Blackhawk Down Paper Assignment

[mr02060]

Thanks for the posts Rangers.
Ranger Bill and Ranger Dan B 3/75, looks like the question of when leadership failed to lead or failed to properly coordinate is a much more intriguing one then what I assumed. I have very limited military experience (limited being an understatement) with only a few months of ROTC and 1 National Guard drill so any information about BHD would be appreciated. I'm about half way through the book and have seen a few instances of the Administration making poor decisions, i.e. not allowing Admiral Howe to receive Delta in June like he requested. Then the assault on the Habr Gidr clan leaders with TOW missiles, which made people who were opposed to Aidid join him. I'm not sure exactly what my instructor wants from this paper, but after reading some of these posts it's clear to me that Rangers AND their leaders completed the mission as best as they could given the circumstances.

[Jim]

Whenever leaders are denied required resources, it is usually the troops on the ground pay for it. The American Soldier should never be involved in a fair fight. At every opportunity, we should weight the response to ensure that the battle goes our way.

[K.Ingraham]

American Soldier should never be involved in a fair fight.

and to quote the esteemed Chairman Mao: 'even a tiger uses all of its strength when hunting a rabbit'.

[mr02060]

Roger Ranger xray. I'll give proper credit to those who provided me with insight if I use their information.

[K.Ingraham]

Negative Mr02060, we are not primary sources, besides, citing an internet forum is a PITA.
Follow some of the leads we've given you and develop some of your own.

[mr02060]

Roger Ranger K.Ingraham

[Jim]

After youo complete the paper, please post it on this thread. I'm sure many of us are interested in what you have to say.

[mr02060]

Rangers, I tried to post my paper but received the message "this extension doc is not allowed" or something along those lines. Any suggestions?

Also if this problem can't be fixed (document too large?) I'll email anyone the paper if interested.

[Minime724]

Mr02060:

If you wrote the paper in MSword or some similar program and have it saved on your hard drive why not just copy and paste it in a reply? I beleive that is what they are asking of you. I may be wrong. I am also interested in reading aformentioned paper. The Battle of Mogadishu is something that has interested me for awhile now. I have read Bowdens book more times than I can count.I would like to see your take on the situation. Thanks in advance

[mr02060]

Criticism is welcome--- Also the random numbers at the end of sentences are footnotes. The footnotes them selves have been taken out to make it a easier read, but finding all the numbers and taking them out would be a pain.



Black Hawk Down

Cadet XXXXXXXXX (deleted, PERSEC)

Georgia Southern University

Eagle Battalion








After reading Black Hawk Down it became very clear to me the difficulty of an urban fight on an asymmetrical battlefield. Fighting in an ancient African city where every road and alley looks like the one before it caused unforeseen problems for the soldiers that day in Somalia. These problems hindered rescue efforts by the Rangers and the QRF led by Lt. Col Bill David, causing them to take much longer than expected to reach the crash sites. While roadblocks caused the rescue forces to take different routes then planned, they should have been expected. The Somali’s had implemented roadblocks in the past and the American’s had seen it on previous missions.

Another problem that day was communication. It was taking too long for convoys to receive directions from command, and when they did, it was confusing.1 Communication continued to be a problem later in the struggle. While trying you make it back to base Capt. Steele and what was left of his men were stranded on National Street.2 At this point Pakistani and Malaysian armored forces had already been in the battle to extract the remainder of the American forces. Captain Steele informed Lt. Col. Gary Harrell that some of his men had been left behind by the Malay driver.3 Lt. Col. Harrell reported back saying, “I thought everybody was loaded”, referring to Lt. Perino and his men.4 However, what Captain Steele did not know was that the men were in fact picked up. One of the Delta Operators who was with Lt. Perino decided to level off his CAR-15 at the driver, encouraging him to stop and pick up the soldiers.5 Needless to say, the driver decided it was in his best interest to stop and pick up the men.

On June 5th, 1993, four months before the raid in the Bakara Market, twenty-four Pakistani soldiers were slaughtered.6 I believe this was the start of leadership failing to make the right decisions, ultimately resulting in the loss of American soldiers. After the murdering of the Pakistani soldiers, Admiral Jonathan Howe was outraged and adamant that Aidid be stopped.7 Howe was responsible for bringing the Rangers to Somalia in order to capture Aidid and try him as a war criminal, and was convinced that by doing so Somalia could be saved.8 The warlord Farah Aidid was the reason for the famine that caused thousands of Somali’s to starve everyday. Howe proposed to the Pentagon that Delta was needed in June but was denied. This was one of the first examples of leadership failing recognize the needs of the military in Somalia. The U.N. decided to strike back on July 17th by attacking a house filled with Habr Gidr clan leaders. Admiral Howe was opposed to the idea.9 Howe wanted troops to storm the house and arrest everyone, something that Delta would have been perfect for. The UN did not have adequate soldiers for that type of mission. Again, Delta should have been used but were deemed unnecessary at the time by the U.S. government. The UN instead chose to engage on the house with TOW missiles, attempting to kill everyone inside. The mission was effective in the U.N.’s eyes, but according to Admiral Howe, the attack made the Somali people choose a side. Somali’s opposed to Aidid now rallied behind him.10 The attack strengthened the Somali resolve and labeled the U.N. and U.S. as invaders. According to the Somali people, they were at war.

Many things went wrong for Task Force Ranger that day. What could go wrong did go wrong. Things started off bad with Private Blackburn falling out of the helicopter moments into the mission.11 Some people would consider what happened on October 3rd, 1993 as failed mission and one that American’s should forget. It would be unfair and disrespectful to say that 18 American soldiers and other soldiers from foreign forces lost their lives on a failed mission. Those people who say that do not understand what happened that day and are not qualified to make that assumption. The objective of TFR was to storm a house that held high ranking officials from the Habr Gidr clan and then return to base via a vehicle convoy. This was something that the Operators and Rangers were experts at. This is what they signed up to do and they were confident in their assigned mission. They had no reason to feel otherwise. The operation was a completed, successfully transporting the prisoners back to base. The men remained proud of their successful mission, even though some of them did not agree with some of the decisions made prior and during the mission.12

They operation was led by Major General William F. Garrison. Garrison was completely qualified for the job in my opinion and for the most part had the support of his men, who “were confident in their tactics and training and committed to their goals”.13 Although the mission itself was a success, it wasn’t without great consequence. There were major decisions to be made prior and during the operation that would cause enormous controversy in the months to come after the battle.

No one can compete with America when it comes to fighting on a conventional battlefield. We have the mightiest military force that this world has ever seen. The commanders of Task Force Ranger knew this. The Somali’s knew this. However, this mission wasn’t going to take place on a conventional battlefield. The American commanders knew that there was a possibility of encountering a large oppositional force and they knew that the possibility of being overrun wasn’t probable, but indeed possible. They knew the Somali’s had the resources and the numbers to set-up an ambush. It was only a matter of time before an attempt on U.S. forces would be made.

The American Soldier should never be involved in a fair fight. Why would he? We have the most technologically advanced military in the world. I do not blame one individual for the events that took place on October 3rd. However, I do believe things could have turned out differently if different decisions were made by the Clinton Administration and General Garrison himself. According to Mark Bowden, armored vehicles were never requested for TFR but instead was requested by the QRF of the 10th Mountain Division.14 The request was made by General Montgomery and was rejected. General Garrison notified the QRF about the mission, but let them stay at their base rather than going to the TFR airport base. Then when the QRF was needed it took nearly an hour to reach the TFR airport base.15 Why hadn’t Garrison told them to come to the base initially? Why not go ahead and order the QRF to be at base, prepared to go out if anything unplanned were to happen?

Armored vehicles were not the only thing turned down by the U.S. government. AC-130 gunships were also denied by the Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. Garrison himself believed that gunships would do nothing but restrict the use of the Little Birds.16 He believed the AC-130’s would inflict catastrophic damage to the Somali’s, killing more innocent people then combatants.17 However, Bowden stated numerous times throughout the book that what seemed to be unarmed civilians were killed. These people, although unarmed, were still dangerous to the Americans. There were mobs of thousands of Somali’s trying to get to the crash sites, only to mutilate and parade the bodies of dead soldier’s. I believe that the use of the AC-130 could have put a stop to those mobs, more so than the Little Birds. At least it could have slowed them down until reinforcements could arrive. Additionally I believe one of the mistakes made by the Clinton Administration came from his decision to not pursue Aidid after the troubled mission of TFR. It makes me wonder if President Clinton personally believed in the mission to begin with. 18 American soldiers died, and then the brothers they fought with were asked to pack up and go home. The Rangers and Delta earned the right to complete the mission and avenge the death of their comrades, but the president wouldn’t allow for it. The last line of the Ranger Creed reads, “Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor”.

Now that I’ve had a chance to read Black Hawk Down and draw my own conclusions, I can say that I believe that we were in Somalia initially for the right reasons. We first appeared in Somalia with humanitarian efforts, helping those who were under the lawless rule of Farah Aidid. We provided food and promise to those who were hopeless. It is impossible to say what might have been if Admiral Howe had received Delta in June like he wanted. It is all up to speculation to say that with the armored vehicles and the gunships that American lives would have been saved. I believe things would not have gotten as bad as they did. I also believe that America has learned a lesson from this and will hopefully not let something like this happen again.

[Bravo57]

Kind of dis-jointed. What was your grade?

[mr02060]

I have revised some of the paper. It's not due until Friday, so I'll probably turn it in Thursday. I'm taking it too a writing center tomorrow to help revise it even more.
I agree that the paper is somewhat dis-jointed. It was difficult trying to answer my instructor's question while still providing the 2 examples of failed leadership. I'll continue to work on the paper until Thursday.

Thanks for taking the time to read it Ranger Bravo57

[panthersix]

Kind of dis-jointed. What was your grade?

I agree, can you give us the outline first? That will guide the flow of the document.