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Overall Summary
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War is a book about the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia. It’s written by Mark Bowden, an award-winning journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the event. The book details how US forces tried to capture two lieutenants of Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a warlord who oppressed and killed Somali people. This was part of Operation Gothic Serpent, which aimed to deliver humanitarian aid to those affected by famine in Somalia. However, due to miscommunication between commanders on the ground and their superiors back at base camp in Italy (as well as other factors), they failed miserably and ended up losing many men—a total so high that it became known as Black Hawk Down.
In 1992, Somalia’s famine and civil war are worsening. President George H. W. Bush sends US troops to help combat the warlords who are stealing humanitarian aid in Somalia, but after a while it looks like the US is trying to occupy Somalia rather than simply providing aid.
The best chance to capture Aidid’s leadership was on October 3, 1993. During daylight hours, a team of Rangers and Delta Force operators arrived in the city of Mogadishu in helicopters and descended on ropes outside the target house where Aidid’s men were holding a meeting. The Delta men secured their prisoners without incident but one injured Ranger fell from his helicopter during the descent. Thousands of Somalis rushed to help them while more Americans came by air. An RPG shot down two Black Hawk helicopters forcing all the soldiers to take shelter inside an old building with limited escape options due to bad weather conditions around them leaving no option for immediate assistance or evacuation from military commandos who were waiting at base camp for clearance signal through radio communication that never arrived because they were attacked earlier as well.”
A convoy of vehicles is surrounded by militiamen and gets bogged down in fighting. The US troops fight for 14 hours against thousands of Somali militiamen, who are trying to kill them. Finally, the Malaysian and Pakistani forces arrive at the scene as reinforcements. But there aren’t enough seats for everyone on those vehicles so many soldiers have to run out of Mogadishu on foot while still under fire from the militia.
13 US soldiers died and 75 were injured in a battle with Somalis. The number of Somali deaths was estimated to be 500, while 1,000 were wounded.
Bowden’s book is a detailed account of the Somalia conflict. The author uses many viewpoints to explain the background of politics in Somalia, as well as why US military and United Nations were involved.
Black Hawk Down is a book about a failed US mission in Somalia. The failure of this mission led to the Clinton administration’s policy that emphasizes judiciousness when involving America’s military abroad.
Part 1, Chapter 1
When American aid arrives in Mogadishu, Somalia, warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid steals the food stores. As a result, people starve and their infrastructure crumbles like “the post-apocalyptic world of Mel Gibson’s Mad Max movies.” In response to this situation, Matt Eversmann plans to lead his 12-man unit of US Army Rangers on their first mission against Aidid.
On October 3, 1993, a Ranger group known as Chalk Four was supposed to land via helicopter and cover the Delta Force men who were already ambushing Aidid’s meeting with Habr Gidr clan leaders. The Delta Force would capture its prisoners and then Chalk Four would protect the convoy trucks that were going to take those prisoners away.
Eversmann and the Chalk Four have rehearsed their plan for dealing with Aidid’s militia several times. They are eager to prove themselves in combat, as many of them hope to one day join Delta Force. Eversmann knows that they’re looking forward to a “balls-out firefight” (9), since they want to shut down Aidid’s operations as soon as possible.
