)Armored vehicles are the only things that can
> operate with impunity against large numbers of
> hostiles.  Yes, they would be vulnerable to RPGs.  But
> less so than goddamn HMMWVs!!

That surprised me, too - no Bradleys, no M113s, no LAVs even. Just
trucks
and Hummers.

Two reasons, I suspect - politics & not wanting to escalate things on
the
ground. Sending 'tanks' in on a nominal peacekeeping mission looks bad
back home for Yank politicians, and on the streets in Somalia it could,
theoretically, provoke more confrontations than the US wanted.

Of course, helo raids were pretty provoking too, but a chopper is faster
than a ground vehicle. That let the US choose who & where it provoked
people...

My $0.02 - I'm going to have to see the movie now, I guess.

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -