Black Hawks, Delta Force, Army Rangers, its all here
Written: Nov 09 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Descriptive, realistic writing puts you right at the scene.
Cons: Some information could be insensitive to the soldier's family members.
The Bottom Line: To make it through this story, you must have alot of interest in military operations and tolerance of realistic war scenes. If you have those, it'll be a great read.
wyowriter's Full Review: Mark Bowden - Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern W...
Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down, is an account of American special forces' missions in Somolia in 1993.
After seeing an interview with the author on ABC News, I immediately read this book and loved it. The book has incredible detail that places the reader right at the scene, in the town of "mog", Somolia, a small country on Africa's eastern border. The story deals with American Special Ops forces, the unrecognized Delta Force, the U.S. Army Rangers, and other troops that were stationed nearby.
In a nutshell, American Special Ops forces, on a relatively "routine" Sunday afternoon mission, found themselves fighting for their lives when a Black Hawk goes down and their rescue convoy runs into major trouble. Suddenly the routine mission turns into a struggle of war survival. Pinned down in an incredibly hostile city through the night without water, night vision goggles, and much hope, you can almost feel the dirt off the streets, the pain of a bullet in the leg, and the pain of seeing friends being gunned down. Grossly outnumbered, but not out-trained, they fought their way out - and left more destruction behind then they took home.
If you are a military enthusiast, you'll love the descriptive accounts of fast-roping from the Black Hawks, opening up the "pig" on the back of a Humvee, or dodging a RPG as it jets down the street. But this is no glam-story, it depicts war as it is, a lot of death and pain. It looks into the soldier's minds and you can hear them ask themselves why they signed their life over to the U.S. government so that they could die in some African hell-hole. But more often, you'll hear the incredible determination of those who fought, even when consumed with fear.
One great aspect of the book is that it tells the story from two perspectives - the American's and the local Somolian. You can appreciate why these people were so persistent in killing the Americans.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 sparked a new interest in many American's minds about our military force; their capabilities, their limitations, etc. Now with reports that Bin Laden trained those responsible for American deaths in Somolia, I'd suspect that this book will be getting a lot more attention in the future. I also hear it is becoming a movie in early 2002 - a must see.
The behind-the-lines story of the U.S. Special Forces team dropped into the middle of Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993 and the intense firefight for their ...More at Barnes & Noble.com
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