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Summary: where to begin
Review: This book brought it all back. I was in Mogadishu during Bloody Sunday, as an Air Force medic stationed at the Mogadishu Airport. The Rangers lived across the small road from us in a hanger. Many of the pilots and some Rangers made pretty good friends with us. Although I was not close to any in paticular. But I knew the faces. Our small Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility(MASF) was the closes medical facility near the area of battle. We recieved all the casualties. Although we were not equipped for such a mass casualty, we somehow pulled it off, no sleep. Some of my fellow medics were brought to tears when seeing the men they were laughing with the day before now bleeding in front of them. My hat is off to them and the Rangers, Delta Force, Combat Controllers and Pararescue who were involved in a day we will not soon forget. I have said it before, but thanks Mr Bowden. OUT.
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Summary: Wow!
Review: This is by far the best combat book that I have ever read. It's about 99 Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives who fast-rope into a city to capture some terrorist leaders. Two helicopters are shot down and in short, the Army elite are pinned down by thousands of Somalians for 15 hours while they try to rescue the helicopter crews. It's very action-packed. It's a true story, and the author (Bowden) did an excellent job of telling it how it was; he actually interviewed some 100 people that participated in the fight and watched a couple hours of footage of the fight. I would recommend this book to anyone, unless you can't stand the thought of mass amounts of blood.
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Summary: 3rd Ranger Batt. Boy Speaks
Review: I knew these people, they were my, colleagues, my friends, my 'Ranger Buddies'. I was stationed with the 3d Ranger Bn. for four years from 1996 to 2000. I learned a lot about the actions of my buds, from stories here and there, but none so comprehensive as this. When you talk to individuals you get small pieces of the pie, and the command structure was never really willing to talk about it too much, either, except for certain tactical applications. I learned more about the silent heroes that worked around me everyday through this book than I would have ever known otherwise.This book was extremely well written, fast paced, and graphic. It will provide the reader with an unstoppable thrill ride of action and fact. Funny how things are, but this book which is the most accurate account of Mogadishu, was never encouraged to be read by our leaders, mainly because it did point out some of the faults of the past leadership. Overall one of the best books I've ever read.
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Summary: A Great Book About Great Men
Review: "Black Hawk Down" is one of the best examples of investigative journalism I have ever read. I picked up the book in a bookstore and read the first few pages while I stood there. I then grabbed a chair and read the first three chapters. That was it. I was hooked. I bought the book and took it home. The author tells as complete a story about war as I have ever read. He tells of many events from two, three, or more perspectives. One might assume that such a tactic might wear thin, but each perspective is so unique and offers a more complete image of the entire battle. I never tired of the multiple POVs, and in fact, I was disappointed when alternative POVs were not offered for a scene. I was completely hooked on this book, reading it in the morning before work, during my lunch break, and at night before bed. It is that engrossing. Many times, I found myself saying "wow, that happened?", or pumping my fist in the air and saying "Yeah!", or shaking my head and saying "boy, that had to hurt". It was all so realistically captured, I felt I was there with the soldiers. More than once, I was brought to tears as I read. Bowden would have been remiss to omit the Somalians' POV, and I would be remiss to omit the fact that he handled that task masterfully. He didn't devote nearly the amount of time to the Somalian point of view, but I commend him for giving me a clearer understanding of the factors that compelled them to civil war, and battle with American troops. This is the best book I've read this year. It's going to be hard to top this one on my best of the year list.
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Summary: A GRIPPING ACCOUNT OF BATTLE
Review: What can I say about this fantastic minute by minute account of war? Mark Bowden truly shines as an author and will probably be remembered for years to come for this particular work. I ordered this book expecting it to be an ordinary story of bravery,weapons, explosions, etc. When it arrived, I was shocked and humbled by my original predilection. I polished off Black Hawk Down in a day and loved every minute. As a military enthusiast, I found the novel doubly as exciting because of the great attention to detail. Nothing was left out by Bowden, who researched the disaster in Somalia thoroughly. One could almost feel the heat of the Somalian sun and the popping of AK-47s through Bowden's description. I felt my heart racing as I knew that the Army Rangers were not only fighting for their country, but also fighting for their lives. Black Hawk Down is not just for the enthusiast by any means, however. I can assure you that all individuals can appreciate the selfless acts of bravery demonstrated by our armed forces. Black Hawk Down should be treasured by generations as a constant reminder that war is hell.
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Summary: Wow, hard core!
Review: A great insight to the battle in Mogadishu - gritty, painful, even comical at times. Really makes you feel like you're there. A great tribute to the brave soldiers that fought and died that day.
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Summary: Brief Factual Account of Brief Tragic Mission
Review: I enjoyed Black Hawk thoroughly, but the structure of the work interfered with the flow of the action. The author's account captures several minute details that help bring the men and the mission to life (such as the soldiers' memories of donkeys wandering around in the middle of a firefight), and the reader is often swept away by the fury of combat. But the author repeatedly stops his tale to introduce new soldiers who have appeared in the action for the first time. This interrupts the flow of action, and it also makes it difficult to develop an understanding of the overall mission. It's understandable why the author does so -- there are many soldiers to introduce, and no single soldier is in every part of the battle. Rather, the battle in Mogadishu reads like a series of smaller episodes forming the larger whole, rather than a linear progression. It's difficult to keep breaking with your story to provide background, particularly when the event described is so brief -- we're not talking about the Battle of the Bulge, here. Still, the book is moving. You can't help read about the selfless acts of heroism by these young, highly trained men and help yourself getting emotionally involved. The author's extensive interviews with the soldiers are a real treat, and there is an interesting twist to them. Most of his interviews were apparently with members of the Rangers, and we learn a great deal about the unit. The author was not able to obtain the same access to the Delta Force members present in the mission, so all we learn about them is what the Rangers saw. It's wonderful to read about the Rangers, one of the tougher units in the military, speaking of the Delta Boys in awe. The elite of the elite get their due in the book, as their acts are described in almost clinical detail. But their lack of a voice in the book gives them an otherworldly air that is actually very appropriate, given their training and purpose. All in all, Black Hawk is an excellent "light-weight" history. You will learn little about the overall U.S. presence in Africa, and there are few "big picture" themes to discuss. But that was not the author's intention. Instead, Black Hawk gives a wonderful insight into the men who fight for our country and the real conditions under which they operate, not the sanitized CNN version. You'll plow through it in a couple of days, and it will go on your shelf next to the Grisham and Koontz.
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Summary: "Black Hawk Down" an Instant Classic of the Military Genre
Review: The military and the press have often been at odds since Vietnam. As a junior officer in Turkey during a minor special forces operation, I had no problem at all ordering troops not to say a word to Christiane Amanpour, the CNN reporter lurking outside the gate of the base as the mission took off. The press is rarely of any help to the operation, and often a great hindrance. This is due in part to the fact that most of the press hate the military, a bias which invariably shows up in their coverage. Reading "Black Hawk Down", by Mark Bowden, a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer, has caused me to reevaluate some of my preconceived notions about war journalism. It is clear from the first page of his narrative that Bowden is taking great pains to tell it like it really was. While Bowden devotes much of the story to the Somali point of view, he is scrupulously fair, and avoids giving away any of his own opinions regarding the Battle of Mogadishu. And what a battle it was. It began with a routine operation to capture a few aides to Aidid, the Somali warlord who was the bete noire of the Clinton administration until Slobodan Milosevic crawled out from under his rock. Delta Force personnel, aided by U.S. Army Rangers, entered the city via helicopter and convoy to conduct the operation. The Somalis were not caught unawares this time. They had rehearsed firing rocket propelled grenades at Black Hawk helicopters prior to this ill-fated mission, now they succeeded in bringing two of the nigh-invulnerable choppers down. A pitched battle, full of the fog and friction of war, ensued about the crash sites as the Americans fought frantically to rescue their comrades. Bowden relates this gripping tale in a tense, minute-by-minute narrative. Having conducted extensive interviews, he manages to reconstruct the battle and dissect it at the same time. Too often, military history portrays the glory of battle with none of the horror it invariably entails. Bowden skillfully avoids this trap as well, portraying eloquently the sacrifices of the 18 U.S. soldiers who died in the battle. In this, "Black Hawk Down" compares favorably with another classic of the genre, "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" by General Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway, which adopted the same "Just the facts, ma'am" approach to the battle of Ia Drang during Vietnam. If you have any interest at all in what the modern battlefield is really like, pick this book up now.
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Summary: The few and brave
Review: Before I read this book I've always wanted to be part of the special forces, I would picture them going into enemy territory and finish there job, kill the bad guys and get out without a loss of a single man. This book made me realize that there's alot more to that. I've read this book twice and each time I would get hooked on it. I would recommend this book to anyone intrested in special forces.
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Summary: Affirmation
Review: One of the best-written accounts of combat I have ever read. The mental images this book provokes will literally cause you to break out in a cold sweat. You will practically be able to taste the grit in your mouth! I can't say enough. Get it. Read it. Remember it.
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