Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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87 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
Bowden Captures the Horror of Modern Urban Warfare, April 16, 1999
So you've never been in combat. Come to Mogadishu. Maybe you're the
rear detachment company clerk who was called forward due to an injury.
Join the D-Boys and Rangers on a quick raid gone wrong. Fast-rope into
a crowded African city on a Sunday afternoon and smell, taste, hear,
and touch the reality of true combat. Test your soul; what would you do
if you were surrounded by thousands of deadly Somalis only miles from
safety in the heart of their territory and there is a BLACK HAWK DOWN?
Mark Bowden has taken his award winning series of newspaper articles
written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and turned them into a must-read
classic for all military professionals. He definitely took a modest
assignment and overachieved; we are the beneficiaries. His detailed
account of the Battle of the Black Sea (Mogadishu: 3-4 October 1993) is
destined to occupy the bookshelves of every military professional or
would-be warrior. Devour and enjoy Black Hawk Down. This book is not
about your Grandfather or Father's war. This is about modern war
involving many soldiers still on active duty. It's not about destroying
tanks from 3,000 meters away. It's about close combat when the rules of
engagement cease to have relevance and survival requires immediate
instinctive response. This book is a crystal ball on future urban
warfare and a cautionary note for contentious peacekeeping operations.
The devil is in the details and you will not want for details. The
gore, frustrations, disagreements, mistrusts, illusions,
misconceptions, ramifications, difficulties, cowardice, and heroics are
displayed for all to see. Sure there is some hype and inaccuracy, but
no interesting microscopic analysis can exist without such blemishes.
Seldom has such a discreet tactical operation had such far-reaching
strategic consequences. U.S forces in Bosnia can attribute restrictive
force protection measures to this battle's legacy. Future strategic,
operational, and tactical leaders who do not assimilate the lessons of
Mogadishu are in danger of repeating this tragic history. I strongly
recommend this book. Learn what Delta Sergeants Randy Shughart and Gary
Gordon did to earn the only Medals of Honor awarded for actions during
the past quarter-century. Set aside a Sunday afternoon or a long night
for continuous consumption. You will not want to put this book down
once you start reading it.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Will be considered a classic of American literature, May 10, 2004
On October 4, 1993, America was rocked by the news that American
Special Forces were ambushed in the Somali city of Mogadishu. And, as
the television filled with images of dead American soldiers being
dragged through the streets, people began to demand to know what
happened. The administration of Bill Clinton was rocked, and reacted by
quickly announcing that American forces would be pulled out of Somalia
as quickly as possible. But, more than most, reporter Mark Bowden
wanted to know what really happened in Mogadishu. This is the story of
what happened.On
the afternoon of October 3, 1993, in a desperate attempt to capture two
top aides of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a small force of Rangers and
Delta Force commandoes stormed into a house in Aidid's stronghold.
However, very quickly things began to go wrong. When two of the Black
Hawk helicopters (their pilots specially trained and equipped for night
operations) were unexpectedly shot down, the American soldiers quickly
found themselves surrounded by armed Somalis who were determined to
bring the soldiers to battle and destroy them. As the American
commander tried to round up support from Pakistani and Malaysian
armored units, the American soldiers fought through the afternoon and
through the night. When the fight was finally over, there were 18
Americans dead and 73 wounded, plus some 1,000 Somalis dead or wounded. In
this story, author Mark Bowden does an excellent job of taking the
reader right into the firefight. This is not a modern Zulu (a 1964
movie of British soldiers fighting against Zulu warriors during the
19th century); this is not a story of heroes and villains. Instead, the
author tells the story from both sides, showing the feelings and
motivations of both sides, and showing modern combat with all of its
horrors and uncertainties. Indeed, what surprised me the most was the
profound contempt that the Delta Force "D-Boys" expressed for their
Ranger comrades. No, this is quite a story, one that has to be
read to be understood. If you are interested in modern warfare, then I
would say that you must read this book. Indeed, I would go as far as to
say that this book will probably be long considered a classic of modern
American literature.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Exhausting, informative, thorough, demanding., March 15, 2002
I read a fair amount of historical non-fiction and was taught
throughout high school to think critically when reading. Check sources,
check author's tone, point of the writing, points of view being used,
context, and so forth. Apparently Mark Bowden, the author, comes from
the same school of thought. He writes a thorough and genuine account of
a sadly-ignored incident in US history.I
can recall the newspaper accounts of the time, wondering what we were
doing there and why, after taking such incredible beatings, we were
leaving. Rather than do the research to find out why, Mr. Bowden has
compiled this book, which rightfully deserves its place on any
historian's bookshelf. Bowden's accounting of the events and
context are flawless. His research is uncommonly thorough, and given
the opportunity to write the first really comprehensive accounting of
the events, he makes the most of it. His attention to detail, his
recreation of the timeline, and his notes are worthy of emulation by
future students of history. All that is nothing without good
writing, and Bowden keeps a reader locked into the story. As hard as
some of it is to read because of the imagery and concomitant emotional
responses, Bowden leads you through the battles at ground level, at eye
level from helicopter platforms, at screen level from command centers.
At the end of the book one wonders how you survive the reading; how
much worse to have been there in it? I was exhausted mentally, and
therein lies the demanding aspect of the book. So much goes on,
so many players become involved, that a cheet sheet and glossary of
some terms would've helped immensely. Even a cast of characters
would've been of some utility, but eventually, I just bore down and
focused. Some questions were answered in the notes, others reveal their
answers upon later reflection. In all, I daresay adding my review
to the nearly 400 others won't make someone any more inclined to buy a
5-star book if they've ignored the other 399 reviewers, but this is my
review and I'm sticking to it.
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