I finally watched "Blackhawk Down!" One of my sons rented it and I stayed up till midnight last night watching it. I have read some "lessons-learned" from this tragic military failure, and have watched several specials with interviews of survivors from both sides, but I have never read the book on which this movie is based.

Now I have never performed the type of mission protrayed in the movie, although I did train for similiar missions for three years, before the Ranger battalions existed. If the beginning of the movie is true, and not Hollywood gloosing over "before-combat-checks", the arrogance of the Rangers involved halped to cause some of their casualities. And not just the Rangers displayed this arrogance, but also the members of Delta Force and the 160th AVN REGT.

Now let me explain. Something that was pounded into me in ranger training and again as an armor officer was executing proper pre-comabt checks. The patrol leader (in tehe case of the movie, the chaulk leaders and company commander) always inspected all team members in full combat load. There was always aprescribed combat load by duty position that could not be reduced. What was displayed in the movie was the following, as I can remember it:

One ranger chiding another for filling his canteens, "It is only a one hour mission" (I remember always carrying three one-quart canteens, five quarts for longer missions. A quart of water weighs 2 pounds. NOTE: There were three things we ALWAYS carried on missions, regardless of length: water, ammo, dry socks.

Another ranger removing the extra armor plate from the back of his armored vest. When I was on active duty, during the cold war on the inter-German border, we couldn't get body armor, and here is someone going into a target-rich environment, without all of his avaialble protective gear. It showed arrogance by a lack of respect for his opponent.

They rangers left behind all their night vision equipment. Luckily the Delta Force brought their NVDs and the 160th had them on their choppers.

The 160th AVN REGT can be faulted for using the same tactice for every missions they conducted. Even a mob will learn to recognize patterns after a period of time. They made teh same mistakes Lyndon Johnson made in Vietnam when he forced the B-52's to use the same flight profiles over North Vietnam day after day. The 160th use the same flight routes into and out of the airport to the city and teh Somalis had an early warning system in place. They also used the same techniques for insertions, in broad daylight, followed by the same pattern of support aircraft. The helicopter pilots and LRRPs in Vietnam (and we were taught in Ranger School in the 70s) to use false insertions, feints, etc., to confuse the enemy. Again, a lack of respect for the enemy cost them dearly.

Now, when the s**t hit the fan, they all performed as they were trained. Too bad they all forgot all the previous lessons paid for with blood in previous conflicts.

That is just a few items I observed. None of these observations have anything to do with the failures at the National Command Authority in 1992, don't get me started on that.


Rant-off

Ranger74

sometimes when the military gets its butt kicked it is a good thing. american arrogance in world events is beyond conceit. we are the only superpower and we acted as if we didn't have anything that could stand up to us. well someone is trying to get our attention, the al-quada, a small group of mohammeden idiots is making us spend a lot of time cleaning up after them instead of slaughtering them. the so-called prisoners in cuda should have been tortured for thei knowledge and then summarily executed. this time maybe old soviet tactics in interrogation should be used.

read the book its an eye opener! dont remember the author though.
Arthur.
I dont mind my dying i just dont want to be there!

You have some good points there Ranger.But,I have to say that if they had close-air support(such as a AH-1 Cobra)then alot of those ragheads with the RPG'S would have been blown away before they could have pointed thier weapons at the 'Hawks.
Plus they should have had armor in the streets to get the hell out of there.Now Im not saying that ALL of this would have not happened if they had these things,Im just saying it would have saved more lives.

Zach,

I agree with the comments about armor, but I did not won't to discuss Clinton's refusal to up the ante. The "Little Birds" carried 7.62mm mini-guns and so did the MH-60s. The problem was that the spec ops guys had become predictable in their tactics and used no diversions of any kind. The Somalis were able to concentrate rapidly because they understood what the U.S. was doing.

Now talk about bad luck: To be hit in the tail rotor of a helicopter with an RPG is bad luck indeed. The RPG is not an exceptionally accurate weapon, it was designed to hit tank at about 200 meters, that is aimed at center of mass and hit the tank somewhere. The two MH-60 crews had just used up their luck doing those missions.

But it was "our" lack of respect for the "masses" in Mogadishu that caused this lack of imagination on our militaries part.

BINGO!- give that Ranger74 a cigar, that is what i mean about our military arrogance and the lack of respect they have for the enemy. if we are to cure this, we have to get into our enemies heads and think like them. some opponents, no matter what you do, will never like or fear us. that is why we need to put the fear of God into them, by not only destroying them, but their families also. you think that they would spare ours. the U.S. military worries to much about the rule of war. if they fight barbarically, then we should do so in kind. no pussyfooting around and the payback should be total. THEN, maybe our enemies will fear us.

I Realize that Pak-40 is playing D.A. here I guess...Either way. I have to agree with his analysis. I believe that if the U.S. Military / Govt would quiet goofing around and REALLY Stomped on some heads in a major way. Then I think that our enemies would back off and realixe that the price would be too great to even contemplate messing around with us.

DAGGER-1

Well, that could be a way to go... if you are willing to loose all of your allies.
I, for one, will be in the streets demonstrating against my government if it decides
to support war criminals.
People who decide that laws are usemess always ultimately fight against their own
side as they will loose all of their support. The US is a superpower, and it has long fought
to defend certain values on the globe. I am very respectful and thankful for that.
Still, just as every other nation, when it fought, it was also to enhance it's situation,
to have a gain. And that is very logical.
If someday other nations have the feeling that US combats are too "aggressive" or
too much to their own advantage only, they will quit their support.
How do you bomb Afghanistan when you have no base nearby ?
And when countries nearby don't allow you to cross their airspace ?

I see that this thread is wandering off. Stomping on heads in Somalia would not necessarily have solved the problem, it sure didn't work in Vietnam. What I was stating that everyone was amazed with how the Rangers and other Spec Ops fought during the Mogadishu battle, however, some of what happened was the fault of the soldiers (particularly NCOs and officers who failed to follow their training and SOPs) and comitted the major sin in combat - they underestimated their opponent. American & European armies have had that problem for centuries. The British underestimated the Americans during our revolution, plus many of their other opponents in their many colonial wars, teh Brits and French underestimated the Turks at Gallipoli, the French knights paid the price at Crecy and Agincourt, etc, etc,.

I am not and never was a Ranger, but precombat checks are standard. The comments about these parts of the story are right on. You could see it coming. We had a LT reprimanded for not making sure his tanks each had 2 five gallon jugs of water filled. Basic, man, basics.

I have, but have not finished reading Culture and Carnage about the military dominance of the Western world... I will report on it when I finish it...