Jeri Jacquin
Currently streaming on Netflix, Ridley Scott and director Jack MacInnes is the intense and harrowing story of the men who lived and talk about SURVIVING BLACK HAWK DOWN.
It is October 3, 1993 and Dave Diemer (US Army Ranger) sits in a diner to talk about that time in Somalia. Why? Because he was there. U.S. Special Forces were being sent to Mogadishu, Somalia looking for those rebels who were loyal to their leader Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid. The day is the Battle of Mogadishu but it is also known to American soldiers as Black Hawk Down.
Randy Ramglia (US Army Ranger) recalls the day that started out relaxing at the military base in Mogadishu. At the beach, soldiers were enjoying the sun until they are gathered up and returned to base to ready themselves for a mission. That mission? To get in, grab their targets and get out. Brad Thomas (US Army Ranger) recalls his life before the military and his visit to a recruiter office seeing a video of the Army Rangers.
After joining, in July of 1993, the men’s training is halted and soldiers are quickly sent off to Somalia. The country is in the midst of a civil war and, then, President Clinton orders help for the poorest in the region. Diemer, Ramglia and Thomas experience their first night on base of hearing mortar rounds and realize the extent of the danger. They also learn that Aidid was responsible for killing the country’s people and Americans at the embassy and it was no longer going to be ignored. Now, they military is targeting officials of Aidid’s regime if not Aidid himself. The ranger unit wasn’t the first to go in, it was the Delta Force team that took the lead.
Tom Satterly (Delta Force) was part of that force and their mission was Aidid. After getting the information they needed, Delta Force and the Rangers board Black Hawks and fly to the target. They were not on the ground long before being fired on. Everyone in Mogadishu knows the United States military is there. Capturing it is Somalian Ahmed “Five” who speaks of how his country changed from a normal, nice life to one of war. He became a war cameraman and documented the devastation.
In 1992, Operation Restore Hope brought Marines and the UN to help the poorest people of Somalia. At first the people seemed happy to see them but as the strict pressure began to happen, the people turned on the Americans. Then a mission, seen from the ground and Ahmed’s camera provide more anger in Mogadishu and it still haunts Ahmed today. It also led to the change in attitude of the people of Somalia.
On October 3rd, the plan was shown of the mission to go after Aidid’s lieutenant. The ground convoy and Black Hawks head out. What the soldiers don’t know is the people on the ground were ready to start firing on them – and they did. During the fire fight, three words are heard – Black Hawk down! It is now a rescue mission for the soldiers and a hunt for the angry Somalians.
Larry Perino (US Army Ranger) is monitoring it all and realize the rescue mission has to happen and the soldiers decide to all meet up at the crash site. The Somali’s are also running to the site to capture and/or kill the soldiers. Chaos ensues as roadblocks are stopping rescuers, the Rangers and Delta Force inch forward. Michael Durant (US Pilot) brings in helicopter support for the troops on the ground. Brad Halling (US Ranger) was suppressing fire for the troops on the ground. In the meantime, the Casualty Convoy is still trying to get back to base. As more helicopters go in to help in the fight, another fateful Black-Hawk-down is heard. Rebels are running to that crash site and the soldiers at the first crash site are trapped.
As morning breaks, the second Black Hawk has survivors, pilot Durant is severely injured and captured. Armored convoys are back at the base but it is a quick turnaround. The soldiers want to get back quickly and help those trying to stay alive. Durant is being interrogated but he too just waits hearing the convoy go by. That same morning, Ahmed starts recording at the crash site and it quickly gets back to the soldiers at the base and they are horrified. Then President Clinton makes it clear that hurting any soldiers will not be tolerated and a deal is struck for the return of Durant.
The soldiers who put their lives on the line are angry. Diemer, Halling, Ramglia and Thomas all have an opinion of it until this very day and honestly, who can blame them.
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The episodes include This Is Not New York, A Wall of Lead, and No Way Out.
SURVIVING BLACK HAWK DOWN is an intense documentary about one of the most intense firefights. In 2001, Ridley Scott along with Jerry Bruckheimer brought the story to the big screen with the film BLACK HAWK DOWN. The film was, in itself just an assault on the senses but this series allows the viewers to learn the history of what led up to the day in October. It also allows us to hear from the men who decided to be a part of the US Army Rangers, their mission and even surviving is sometimes a day-to-day struggle with the memories.
The series also delves into the Somalian perspective of their country’s civil war, the hope when the UN arrived and what events occurred that changed how they felt. Each Somalian experienced something as well during the Battle of Mogadishu and as much as hearing what the rebels had to say is difficult, it is important to hear.
These first-hand accounts are unfiltered and are recounted in the strongest of terms and feeling. It is so important to dive deeper into this event because it was not just based on the military going in for no reason. Aidid, like other leaders, used propaganda to create a civilian army and that meant emotions running high, so high that the military could never have expected the rebel firefight that happened. Out of it all, the pain and suffering was and is still plaguing all those who lost something that day – the civil war in Somalia still continues.
In the end – this is the story told by the soldiers who survived it!
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