Black Hawk Down Read Online Free PDF

world. Dropping in next door was a thumb in
     the warlord's eye. The UN forces stationed in Mog, most of them Pakistanis since the U.S.
     Marines had pulled out in May, wouldn't go near that part of town. It was the one place in
     the city where Aidid's forces could mount a serious fight on short notice, and Garrison
     knew the dangers of slugging it out there. Washington's commitment to Somalia wouldn't
     withstand many American losses He had warned in a memo just weeks before:
    “If we go into the vicinity of the Bakara Market. there's no question we'll win the
     gunfight, but we might lose the war.”
    The timing was also risky. Garrison's task force preferred to work at night. Their
     helicopters were flown by the crack pilots of the 160th SOAR, who dubbed themselves the
     Night Stalkers. They were expert at flying totally black with night-vision devices, they
     could move around on a moonless night like it was midday. The unit's pilots had been
     involved in almost every U.S. ground combat operation since Vietnam: When they weren't
     fighting they were practicing, and their skills were simply amazing. These pilots were
     fearless, and could fly helicopters in and out of spaces where it would be hard to insert
     them with a crane. Darkness made the speed and precision of the D-boys and Rangers that
     much more deadly. Night afforded still another advantage. Many Somali men, particularly
     the young men who cruised' around Mog on “technicals,” vehicles with .50-caliber machine
     guns bolted in back, were addicted to khat, a mild amphetamine that looks like watercress.
     Midafternoon was the height of the daily cycle. Most started chewing at about noon, and by
     late afternoon were wired, jumpy, and raring to go. Late at night it was just the opposite.

Black Hawk Down
    The khat chewers had crashed. So today's mission called for going to the worst place in
     Mog at the worst possible time.
    Still, the chance of bagging two of Aidid's top men at the same time was too good to pass
     up. They had done three previous missions in daylight without a hitch. Risk was part of
     the job. They were daring men; that's why they were here.
    The Somalis had seen six raids now, so they more or less knew what to expect. The~ task
     force had done what it could to keep them guessing. Three times daily, mission or no
     mission, Garrison would scramble the whole force onto helicopters and send them up over
     the city. The Rangers loved it at first. You piled into the back end of a Black Hawk and
     held on for dear life. The hotshot Night stalkers would swoop down low and fast and bank
     so hard it would stack your insides into one half of your body. They'd rocket down streets
     below the roofline, with walls and people on both sides lashing past in a blur, then climb
     hundreds of feet and scream back down again. Corporal Jamie Smith wrote to his folks back
     in Long Valley, New Jersey, that the profile lights were “like a ride on a roller coaster
     at Six Flags!” But with so many flights, it got old.
    Garrison had also been careful to vary their tactics. They usually came in on helicopters
     and left by vehicles, but sometimes they came in on vehicles and left by helicopters.
     Sometimes they came and left on choppers, or on vehicles. So the template changed. Above
     all, the troops were good. They were experienced and well trained.
    They had come close to grabbing Aidid several times, but that wasn't their only goal.
     Their six previous missions had struck fear into the Habr Gidr ranks, and more recently
     they'd begun to pick off the warlord's top people. Garrison felt they had performed
     superbly so far, despite press accounts that portrayed them as bumblers. When they'd
     inadvertently arrested a group of UN employees on their first mission-the “employees” had
     been in an off-limits area with piles of black market contraband- the newspapers had
     dubbed them Keystone Kops. Garrison had