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Destined to become a classic of war reporting, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden’s brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the swarming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, 18 Americans were dead and more than 70 had been badly injured. Bowden, an award-winning journalist, captured this harrowing ordeal through the eyes of the young soldiers and the Somalis who fought that day. Interviewing people on both sides, and accessing thousands of pages of Army records, including still-classified videotapes, radio transcripts and audiotapes, Bowden has written a fascinating story that captures heroism, courage, and the brutality of battle. A battle that changed the world, Black Hawk Down will alter how we look at the modern battlefield and the respect we have for those who fight on it. It is the power of the personal accounts and the research of the author that brings the 1993 battle into your heart. The book becomes the combatant’s story told through a single author. A book not built on finger pointing, yet well aware of the issues, is nearly required reading for all Special Operation Forces and anybody who sets his sights on trying out for any of these units. The lessons of camaraderie, fellowship and willingness of men to protect each other and not let each other down are most valuable in this book. “No one gets left behind” is the Americans’ battle cry, a military policy that turns the battle from a 1 hour operation to a 15 hour firefight.
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