Rating: 
Summary: A Gripping Book
Review: Mark Bowden did a great job with this, the movie doesnt even compare to the true to life book. This book should live a long life with the rest of the war novels.Hearing the bravery, the heroism and the gore of the catastrophe that happened on that day.The movie doesnt even scratch the surface of how bad it went wrong. I have two words for the prospective buyer BUY IT you will never put it down.
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Summary: A Modern War Classic
Review: Black Hawk Down is the story of the events in Somalia on October 3rd, 1993.
The books details a raid that the stationed U.S. Army Rangers staged against Mohamed Farah Aidid, a warlord who declared himself president of Somalia, and was hampering U.N. efforts to feed the starving country.
During the midafternoon, about 180 elite Amry Rangers and Delta Force troops dropped into Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, where they were to capture two lieutenants of the warlord.
Right as the mission began, things went wrong. One Ranger fell eighty feet from the Black Hawk that he was in to the ground. The Somalis, who were excited due to the raid, and due to the drugs that are common among the population began to attack the soldiers who also opened fire. Before too long, a fierce fire-fight began. After the prisoners were loaded onto the convoy of humvees and flatbeds, the convoy began to move out.
Then disaster struck. Using RPGs, (Rocket Propelled Granades) a Somali managed to hit on of the Black Hawk helicopters that was flying over head, causing it to crash to the ground, killing the crew. The soldier's mission changed from a raid to a rescue mission, and they had to fight their way to the crash site. The convoy was turned around, and proceeded to the crash site, but the trucks got lost, resulting in the deaths of a couple soldiers riding back.
Soon, another helicopter was also hit, and crashed, killing several of the crew, and this time, there was no rescue for the survivors.
By the end of the mission, which was supposed to last for an hour, but dragged on into the night, 18 soldiers, of the Rangers and Delta Force were killed, and 73 were seriously wounded. Three more Black Hawks were shot up and forced down, but they returned to the base where they were stationed. This story is among the most horrifying and realistic that I have read. Bowden pulled this story off spectacularly, and I felt that I was in the action while reading it. It flows quickly, making the book about a 1-3 day read. The book divides cleanly into thirds. Right off the bat, he drags us in with the troops going into battle, then backs up and described the base life, and the mission backrounds. Then he moves onto the attack, and then onto the aftermath and rescue of the only surviving pilot, Mike Durant.
Bowden's description of the battle is as realistic as can be. As the soldiers landed, he describes their reactions and thoughts, and accuratly shows the tensions between the Delta Force and Rangers. As the fight escalated, he also describes the Ranger's need to get to the crash sites, with problems between them and the air and the Somalis fighting them.
This is a true war classic.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book Out There
Review: Wow, this book will be the standard for combat reporting for maybe the next 20 years. If the author gets royalties from each book that has on its dust jacket "just like Black Hawk Down", he will make a good living just from that. If you are reading this review you probably have either heard about or seen the movie and now want to buy the book. I have done both and the movie is very good, but it pails in comparison to this book. The author has just done the most complete, detailed, tension filled true-life combat book there has been. I can not say enough good things about this book nor do I have the skill to truly convey to you how excellent this book is. Do yourself two favors - first buy the book, next lock yourself in a room and clear your calendar because you will not want to put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: Does not get any better than this.....
Review: What can I say? I first read Blackhawk Down when it came out years ago. Right before I went to see the movie I reread it and was blown away even more than the first tims I read it. It is a clear, consise story told for and by members of Task Force Ranger so that their story will not be forgotten. It is told so vividly that it is hard to believe Bowden was not there with these guys, running through buildings, up and down those streets, dodging bullets coming from every direction. This needs to be a standard in every histroy and military history class in the country.
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Summary: "Black Hawk Down" a story of mordern war
Review: "Black Hawk Down" written by acclaimed author Mark Bauden is a riveting story of young men risking their lives on a mission that has gone wrong. The excitement and adventure starts from page one and will keep the reader flipping pages until the end. Forced to take part in a UN peacekeeping mission, Task force Ranger and Elite Delta force members (America's anti-terrorist organization) fight side by side when they are deceived by there allies and discover that their mission, to capture several top lieutenants of a Somali warlord, was a setup. Allies turn into enemies, and all hell breaks loose in this haunting story of modern war. Bullets fly, friends are lost, and tensions grow when the Somalis begin to destroy the Rangers and Delta force members "god like power" the helicopter. Based on a true story and on real life heroes such as Gary Gordon, the Delta force sniper, and Mike Durrent, the black hawk "super six four" pilot, "Black Hawk Down" will make you laugh, cry, and shake with fear, as no one knows who will live or die. This book is suitable for people from the age of thirteen and up because of the graphic violence and language that is in the book. Many readers that" if this was fantasy we would rate it up there with some of the best war novels such as the naked and the dead by Norman Mailer, or "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'brian." By Joey
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Phenomenal
Review: Best piece of military history I have read. Reads like a novel. Great character development and detail of the sounds, smells, and sights of battle. Maps in book are helpful to follow the action.
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Summary: MAN, THIS IS AWESOME!!!
Review: I'm not a war buff. But, after watching Ridley Scott's picture, which kept me glue to the chair, I decided to go for the original, so I bought the book.
Man, this is awesome writing!! Fast-paced, dramatic, neither cheap nor overly patriotic.
It's already a classic, I'm sure. And the adaptation for the screen was remarkably accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Intense and Relentless
Review: What a story!! I had no idea what awaited me before I read this book. But now, I have to read it again, slower this time, and see if what I read is really there. I can't remember being so quickly propelled through a book as I was by this one. The story telling is remarkable (hats off to you Mark Bowden), and the content of the story is even more remarkable. How can everything that possibly can go wrong go wrong, and yet how can the men involved be so emotionally (& pysically) strong enough to deal with it all. Amazing is all that can be said. Mr. Bowden lets lose with some direct writing. I had my doubts before hand that this would be a newspaper colume, but no way. I got the feeling that he was there. The style lead me to believe that there is no question in his facts, and that he is the authority on the subject, simple as that. His story telling is cold, raw, hard, and in your face. You are there, with the sounds, smells, sights and feelings. I couldn't stop reading once I started. I haven't seen the movie, kinda of don't want to, but if Hollywood tells this story the way the book does, the look out. The military and political powers-that-be will go bonkers. Good for you Mark Bowden. Well done. I look forward to more and more and more...
Rating:
Summary: Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
Review: If you do not understand how a man or woman could become a soldier, if you do not understand how a person could accept and follow the orders of their superiors without hesitation,if you do not understand how someone filled with fear of losing their own lives can walk back into a hot battle, if you do not understand what is meant by military honor and service, you have two choices. You can read this book and learn or you can stay forever ignorant of the complex people that serve our country and protect our freedom. The choice is yours. I recommend taking the journey. Whether you believe in war or not you will learn more than you could ever dream. But be ready to rethink your preconceived notions.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book about The Somalia mission
Review: I have not seen the movie, so I can offer no comparison to it, but the book is a small classic as a book about small units at war. It is worthwhile reading for any citizen who wants to know what uses the military is sometimes put to, and what soldiers in combat are called upon to do. It is my understanding that this book has virtually become required reading in the officer corps of the U.S. Army; I think this is a good thing. I was an Army officer myself (First Lieutenant, Infantry) who never saw combat; I cannot attest to the accruacy of the battle scenes but I can say that he gets the details of the equipment and the culture correct. Mark Bowden, in writing the book, had no agenda or axe to grind: he merely wanted to find out what happened. As such, he gives a pretty objective overview of the situation in Mogadishu from all the parties involved: the UN and Adminral Howe, the Somalis, and the servicemen involved. His research even included travelling to Somalia to interview the Somali militia who faced the Rangers and Delta Force soldiers -- so the book has a good balance of perspectives on the battle. Bowden also gives a good account of the strains between the leadership of the Rangers and Delta -- how the more rigid discipline and formality of the Rangers contrasted with the more freewheeling Delta "operators" who, as the elite among the elite, seemingly answered to no one. The book is about a mission gone wrong -- how a plan which contained contingencies for one chopper being lost did not have contingencies for multiple choppers going down. In addition, the troops were not prepared for night operations (plan was for a one hour mission) and did not have adequate water, night vision equipment, etc., available. The book does revisit the issue of whether if tanks were available to the units, it would have made a difference. There was definitely not enough quick reaction forces available for a "mission gone bad"; the hours it took to assemble a U.N. relief force is an excellent example why units should always plan for the worst. The book doesn't address the larger issue of whether the mission was proper for the U.S. troops; one comes to the conclusion that "mission creep" -- the temptation to use the troops for a greater role than they are configured to fight -- was and is a real problem. Because of the past successes of the Rangers and Delta, and their overwhelming competence as soldiers, there was an aura of invincibility about them. When they were overextended, as they were here, they proved vulnerable. This is a valuable lesson to civilian policy makers as well as to soldiers -- try to heep the mission to its original scope, or demand the assets necessary to do the job properly. That being said, the decision to leave Somalia was almost certainly the wrong one. It gave the impression of weakness, and everyone -- especially the Somalis -- have suffered more because of it. An excellent book.
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