February 13,
2002
Soldiers For The Truth
(SFTT) Weekly Newsletter
When we assumed the Soldier, We did not lay aside the Citizen.
General George Washington, to the New York Legislature, 1775
In this week’s Issue of DefenseWatch:
Lessons From Black Hawk Down
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The five-star movie Black Hawk Down smacks you right between the eyes with the sheer brutality of infantry combat, however magnificently portrayed by film maestro Ridley Scott. But while it showcases the professionalism and bravery of our U.S. Army Special Operations warriors in Mogadishu, it's far too light on the lessons to be learned from that terrible disaster.
In December 1992, I went to Somalia. On a much smaller scale, the conditions were like those in Vietnam: snipers, mines and booby traps were killing and wounding our soldiers, and we had a hard time finding the guerrilla enemy - who fought only on their terms.
This time, I was looking at the battlefield as a war correspondent, but there was no way to take the young soldier out of the old reporter. My style was to hang out with one of the rifle platoons for five days and then send in my copy. Pretty soon, eating and sleeping with the grunts, I became just a guy who'd been around a war or two. It wasn't long before, "Hey, Hack, does this machine gun have a good field of fire?" and, "What do you think of this patrol formation?"
I was tagging along with Maj. Martin Stanton of the 2/87th Infantry, an old pal, when he asked me to give a class on how we used choppers in Vietnam. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Remember, I'm bad news as far as the Army's concerned. What's the Pentagon going to say when they hear you've got me teaching a class?"
Stanton was sure. I gave a two-hour lecture on airmobile operations in a guerrilla environment. "This is how we did it in Vietnam," I told them.
Most looked at me with blank faces as if I were talking "Star Wars" to the moon. I realized with an electric shock that these fine young 10th Division soldiers were like explorers in an unknown land without a map or compass, and one single cram session on airmobile missions wasn't going to be much help. All of the lessons paid for so dearly from Vietnam had disappeared.
After I left Somalia, a Ranger Task Force, some of the best warriors going, deployed to Mogadishu. They conducted six chopper operations, all using identical tactics and techniques, during which they dropped into the objective, conducted a raid and returned to base. On their seventh raid, they were tasked to capture Mohammed Aidid, a clan guerrilla leader. But because their leaders hadn't factored into the equation that Aidid's boys were watching - the way smart terrorists do - they ended up surrounded, trapped and, except for their courage and fighting skill, would have been destroyed to the man.
Besides employing a bush-league tactical plan, the general in charge, William Garrison, had no contingency plan to bail out his boys if the op turned bad. No USAF tactical air support. No tanks ready to break through to the besieged Rangers - even though Marine tanks were close, the Army didn't want the Marines to ride to the rescue because of inter-service rivalry. And so our warriors were severely bloodied - 18 died, and more than 100 were wounded, a rout that caused the sole surviving superpower to beat feet out of Somalia, dragging its tail.
For personal and professional reasons, I went to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., to talk to the wounded, then to Fort Benning, Ga., to meet with some of the Rangers who'd been in the fight. They told me officially and again unofficially at night over beers how they'd been sucked in and then out-guerrillaed, outmaneuvered, outsmarted. A detailed assessment of the debacle is in my book, Hazardous Duty.
As today's
top military leaders go up the chain, like most executives in large organizations,
they develop a disease called CRN - Can't Remember Nothing - and forget what
it's like to be at the bottom. Somewhere along the line, they stop listening
to the grunts who do the fighting and dying, the ones who know what they need
to defeat our enemies and survive.
We must protect the troops in Afghanistan by applying what we learned the
hard way in Somalia, starting with sending some tanks into Kandahar ASAP.
http://www.hackworth.com
is the address of David Hackworth's home page. Sign in for the free weekly
Defending America column at his Web site. Send mail to P.O. Box 11179, Greenwich,
CT 06831.
© 2001 David H. Hackworth
Editor's Note: For a related commentary, see Article 05: Praise For Black Hawk Down From One Who Was There, by Gerry Izzo.
By Robert G. Williscroft
Over 100 million land mines lay scattered across the world. Every week, 200 more innocent people die or suffer severe injury when they encounter these hidden menaces; many are children. Short of probing every square inch of every acre by hand, how can we rid the land of these war leavings?
And what does it cost?
There is a broad range of effective demining equipment under development today with a surprisingly wide range of development and operating costs:
The Swedish Bofors Mine-Guzzler is a huge, armored, disk earth-tiller with the proverbial cart before the horse. It pushes an array of hardened disks with toothed edges that "till" the soil ahead of it. A "discovered" mine is either exploded or chewed into little pieces. The Mine-Guzzler can be operated from its protected, armor-plated cab, or even remotely when the circumstances warrant.
The British Aardvark Mechanical Flail used a different approach. A rotating heavy steel rod extends from the wheeled end of the semi-track vehicle, containing a series of chains with hammers attached. As the rod rotates, the chains flail the ground to a predetermined depth, deactivating, destroying or exploding the mines.
The Danish/German Hydrema is similar to the Aardvark, except that it runs on large rubber tires, giving it considerably more roadability at the expense of field mobility.
The German Minebreaker 2000 mounts on a tank, typically the Leopard 1, that has been specially reinforced. It uses an armored steel tilling plate system similar to the Mine-Guzzler.
The British Minelifta takes a different tack. Using a large scoop, it ingests a portion of the ground in front, and then "digests" the dirt and whatever it contains with high impact flails inside a reinforced steel cowling. As the unit moves through a minefield, it furrows the ground behind it and removes magnetic particles, so that mechanical or even manual verification can be accomplished with safety.
All these devices are able to clear approximately a quarter of an acre per day - a thousand square meters or so.
Across the civilized world, well-intentioned people who recognize the problem are researching and developing solutions. Even the U.S. Army is developing a mechanical mine clearing device, a modified, reinforced bulldozer, spending over a half million dollars to date.
And that defines the real problem. Cost: of the equipment, and of the operation.
Typical development cost for a mechanical mine clearing unit is in the half-million dollar range, and the price for individual units ranges from $60,000 to several hundred thousand. Typical operational cost ranges from $3,000 to $15,000 per cleared acre.
We're talking big business here. In the late 1990s, for example, multinational Ronco landed a $250 million contract from the U.S. State Department to clear land mines in Kosovo and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that most mines are located in relatively impoverished areas. If a major nation steps to the plate, as the United States did in Kosovo, available large sums can accomplish much. On the other hand, where local authorities contract mine clearing, companies bid on the job, come in and clear acre after acre -- until the funding runs out. Then they pack up their gear and go to the next job.
Small, under-funded humanitarian organizations then try to take up the slack. These groups frequently organize themselves around a particular piece of mine clearing equipment, and then use this equipment to the extent of their limited funding. Nevertheless, a lot of the work at this level is accomplished with sniffer dogs and brave men poking the ground with non-magnetic probes.
Under these circumstances, clearing rates per man drop dramatically to just a few square meters per day.
This discussion begs the question of finding the mines in the first place. At least 800 different mine types populate the world's minefields. These range from home-made coffee can bombs to sophisticated "smart" non-metallic devices that can distinguish between potential targets.
No serious military thinker is willing to eliminate land mines from the military arsenal. This leaves us with the huge disposal problem we face.
As usual, we throw big money at the problem, and achieve some success. But this approach inevitably results in a costly solution. Ironically, our blindered focus on large-scale solutions has caused us to miss a ready-made answer to the problem.
In 1996, Daniel Wolf, former Professor of Political Science at the University of San Diego, founded Ploughshares Technologies, an offshoot to nonprofit Terra Segura International (TSI), which he established in the early 1990s to lobby for low-cost, low-tech mine-clearing strategies.
Ploughshares has developed the inexpensive Armadillo. Like some of its more expensive big brothers, the Armadillo relies on weight and disk tilling, but unlike the big guys, this unit does not run off a large, armor-plated behemoth. Instead, it is mechanically operated by cable and an optional small engine. The Armadillo costs around $15,000, a fraction of the price tag for the better-known units in use today.
Wolf estimates that it costs less than $700 to clear an acre using the Armadillo-- a far cry from the $3,000 to $15,000 cost of the big guys.
Wolf developed the Armadillo with $60,000 given him by hopeful investors, about one tenth the cost of the Army's expensive monster. Through TSI, he is promoting cost effective mine removal. Predictably, he faces a lot of opposition from entrenched interests and their deep pockets.
The U.S. Army has a vested interest in mine removal. Instead of developing half million dollar high-tech mine clearing bulldozers, it should put some of its development funds into projects like Daniel Wolf's TSI efforts, where a big bang for your buck is all in a day's work.
Robert G. Williscroft is DefenseWatch Navy Editor. He can be reached at dwnavyeditor@argee.net.
By Matthew Dodd
From the majestic mountain backdrops and the appropriately memorable opening ceremonies, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, are off to a terrific start.
But despite all the patriotic fervor, and the accompanying fanfare of friendly international competition, we must remember that our nation is still at war. We must not forget that those who would do us harm are carefully watching our every move and probably plotting their next moves. We must also analyze ourselves and our enemies, and be very careful about the lessons we learn.
Only five months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Salt Lake City is arguably the most secure public place in the world. Depending on which report you believe, approximately 16,000 law enforcement personnel and more military personnel than were on the ground in Afghanistan are providing security in support of the games.
Our security personnel enjoy the "home field advantage" and virtually unlimited access to equipment, resources and personnel. This unprecedented security effort was well publicized before the games and is now the subject of a lot of media attention.
President Bush reminds us that this war against terrorism and the "Axis of Evil" is just beginning, and the drumbeat of news in the war on terror continues unabated.
The FBI has just released yet another terrorist warning against American targets, including the names and photos of 17 suspected al Qaeda terrorists identified through intelligence sources and interviews with detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
We have forces in the Philippines, Afghanistan, the North Arabian Sea, and Guantanamo Bay as a direct result of international terrorist activities. The military's budget is being increased in preparation for future operations. Our airline and airport security measures are changed forever. The president has created the Office of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense is poised to change its unified command structure to include standing up a new four-star Northern Command to coordinate the military's role in homeland defense.
So with the Winter Games underway, it is appropriate to pose this question: Are we, as Americans, fighting a war during peacetime, or seeking a return to peacetime normalcy in a time of war, or something in between?
Let's try to look at the situation from the perspective of a terrorist wanting to attack the United States. Effective terrorist attacks require detailed, long-term planning, often measured in years.
However, even if al Qaeda operatives had planned an operation in Salt Lake City that began months or years prior to 9-11, it is likely that the massive security presence there will prove to be an effective deterrent. Thus, any failure of a terrorist attack or attempt, while probably a small setback to the terrorists, would be a major moral and psychological victory for the U.S. war against terrorism. While the games are a very lucrative target with a global audience, the risk is too great - the United States is taking no chances.
The best course of action for terrorists wanting to attack the United States, therefore, is for them to patiently observe and learn from the U.S. security efforts in Salt Lake City. It would not be surprising to see al Qaeda initiating some small-scale terrorist activities elsewhere in the world - before, during and after the games - that would allow the terrorists to observe and study the U.S. responses. The terrorists can also learn by monitoring how the United States reacts to other random acts of terrorism, such as car bombs, anthrax letters, the airline "shoe bomber" and female suicide bombers in Israel.
Meanwhile, the United States cannot and must not rest on its laurels. Despite the impressive security at Salt Lake City and our combat victory in Afghanistan, the United States still must grapple with a complex challenge as the war on terrorism continues.
Time remains an ally to the terrorists, and an enemy to the United States. One likely terrorist goal is to wear down U.S. resolve and resources. Psychologically, the United States is still reeling from last September's attacks. The administration's public acknowledgement of possible terrorist "sleeper cells" in the United States is a great way to increase the public's vigilance, but it can also be free psychological warfare victory handed to the terrorists.
The dilemma is that public awareness is essential to thwart additional attacks, but keeping everyone on edge can also erode public confidence over time. (On the other hand, another terrorist tactic for not attacking the ongoing games is to rebuild the U.S. perception of security and invincibility that was shattered last September.)
Besides wearing down the United States psychologically, terrorists will likely try to wear us down physically. From the increased military budget and Pentagon press releases, everyone knows that our war against terrorism is very expensive. Sustaining wartime expenditures in a peacetime economy will be quite a challenge. Increasing the level of military effort will further strain the force's fragile operational tempo and materiel maintenance levels. The key will be finding the right balance between psychological needs and physical realities.
If these 2002 Winter Olympics are not a good terrorist target, what is? I believe the risk to U.S. citizens will be far greater at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (as well as subsequent games in 2006 and 2008) than it is at the ongoing Salt Lake City games, which very well may later be seen as a terrorist classroom for their own long-term planning. The locations for those future Olympics are far from the U.S. homeland and the protection available here.
The U.S. security role and presence at those games will likely be significantly lower than at Salt Lake City. The same global audience will be there and the risk of failure for terrorists appears to be far less. Finally, the upcoming games offer a chance to demonstrate U.S. incompetence in the global war against terrorism after years of emphasis - something not applicable at present.
Another stark scenario is this: If the upcoming Olympics prove to be too obvious a target, or too difficult for a massive terrorist attack, then terrorists could easily use the Olympics as a deception to stage another main attack on the U.S. homeland. If credible threats to the games can be initiated and sustained, who knows what the United States may be forced to do out of prudence? Can we send our athletes to compete so far away in the face of obvious threats? Are we willing to pull out of the games and surrender initiative to the terrorists? These kinds of tough questions will need to be answered if we cannot rid the world of the threats posed by terrorism and the influence of the Axis of Evil in the near future.
This war against terrorism is unlike anything we have ever experienced. The fact that one single, diabolical event could be planned by a few, coordinated by many, and executed by only 19 fanatical individuals within a few hours on one infamous day is very scary.
The stakes are so high and the threats so real that we must avoid four common pitfalls of the past.
* First, we need to ensure that we learn all the right lessons based on honest assessments, and not learn the wrong ones based on wishful thinking and pre-conceived notions.
* Second, we must prepare for the next war and engagements based on current lessons learned, and not prepare for the last one based on past experiences.
* Third, we must stay focused on our long-term objectives and not lose sight of them in the face of short-term challenges.
* Lastly, we need to recognize and adapt to this new and lethal asymmetric threat and not remain rigid and try to fight the enemy as if it were a symmetric force.
In this first war of the 21st century, we would be wise to heed the advice of Chinese military leader Sun Tzu when he observed, "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril."
Lt. Col. Matthew Dodd is the pen name of an active-duty Marine Corps officer stationed at the Pentagon. He can be reached at mattdodd1775@hotmail.com.
By Patrick Hayes
The American spirit had probably lain in wait since the first pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock looking for a new life. However, it was born at Lexington and Concord, and steeled at Valley Forge and on the decks and fighting tops of John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard.
It has since been reinforced and enhanced many times by the few who have the courage and love of country to take up arms in a just cause - even when that perceived just cause was the destruction of the United States during the Civil War. Brave men died on both sides for something in which they truly believed - but on both sides there was an American spirit.
But I wonder what has happened to the American spirit in recent years. What spirit drives the hearts and minds of the vast majority of those who have never served in military uniform and never will - those who reap the wealth that this nation has to give while giving little or nothing in return? What spirit drove enough Americans to elect the antithesis of what this country was founded upon when they voted to elect William Jefferson Clinton, a draft dodger and vocal antagonist of the American military and the American spirit?
On a recent trip to Texas, I had the privilege of visiting the Alamo. I recalled and tried to imagine the 13 days those men stood against the armies of Antonio López de Santa Anna, eventually knowing they would die in that broken-down mission north of the Rio Bravo.
I walked in their footsteps, as many Americans have, and I wondered what drove such men to face certain death. In combat, we all face the possibility of death or debilitating wounds. We take those chances as professional Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines. But to stand with some 187 brothers on an indefensible and crumbling adobe walled perimeter against combat hardened troops ranging in number from 2,000 to 5,000 men - and know you will die - what was that spirit?
I was humbled to walk through the mission and remaining barracks buildings, and think about the bloody hand-to-hand fighting that ensued as the Texans were slowly overwhelmed that fateful early morning of March 6th, 1836.
Yet, knowing they would die, those men chose to stand and fight - many for an ideal of freedom they could barely verbalize, much less truly understand. Yet early Americans had an inherent understanding of what was right and what was wrong. A despot had taken over Mexico, of which most had become citizens of the 1824 new frontier, and their rights and freedoms were in peril. There was a need for men to take up arms against the oppressive régime of Santa Anna, and men took up arms.
The heroes of the Alamo died, but their deaths were not in vain by any stretch of liberal imagination. Americans remembered, and within six weeks a Texan army routed and destroyed the numerically superior Mexican army, taking Santa Anna prisoner, with the cry of, "Remember the Alamo!"
The story of the Alamo has been retold many times in many places. And in the subsequent wars, heroes have been acknowledged and honored due, in many respects, to the fact that the majority of American males and many women had served their country.
That service, that understanding of what is right and what is wrong, was part of the fabric that has held this country together through its most trying times. But that all changed in the last century, probably beginning with the Korean War, but certainly culminating with the American involvement in Indochina and a generation of drugged-out, me-first individualists. But some of us met the call to serve, whether we now say in retrospect the war was right or wrong - at the time it was the right thing to do.
However, since the Indochina War, we now have two generations, the vast majority of whom have not served their country in the military, which is reflected in those elected to Congress, where a mere handful today are military veterans. Men (and women) in decision-making positions who have never had the opportunity to serve with the finest of American youth, to be part of a team committed to an objective, whether in peace or in combat, and never had the sense of pride when standing tall and saluting the flag at morning or evening colors, constitute the overwhelming majority of our elected representatives in Washington
Other young Americans are being taught by a generation of academics who, for the most part, did not serve and have, to say the least, a skewed and very liberal view of the world and the role of the United States within that world - an "intelligencia" who, as an average, spent its formative years in school, from kindergarten to graduate school, and have rarely held working positions outside the heady realm of the university campus.
So what is the answer to where the American spirit has gone? How many now stand at the gate to stop the barbarians? And what if those who stand to be counted with their brothers are not enough? What if the barbarians push us back and the fate of this country - our country - is in the hands of the spineless handwringers and do-gooders whose concern runs not for the few American youth who have the courage to stand at the line and say, "Not on my watch," but for the tattered remnants of the murdering cowards held in detention at Gitmo?
What would the heroes of the Alamo say to the United States of 2002? I believe they'd ask, "Where is the spirit of this great nation?"
Patrick Hayes is a contributing editor to DefenseWatch. He can be reached at Gyrene65@netscape.net.
By Andrea West
It was one of the last pieces of advice I received while preparing to leave active duty. "Take your DD-214 down to the county courthouse and register it," my first sergeant said. "That way, if you lose the hard copy you can replace it easily."
It seemed like wise advice at the time - since it can be very difficult to replace a lost DD-214 form - but filing your formal discharge document with a local courthouse can make you extremely vulnerable to an even more serious problem: identity theft.
But as Kelly Reid, an alert DefenseWatch reader, recently alerted us, the danger is very real:
I had a retired Master Chief come by my office this morning with a scary story. His identification was stolen the beginning of September. He received a call from a lady at American Express because someone had established credit with them (in his name) and was trying to cash a $9,000 check in his name in early September, made out to a Muslim/Arabic-sounding name. The lady flagged the check because apparently she had a different address on file for the Master Chief than what showed on the check. When she called him, he of course reported it.
Last night, the Master Chief received a call from an investigator telling him that they finally tracked down the fellow who stole his identification. The guy is a lawyer and had a lap-top computer with several thousand military names, SSN's and other information. Each military person was a separatee or retiree and their common link was that they had their DD-214s filed with a county clerk. The Master Chief was told that this lawyer had accessed the DD-214 information through the public court computer system.
When I left the service, I followed my first sergeant's advice and had my DD-214 registered with the county clerk and recorder. For convenience, I did this in several places as I moved around the country. When I heard about this situation, I called two of the counties where I am registered (for obvious reasons, I won't say where) to see what their security procedures are.
Bad news: one of the county clerks said that the DD-214 is a public document and there is no legal way to prevent someone from looking at it and requesting a copy. Moreover, since this particular county clerk intends to post all documents online at some point, my DD-214 and others will be available on the Internet as well.
The second county clerk I contacted said the office is aware of the security problem, and on a recommendation from the county attorney has removed the index to all filed DD-214s from public view. They also now require that a person trying to access a DD-214 prove that he or she is either the person named therein or that he or she has this person's permission. While the county in question cannot remove the documents themselves from public access, it intends to take all legally permissible steps to keep potential identity thieves out of the DD-214s. At the end of our conversation, I asked this clerk to speak to his counterpart in the first office I had spoken to and pass along these ideas.
You cannot underestimate the hazard of someone obtaining your DD-214. A DD-214 is an identity document. It links a Social Security number to a name, and makes it simple for an identity thief to connect the dots. In view of this, it is unwise in the extreme to register a DD-214 at the county courthouse.
If you have done so, the best you can do is protect yourself against identity theft. The best defense is vigilance. According to the Federal Trade Commission's ID Theft website (www.consumer.gov/idtheft/), you should check with the three major credit bureaus and request a copy of your credit ratings from each of them. The URLS are as follows:
Equifax: www.equifax.com/ 1-800-685-1111 fraud line 1-800-525-6285.
Experian: www.experian.com 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) fraud line 1-888-EXPERIAN.
TransUnion: www.tuc.com 1-800-916-8800 fraud line 1-800-680-7289.
If you discover items in your credit history that look fraudulent to you, notify the credit bureau immediately. The FTC has additional recommendations at the following website: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/idenalrt.htm.
Next, keep close track of your personal information. Watch bills and bank statements and follow up if they don't arrive on time. If you intend to dispose of anything with your credit card number, driver's license number, SSN, signature, bank account number, or the like on it, destroy it by thoroughly tearing it up or shredding it finely. Be especially vigilant about credit card offers. Dispose of them as you would a piece of credit information. If possible, it may be worthwhile to have your mail delivered to a secure post office box instead of to your house.
It is worth the effort to contact your county records section and see what the county is doing to prevent theft of DD-214s. It is recommended that you encourage the county clerk to look into the matter if he or she is not already doing so.
Andrea West is DefenseWatch Veterans editor. She can be reached at defensewatchvet@yahoo.com.
By Gerry Izzo
During the last few days, many pilots have come up to me and asked me if I had seen the movie Black Hawk Down. I don't mind talking about the movie, and I welcome the opportunity to talk about the heroism and valor of my friends. I just wanted to post some comments here about the movie and my impressions. Also I wanted to try to answer some frequently asked questions.
First of all, I and many of my friends that also flew on the mission thought that the movie was excellent! It is technically accurate and it is dramatically correct. In other words, the equipment, lingo and dialogue are all right on. By dramatically correct, I mean that it very effectively captured the emotions and tension that we all felt during the mission.
It did this without being a cartoon, (like Top Gun) or being over the top, (like Firebirds). It's true that the screenwriters had to consolidate two or three people into one, but this was necessary because otherwise there would have been too many principle characters to keep track of.
Also, in the actual mission we had nearly 20 aircraft in the air that day. In the movie they had four Blackhawks and four "Little Birds." The unit could not afford to commit the actual number to the filming of the movie.
However, through the magic of the cinema, they were able to give the impression of the real number. Our force mixture was as follows:
Super 61 - Lead Blackhawk
Star 41-44 - Little Bird Assault
Super 62 - Trail Blackhawk
These aircraft made up the assault force. Their mission was to go into the buildings and capture the individuals who were the target of the day.
Super 61 was shot down, killing both pilots. (They were CW4 Cliff Wolcott and CW3 Donovan Briley. The three of us shared a room at the airfield.) Star 41 landed at the crash site and the pilot, CW4 Keith Jones, ran over and dragged two survivors to his aircraft and took off for the hospital. Keith re-enacted his actions in the movie.
Super 62 was the Blackhawk that put in the two Delta snipers, Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart Master Sgt. Gary Gordon. They were inserted at crash site No. 2. Shortly after Gary and Randy were put in, Super 62 was struck in the fuselage by an antitank rocket. The whole right side of the aircraft was opened up and the sniper manning the right door gun had his leg blown off. The aircraft was able to make it out of the battle area to the port area where they made a controlled crash landing. (This is not depicted in the movie.)
Next was the Ranger Blocking Force. This consisted of 4 Blackhawks:
Super 64 - (CW3 Mike Durant, CW4 Ray Frank)
Super 65 - (Me, Capt. Richard Williams)
Super 66 - (CW3 Stan Wood, CW4 Gary Fuller)
Super 67 - (CW3 Jeff Niklaus, CW2 Sam Shamp)
The mission of the blocking force was to be inserted at the four corners of the objective building and to prevent any Somali reinforcements from getting through. In the movie there is a brief overhead shot of the assault. My aircraft is depicted in the lower left hand corner of the screen. This is the only part of the film where I come close to being mentioned.
As the assault is completed, you hear the Blackhawks calling out of the objective area. When you hear, "Super 65 is out, going to holding ... " that's my big movie moment. There is also a quick shot of an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) being shot at a hovering Blackhawk. I did have one maybe two fired at me, but I did not see them or the gunner. I only heard the explosions.
We were not able to return fire, although some of the other aircraft did. Make no mistake. I am fully aware of my role in this mission. My job was the same as the landing boat drivers in Saving Private Ryan." Get the troops in the right place in one piece. I am very proud of the fact that my crew and I were able to do that. After having done this in Grenada, Panama and Somalia, I can identify with the bombardiers of World War II. You have to ignore all of the chaos that is going on around and completely concentrate on the tasks at hand: That is holding the aircraft as steady as possible so the Rangers can slide down the ropes as quickly and safely as possible.
Okay, enough about me. Super 64 was shot down also with an RPG. They tried to make it back to the airfield, but their tail rotor gave way about a mile out of the objective area. They went down in the worst part of bad guy territory. The dialogue for the movie appears to have been taken from the mission tapes as it is exactly as I remember it. (This was the hardest part of the movie for me to watch). The actions on the ground are as described by Mike Durant, as he was the only one from the crew to survive the crash and the gun battle. It was here that Gary and Randy won their posthumous Medals of Honor.
Super 66 was called in at about 2000 hours to resupply the Rangers at the objective area. Some of the Rangers were completely out of ammunition and were fighting hand to hand with the Somali militiamen. (Also not depicted in the movie).
Stan and Gary brought their aircraft in so that they were hovering over the top of the Olympic Hotel with the cargo doors hanging out over the front door. In this way they were able to drop the ammo, water and medical supplies to the men inside. Stan's left gunner fired 1600 rounds of minigun ammo in 30 seconds. He probably killed between 8 to 12 Somali militiamen.
As Stan pulled out of the objective area, he headed to the airfield because his right gunner had been wounded, as had the two Rangers in the back who were throwing out the supplies. Once he landed, he discovered that he'd been hit by about 40-50 rounds and his transmission leaking oil like a sieve. Super 66 was done for the night.
The final group of aircraft were the 4 MH-6 gunships, the command-and-control Blackhawk and the Search and Rescue 'Hawk.' They were:
Barber 51-54 - MH-6s
Super 63 - C&C
Super 68 - SAR
In the movie, the gunships are shown making only one attack. In fact, they were constantly engaged all night long. Each aircraft reloaded six times. It is estimated that they fired between 70,000-80,000 rounds of minigun ammo and fired a total of 90 to 100 aerial rockets. They were the only thing that kept the Somalis from overrunning the objective area. All eight gunship pilots were awarded the Silver Star. Every one of them deserved it!
Next is Super 68. The actions of this crew were very accurately portrayed. The only difference was that they were actually hit in the rotor blades by an RPG. This blew a semicircle out of the main rotor spar, but the blade held together long enough for them to finish putting in the medics and Rangers at the first crash site. It was then that they headed to the airfield.
What they did not know, was that their main transmission and engine oil cooler had been destroyed by the blast. As they headed to the airfield, all seven gallons of oil from the main rotor gearbox, and all seven quarts from each engine were pouring out. They got the aircraft on the ground just as all oil pressures went to zero. They then shut down, ran to the spare aircraft and took off to rejoin the battle. They were in the air just in time to affect the MEDEVAC of Super 62, which had landed at the seaport. The pilots of this aircraft were CW3 Dan Jollota, and Maj. Herb Rodriguez. Both men were later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Major Rodriguez is retired from the Army now and he teaches middle school with my wife in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Finally there is the Command and Control Blackhawk, Super 63. In the back of this aircraft was my battalion commander, Lt. Col. Tom Matthews, and the overall ground commander, Lt. Col. Gary Harrell.
In the movie, there is a scene where the men on the ground were begging for MEDEVAC. By this point in the battle we had five Blackhawks out of action, either shot down or shot up so much they couldn't fly anymore. Of the two assault force and four blocking force 'Hawks', only myself and Super 67 were left. I fully expected Lt. Col. Harrell to send us in to try to get those men out.
I jacked a round into the chamber of my pistol and my M-16. I knew that the only way to do it was to hover with one wheel balanced on the roof of the building. Then the Rangers would be able to throw the wounded in. I knew that we were going to take a lot of fire and I was trying to mentally prepare myself to do this while the aircraft was getting hit. My friends had all gone in and taken their licks and now I figured it was our turn. (Peer pressure is such a powerful tool if used properly.) Quite frankly, I really thought that we were at best going to get shot down, at worst I figured we were going to be killed. The way I saw it we had already lost five aircraft, what was two more? I had accepted this because at least when this was all over. [Maj.] Gen. {William F.] Garrison would be able to tell the families that we had tried everything to get their sons, fathers or husbands out. We were even willing to send in our last two helicopters.
Fortunately for me, Lt. Col. Harrell realized that the time for helicopters had passed. The decision was made to get the tanks and armored personnel carriers to punch through to the objective area.
Once again, the dialogue in the movie is verbatim. What you don't hear is me breathing a sigh of relief! I remembered thinking that maybe I was going to see the sunrise after all.
I guess I got a little carried away. I really didn't mean to write this much. People ask me if this movie has given me 'flashbacks.' I don't think you can call them flashbacks if that day has never been out of my mind.
I hope that when you do see the movie it will fill you with pride and awe for the Rangers that fought their hearts out that day. Believe me, they are made of the same stuff as those kids at Normandy Beach. When 1st Lt. Tom DiTomasso, the Ranger platoon leader on my aircraft, told me that we did a fantastic job, I couldn't imagine ever receiving higher praise than that.
I love my wife and children, but the greatest thing I've ever done is to be a Nightstalker Pilot with Task Force Ranger on 3-4 Oct., 1993.
Editor's Note: Following his retirement from the Army, Capt. Izzo joined Comair Airlines, where he is a captain today.
By Margaret Thatcher
LONDON - "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks." Milton's words perfectly describe America today. After the horror of Sept. 11 the world has seen America gather its strength, summon its allies and proceed to wage war halfway across the globe against its enemy - and ours.
America will never be the same again. It has proved to itself and to others that it is in truth (not just in name) the only global superpower, indeed a power that enjoys a level of superiority over its actual or potential rivals unmatched by any other nation in modern times. Consequently, the world outside America should never be the same either. There will, of course, arise new threats from new directions. But as long as America works to maintain its technological lead, there is no reason why any challenge to American dominance should succeed. And that in turn will help ensure stability and peace.
Yet, as President Bush has reminded Americans, there is no room for complacency. America and its allies, indeed the Western world and its values, are still under deadly threat. That threat must be eliminated, and now is the time to act vigorously.
In many respects the challenge of Islamic terror is unique, hence the difficulty Western intelligence services encountered trying to predict and prevent its onslaughts. The enemy is not, of course, a religion - most Muslims deplore what has occurred. Nor is it a single state, though this form of terrorism needs the support of states to give it succor. Perhaps the best parallel is with early Communism. Islamic extremism today, like Bolshevism in the past, is an armed doctrine. It is an aggressive ideology promoted by fanatical, well-armed devotees. And, like Communism, it requires an all-embracing long-term strategy to defeat it.
The first phase of that strategy had to be a military assault on the enemy in Afghanistan, a phase that is now approaching its end. I believe that while the new interim government there deserves support, the United States is right not to allow itself to become bogged down with ambitious nation-building in that treacherous territory. Some would disagree, arguing that the lesson of the present crisis is that neglect of failed states causes terrorism. But this is trite. It implies a level of global interventionism that almost everyone recognizes is quite impractical.
The more important lesson is that the West failed to act early and strongly enough against Al Qaeda and the regime that harbored it. And because there is always a choice in where you concentrate international efforts, it is best that the United States, as the only global military superpower, deploy its energies militarily rather than on social work. Trying to promote civil society and democratic institutions in Afghanistan is best left to others - and since those "others" now include the British, I only hope that we, too, are going to be realistic about what can (and cannot) be achieved.
The second phase of the war against terrorism should be to strike at other centers of Islamic terror that have taken root in Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This will require first-rate intelligence, shrewd diplomacy and a continued extensive military commitment. Our enemies have had years to entrench themselves, and they will not be dislodged without fierce and bloody resistance.
The third phase is to deal with those hostile states that support terrorism and seek to acquire or trade in weapons of mass destruction. We have gotten into the habit of calling them "rogue" states. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as we don't fall into the trap of imagining that they will always and on every issue fit into the same slot.
For example, Iran and Syria were both sharply critical of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the attacks of Sept. 11. Nevertheless, they are both enemies of Western values and interests. Both have energetically backed terrorism: the former has just been caught out dispatching arms to foment violence against Israel. Iran is also making strides toward developing long-range missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads.
Other critics of Sept. 11 are a menace, too. Libya, for example, still hates the West and would dearly like revenge against us. And Sudan undertakes genocide against its own citizens in the name of Islam. As for North Korea, the regime of Kim Jong Il is as mad as ever and is the world's main proliferator of long-range ballistic missiles that can deliver nuclear, chemical or biological warheads.
The most notorious rogue is, without doubt, Saddam Hussein -proof if ever we needed it that yesterday's unfinished business becomes tomorrow's headache. Saddam Hussein will never comply with the conditions we demand of him. His aim is, in fact, quite clear: to develop weapons of mass destruction so as to challenge us with impunity.
How and when, not whether, to remove him are the only important questions. Again, solving this problem will demand the best available intelligence. It will require, as in Aghanistan, the mobilization of internal resistance. It will probably also involve a massive use of force. America's allies, above all Britain, should extend strong support to President Bush in the decisions he makes on Iraq.
The events of Sept. 11 are a terrible reminder that freedom demands eternal vigilance. And for too long we have not been vigilant. We have harbored those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us. As a result, we remain, for example, all but defenseless against ballistic missiles that could be launched against our cities. A missile defense system will begin to change that. But change must go deeper still.
The West as a whole needs to strengthen its resolve against rogue regimes and upgrade its defenses. The good news is that America has a president who can offer the leadership necessary to do so.
Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990, is author of the forthcoming book, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World.
©
2002 The New York Times.
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted another man below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don't know where I am."
The man below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees North Latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees West Longitude."
"You must be a warrant officer," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the WO, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you haven't been much help so far."
The WO responded, "You must be an officer."
"I am," replied the officer, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the WO, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
--Anonymous
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company A 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.
Place and date: Near Sokkogae, Korea, 6 to 8 July 1953.
Entered service at: Portsmouth, Va. Born: 3 January 1927, Portsmouth, Va. G.O. No.: 38, 8 June 1955.
Citation: 1st Lt. Shea, executive officer, Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. On the night of 6 July, he was supervising the reinforcement of defensive positions when the enemy attacked with great numerical superiority. Voluntarily proceeding to the area most threatened, he organized and led a counterattack and, in the bitter fighting which ensued, closed with and killed two hostile soldiers with his trench knife.
Calmly moving among the men, checking positions, steadying and urging the troops to hold firm, he fought side by side with them throughout the night. Despite heavy losses, the hostile force pressed the assault with determination, and at dawn made an all-out attempt to overrun friendly elements. Charging forward to meet the challenge, 1st Lt. Shea and his gallant men drove back the hostile troops.
Elements of Company G joined the defense on the afternoon of 7 July, having lost key personnel through casualties. Immediately integrating these troops into his unit, 1st Lt. Shea rallied a group of 20 men and again charged the enemy. Although wounded in this action, he refused evacuation and continued to lead the counterattack. When the assaulting element was pinned down by heavy machine gun fire, he personally rushed the emplacement and, firing his carbine and lobbing grenades with deadly accuracy, neutralized the weapon and killed three of the enemy.
With forceful leadership and by his heroic example, 1st Lt. Shea coordinated and directed a holding action throughout the night and the following morning. On 8 July, the enemy attacked again. Despite additional wounds, he launched a determined counterattack and was last seen in close hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. 1st Lt. Shea's inspirational leadership and unflinching courage set an illustrious example of valor to the men of his regiment, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the noble traditions of the military service.
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