Battle of mogadishu

As the remaining soldiers reached the crash site, more Delta Force soldiers were dropped off by helicopters to assist in the recovery of the downed men. The ground convoy, after unloading the prisoners, was sent back in hummers to fight their way back to the crash site. The firefight was at its height as the men battled there way back into the city. They quickly started taken causalities. “ You just hear people saying I’m hit, I’m hit. And it just kept going”(PBS) As the Ground convoy approached, a large group of Somali militia ambushed the trucks, leaving two dead and all he others severely wounded. The horrors of war were quickly setting in as the highly trained soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Somali's. “It seemed to me like it was just like moving target range. And you could just, you know, hit the target and watch it fall, and hit the target and watch it fall, and it wasn’t real. It was too easy. I mean, that upsets me more than anything else, how easy I was to pull the trigger over and over again. “(PBS) As soon as they secured the first helicopter, the second black hawk was shot down. The soldiers immediately moved to secure that site, as more and more men were wounded or killed. “The volume of fire was just so intense that I don’t know how any of us made it out alive. You just heard people saying ‘I’m hit, I’m hit!’ and it just kept going.”(PBS)

Yet these mistakes do not show weakness on behalf of the soldiers that fought in this battle like many believe. After the fight, Aidid himself stated that his intentions were clear. Gen. Anthony Zinni, the director of operations for the United States stated that he “ talked to Aidid at great length about the day of the battle in Mogadishu and the tactics involved. And he made the determination that the helicopters were the vulnerability, or the center of gravity. So when they held a meeting, he put people on the roofs of the houses around the meeting place with the machine guns and rocket launchers, and they were to concentrate all their fire on the helicopters. He really believed if he shot a helicopter down, that would cause them to gather around the helicopters. They could fix them and pin them in one area (PBS). The soldiers that fought practically walked into n ambush, with large amounts of men and fire power set up before they arrived, ready to protect their leader. This only proved to show the true courage and strength of those fighting.

Special Forces soldiers arrived by helicopter fast roping into position (repelling out of a hovering helicopter without attachments) and quickly secured the site. Rangers who fought in the initial battle described the initial approach: “ As we actually approached the target, the helicopter-the rotor wash from the helicopter kicked up so much sand that there was zero visibility. You’d lose sight of the ground because of the immense brownout, or the dust that’s kicked p. I mean, you couldn’t see a foot outside the bird, but the pilots were still navigating and put us right in the middle of the block.”(PBS) As the soldiers landed, they immediately began taking fire. They were being shot at from all possible directions while quickly moving into their respected positions.

The firefight continued on late into the night, where the remaining soldiers took shelter inside a building, as helicopters flew in supplies and held

Some topics in this essay:
Special Forces, Delta Force, Vietnam War, United Nations, President Clinton, Anthony Zinni, Somalia December, United Army, Army Rangers, Hotel Adid’s, special forces, battle mogadishu, delta force, president clinton, highly trained, special forces soldiers, trained soldiers, control somalia, capture aidid, operations somalia, crash site, highly trained soldiers, somalia december 1992, hit target watch, target watch fall,