An Account of Americans in Combat

I picked up this book before leaving on a trip to read on the plane. I wasn't sure if I would like the book, but it came highly recommended from a friend, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't read very often, but I've enjoyed all of Tom Clancy's novels over the years, and my buddy said this book was in the same vein. A synopsis of the book is included after my views of the book (you may want to skip it if you want to read the book for yourself...)

My take on the book:
I really liked the way the book described the action that was taking place. He author was able to describe the sheer volume of gunfire that was being thrown at the US Army Rangers and rescue forces during the conflict. He also took the time to recount individual accounts from some of the solders' experience and details of the fighting. I found myself trying to remember throughout the book that this stuff really took place, and that it was not fiction. His description of the city itself really set the scene for the book. These guys weren't fighting on a straight paved road, they were fighting on narrow, dirty, uneven streets framed by plaster houses, many of which had guns sticking out of windows that were taking shots at them. The author made it very clear that these guys were far from home.

One thing I found to be a small problem was that it was difficult at to keep up with who was who, and who was where. The paperback I was reading included some maps and drawings that helped me understand who was operating where in the city. It also included a center section that had several pictures of some of the solders mentioned in the book. The book also includes a recounting of the capture and eventual release of Mike Durant, and the way his story was told made you see that he was within a split second of being killed by the mob of angry Somalis.

It was clear that the author made an above-average to excellent attempt to capture the thoughts and feelings of the solders during the action, and he succeeded. His information was reinforced by interviewing several of the solders that were there, as well as a trip to Somalia, where he interviewed some Somalians that witnessed the attack. Because of the detail of the events, the author has spoken to many military and government agencies about the Mogadishu conflict, as they see him as a military tactics expert (which he readily denies). He contends that he merely recounted the events of that October day in 1993 so that those whom had never known what went on in Somalia come to know the bloodiest battle in US military action since Vietnam. This book was a tribute to those who fought (and died) there.

Synopsis:
The book recounts US military action that took place in the Somali city of Mogadishu in eastern Africa in 1993. The UN had deployed peace keeping forces after tribal warlords began to rip the country apart. The US military was part of the peace-keeping forces there to keep the peace and at the same time bring those same warlords to justice.

The US military was looking for the right time to send the Delta Team in to the heart of the city to capture that warlord, or top lieutenants within the tribe. One October morning, that word came that two Lieutenants were tagged, by US informants, for the elite Deltas to capture. Along with the Deltas, four squads of Army Rangers were deployed by helicopter to hold the perimeter until the two targets were detained. A team would drive into the city during the operation and pick up all of the forces and return to the US base in the outskirts of the city.

During the operation, three mistakes were committed by the US forces that set the entire operation off its intended path. The first, one of the Ranger teams were dropped a whole block from their intended perimeter positions, which meant they had to cover much more space. This also opened a hole in the perimeter. The second was that the convoy sent to pick up the US forces and the two detainees took a wrong turn and became caught in the fire fight. The entire operation degraded from there.

The third mistake can be attributed to an under-estimation of the reaction of the people on the street, and the condition of the streets themselves. The location that the Deltas and the Rangers were dropped into was a busy market area. When word was passed around that the US forces were there in the city, everyone came out of the woodwork, so to speak, firing automatic weapons and shoulder fired rockets. The US forces were not prepared for the overwhelming onslaught of these crowds, spurred on by members of the warlords' tribes, with some of them trained in Afganistan by bin Laden. The streets themselves, uneven and unpaved, also worked against them - many streets were narrow and were filled with burned-out cars and trash that hampered travel along them. Fiery roadblocks were set up by the locals as well.

The US forces were reeling, and things got worse for them when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by shoulder slung missiles. The Deltas and Rangers made an attempt to reach the first downed chopper. The crew of the second chopper were overrun by angry Solmali before help could arrive. The mob dragged the bodies of the dead solders through the streets, but kept the pilot, Mike Durant, alive until he was handed over to the US later.

The sight of the Somalis dragging US solders through the streets on CNN the next morning did not bode well for US citizens. After a long night in the city, 18 Americans were dead, and more than seventy solders were wounded. The number of dead Somali was in the hundreds, which also looked bad for the US. Most of the solders had never seen combat, and while some of their friends were killed, very few left Mogadishu without scars.

A movie based on the book (of the same name) opens in January.