Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War is the true account of a battle between American and Somali forces in the war-torn city of Mogadishu along the eastern coast of Africa on October 3, 1993. Mark Bowden considered the idea of writing a book about what became known as the Battle of the Black Sea after meeting the father of an American soldier who was killed in Mogadishu. Bowden was surprised to learn that no one had yet written a detailed account of the mission in Somalia, especially given the gruesome images—seen by millions of Americans on television news—of angry Somali mobs dragging American corpses through the streets of the city.
The battle, which left eighteen Americans dead and was the longest continuous firefight for U.S. troops since Vietnam, seemed the perfect subject matter for a book. Bowden, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, was struck by the intensity of the battle, not to mention the human drama of ninety-nine American soldiers trapped in an African city fighting for their very survival. Eventually, three years after the battle, Bowden began working on the story. He had very little official information to work from since the units involved in the battle, mostly Delta Force and the Rangers, operated in secret. In fact, most of it remained classified. While many politicians were reluctant to discuss the action—mostly because outside the special operations community it was seen as a failure—Bowden found Delta Force operators, Rangers, and even Somalis willing to tell their stories.
Bowden's minute-by-minute recounting of the battle, which began as a mission to snatch two top lieutenants of the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, first appeared as a twenty-nine-part series in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Two years later, in 1999, Black Hawk Down became a domestic and international bestseller.
Bowden begins the account inside a Black Hawk helicopter at liftoff, as a force of U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force operators prepare to drop in on a gathering of clan leaders, including the top lieutenants, in the heart of Mogadishu. The snatch-and-grab mission, while complex and difficult, is to last only an hour. However, the plan quickly falls apart and the U.S. force finds itself fighting to stay alive. A series of setbacks, terrible losses, miscommunications, added to a dangerous degree of overconfidence, all contribute to the longest day in many of the soldier's lives. For eighteen of them, it will be their last. For the Somalis, the toll is catastrophic, with conservative counts at five hundred dead and over a thousand wounded. In addition to the Americans killed in action, many are badly wounded. Two MH- 60 Black Hawk helicopters are shot down. Two more crash land. The bodies of dead Americans are beaten and dragged through the streets. A pilot is taken hostage.
The deadliest and most technologically advanced military in the world finds itself out-numbered, ill-equipped, and pinned down in one of the poorest, most dangerous neighborhoods on earth. Yet despite all the odds against them, the American Rangers and Delta Force manage to return to safety, albeit at a high price.
Bowden's account not only made forgetting the plight of the Rangers and Delta Force impossible, it also brought attention to the horrors of combat, brought dignity to those who fought in it, and even affected U.S. military policy. Black Hawk Down became a New York Times bestseller and was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist. Not long after publication of the book, it was made into a major motion picture produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Ridley Scott. The film won two Academy Awards, further cementing the book's reputation as a military classic.
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