TF RANGER
ABOVE: The only photo released of the battlefield on the day of the battle, with TF Ranger personnel shown taking cover alongside buildings near the crash site. RIGHT, TOP: AH-6 Little Birds Barber 5-2, 5-3 and 5-4 launch during the Battle of Mogadishu, Oct. 3, 1993. RIGHT,
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U.S. Army image
stabilize the perimeter, but the Super Six Eight was itself hit by an RPG and barely made it back to the airport. As the rest of the Rangers began to arrive on foot, so too did more armed Somalis. “The level of fire got really intense,” Thomas said, “coming from every direction at that point, and people started getting hit. We were jammed into a one- or two-block area with a lot of fire coming from all directions.
U.S. Army photo
a 2002 interview for this publication with the late Barbara Hall. Thomas was part of “Chalk 3,” the Ranger squad aboard Black Hawk Super Six Six. Initially, the raid went well. But while fast-roping from a helicopter, one Ranger, Pfc. Todd Blackburn, fell 70 feet and was severely injured. By 1615 hours, the clan leaders and 21 other detainees were safely cuffed and loaded onto the trucks of the ground convoy, but crowds of angry, armed Somalis were gathering around the area. In the afternoons, Somali men like to chew khat leaves, “an amphetaminelike stimulant” that produces euphoria. The combination of khat, young men, and automatic weapons made for a perfect storm. Then, at 1620 hours, Black Hawk Super Six One was hit by at least one RPG and crashed in the street northeast of the target area, killing the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Clifton Wolcott, and co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Donovan Briley. Very suddenly, the initiative had shifted, and Garrison ordered the raid forces to focus on rescuing survivors from the downed Black Hawk. The neighborhood around the crash site would become the center of the subsequent battle, with Rangers, Delta operators, and others trying to hold back attacks by swarms of Aidid’s militia and angry “civilians.” “It was weird watching this slow, spinning turn,” Thomas said, “and the Black Hawk crashed off in the neighborhood, as if you were standing in your own neighborhood and watched him go over the trees somewhere.” The f irst troops dispatched to the crash site were Rangers and other personnel who moved toward the site on foot. They quickly took heavy fire, and began to suffer casualties. Eventually, a handful, under Lt. Tom DiTomasso, reached the site and began to set up a perimeter and care for the wounded personnel. They also supported a daring rescue by a “Little Bird” crew that braved the gunfire to land and pick up two wounded men. Black Hawk Super Six Eight also arrived with the combat search and rescue team, who roped in and helped
DoD photo
BOTTOM: A U.S. Army map of the area of the Battle of Mogadishu.