465: Black Hawk Down. Revealed Details From Somalia. Col. James Lechner
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This is joko podcast number for four sixty five, with echo Charles and me, joko willing, a good evening. I good. As we advanced, each one of us could see that all around us, the somalis were coming every second resistance and enemy fire began to increase.

The cracks of somali rifle fire were constant, now overhead. And around us, the somalis were massing, and we could see the crowds still blocks away, but beginning to surge towards us. A deeds, malicious men aggressively moved through the allies around us and along the walls, firing and rapidly closing.

They were reinforced by men and boys from the neighbor ods joining in in Carrying their A K forty seven rifles rushing forward through the increasing fire, the assault force quickly covered two blocks, then turn left we had in north toward the crash site, still a few hundred metres away and beyond our vision, but directly ahead, as we turned the corner and began to move north, we became a wash in combat. Bullets exist, ed along the walls around us and cracked incessantly overhead. Dust rose.

A somali gunman fired and duct behind cover, or were cut down by the americans. Now, as the firefight began a rage, there was no heating over the rules of engagement. At the same time that we closed with the attacking somalis, our column remained spread back toward the target building, IT bog down to a stop when the fight erupted in earnest all around us, the rangers and Operators in the assault force were taking cover, firing a maneuvering against the numerous attacking somalis streaming into the streets.

That right there is next up from a book called with my shield and army ranger, in some written by retired army luti ic coronal James eleven. Coral lector serve twenty seven years in the army. And he fought around the world in addition to fighting in somalia, where he fought the battle that was recounted in the book and the movie black hocked down.

He was actually on the aircraft flown by mike ran, the pilot who is eventually shot down and captured by somalis, who is on this podcast number three hundred and twelve. But jim luckner fast roped off that halo, fought in the battle, was eventually wounded, but he survived, he recovered, and he Carried on in fort in bosnia, in afghanistan and in iraq and in iraq. I was honor to serve alongside him in the battle of remote, where he was the deputy commander of the ready first parade and helped lead the fight to secure that city from insurgents and turn IT over to the peaceful citizens over money.

And it's an honor to have coral luckner here with us tonight to discuss his experiences and lessons learned. Jim, thanks for joining us. Good to see.

Thank you, jack honor to be here. Great to see you again.

It's it's been a while yeah I guess I haven't seen you since I left in uh remote in october of .

two thousand and six two .

decades cause by coke done that um before we jumped this book, I guess as we jump ed with this book, I uni were I had to put the breaks on even talking to you because as we wants you showed up. I just want to talk about a million different things because everything you've done since you you're forced join the army and when you were with me, you did so much more after that so so much to talk about. But let's let's start the beginning a liberate. So you you're from upstate new york.

Yeah, was born in a town of chili just outside a register upstate about fifty five miles from .

canada that is definitely up north. And um your mom, did your mom work issues a nurse? okay. And then your dad work for codec, which is pretty common up there.

Yeah, he did four years they were in court. And then he get out work for.

what do you do in the marine core aviation?

He was an air crew.

Was vietor as the earlier.

just proud of vietnam, fifty six to like fifty nine. So there was some U. N. missions. They went on in china prior to the vietnam kicking off and fifty nine, so yet had wanted two missions. But just proud of you.

How should you talk about the marine core a little bit?

You know, he's always proud of that. He was work for code act, and he was a voice tary farmland. He is bataan chief in the local fire department.

So parades and all that. He had been charged. So he always in a war is here.

Hi anti. He was proud to be in the marine inc. But not not a lot. He's proud of IT.

And then your dad was from a devoutly catholic families, but your mom was southern baptist. S so you ve got a little bit of a mixture there. Oh yeah.

Best of both. Really interesting. Because my mother's family were on mormons out and south lake, and then her mom got killed in the current when he was too. And so he gets sent back some family in the the ant that raised her with southern back, as otherwise they were on moments and so raised a soun bad.

My mother was and and then you also have this interesting point, the book that you are, you in the boys, girls, right? And and your boys. gw. Atter was this old german immigrant that was raised in the hit or youth.

His boy's got experience with the hit or youth, yeah. And his dad was smart enough in the thirties to get them out and go to africa. But he he did a number of years and hit their youth and still head to hit .

their youth knife. Yeah, you're saying he'd bring that thing out on on patrol with you guys. And then you went went to a gates chili .

public high school yeah um you know like like most places they pronounce a gates chili. They pronounce words differently than everybody else, you know so yeah gates chili where I went to school, rest a little bit, play football. Um did well in history, did not do well in there.

So how how into a restless were you just .

a couple years .

just football?

Yeah I played football the way through, you know, not that big. So ah IT was a lot of fun like to hit but yeah and I I did a little bit attract to just get ready for the military, little bit kits, some more running in there.

So that was an interesting thing. In the books you talk about, you would tell people I want to be a professional soldier, which is an interesting term. It's not, you know, because I always tell people when I was a kid, I want to be a commander, right? And maybe I would have said soldier, but I never would have thought of the word's professional soldier.

That's next level, you must. And where is that? Where that idea come from?

yes. So I like doing armi stuff, you know, shooting. I like boy scouts.

I like some intensive boys, go to say the least. But but I was in the history also. So i'd study generals and their professional careers. That's where I kind of get the idea. I want to follow in their footsteps. I want to be a soldier, but I want to be a professional of kind of in the in the genre of of patent and all that.

And so then you, after your junior of you listen and you go to boot cap your junior and and that's that. Do they still do that? Can you still do the programs .

change year to year based on recruiting? But at the time we could be seventeen years old, parents can sign. You could still be in high school.

You'd send you down in the summer and you'd knock out basic training and then come back and finish. That's what I did. And I was I enlisted the national guard.

So I just want to get in as soon as I could. At that point, I want to be in the army and be a soldier. So there was a quick kest way to get in. I knew I was going to go to college and and go regular army, but that was just the quickest way to get, get in, get some training.

So a kid that I knew did that, yeah and now he was older than me. And when he was down there in boot camp, and this is my, this is kind of my origin story here echelles. I give you my origin story.

He was down there a book camp, and they are kinda almost done with book camp, and they are standing out on some parade field down at benning and there's a guy running around the track with, like, you know, camby pants, no shit or rock long hair and my body goes, a your surgeon, who's that guy? And he said that this drill surgeon didn't even look at him, just keep looking at the guy that was running, didn't look at my body and just goes delta and my body goes, drill surgeon, is there anyone tougher than delta? And the drill surgeon goes without looking, just says, seal team.

And that's what I heard that story was by like thirteen I know what i'm doing uh of course no no offence to the the delta guys and everybody else. But but the that idea of going in your junior year is is epic. You write doesn't a book the training potty on to which I now belonged with the typical cross section of america, from inner city blacks and hospital s to conducting y hill billies, we would spend nearly every minute the next nine weeks eating, sleeping, training and working together.

In opportune, we got to know each other well. And while individual personality is Carried on among, especially among the recruits, IT was my first experience with the true concept of a melting pot wearing our uniforms that we all looked the same, and our lives were regimented to the minute by ever present drill surgeons, the accents, attitudes and many of the differences faded, giving way to the traditions and military culture of inventory soldiers. Along with the rest of my platoon, I spent that summer as a Young infrared training in loud, mostly one way, discussions with drill sards and tactics instructors and employ officers.

They told us the basic skills and the trade, along with the law and ways of the U. S. Army in basic training, the army's version of boot camp. This mainly consists of spending days and nights in the Sandy hills and pine force, marching, running, shooting weapons, digging foxes in placing minds, learning first day in the marriage of other combat task, I walk for miles with the rock on my back and Carrying a rife until I felt like part of my limbs.

In basic training, we cared the m sixteen eight two rifle of slightly updated version of weapons made famous during the vietnamese AR many of our leaders at four spending or vietnam m veterans, as the last U. S. Troops had left that work tn.

Country less than a decade before. As these veterans helps turn us into soldiers, they passed on lessons learned not only from the army field manuals, but also for their own combat experience during basic training. That summer, many of them inspired us by their example leading from the front, one of these leaders, with arberg e commander kernel, Steve sick, freed, he had taken a machine gun bullet through his hip and vietnam, and thus limped along.

But he was always out in front of us on our unit runs. At the same time, we caught occasional glimpses of some of the army's newest combat veterans from the seventy fifth ranger regiment, which was then forming at for bending an entire regiment of rangers, was being established by the army to include the newly formed third ranger battle. On this expansion of the ranger regiment was a direct result of the previously established first and second ranger beats having proven their value by successfully spearheading the invasion of gr aneta.

Less than a year prior, the first two ranges of attis of the modern era had been formed less than a decade before on the heels of the trauma and vietnam, and were now simultaneously the army's spearhead for combat Operations and the leading force in its revitalization. These rangers were role models and living icons, not only for Young infrared recruit, for banning bud for the entire army. Eight weeks after right bending, I complete basic train and went back home to opposite new york to finish my senior year in high school. So that is your kind of introduction to the army. I did was IT easier than having a hitler youth commander of your boys got through in some way.

I didn't get beaten, you know. So yeah, in some ways that was easier.

And then what's IT like when you're on, when you get to do that book camp experience and now you come back home and you are going to your senior year of high school, you must have had money to buy a car or something like that, at least.

Yeah, IT was almost like a couple steps back, you know, to get back in a high school now. And it's like, really do have to go back, you know, to do this. IT almost like games he know to me, but ready to go.

IT was just basic training. Are not saying we were fully trained, ready to go to war, but definitely a different level of responsibility and achievement, maturity and and already looking down the road. So went back and IT was IT was easy.

High school, I want, I went right back and LOL sessions of football. That was easy. That was kind of fun because everybody else was like, lay and out, all painting and die.

And I would just stand in their way to go the next drill. So I was already in shape. So that was, that was a good experience doing that then, doing the rush, my senior and ready to. O.

yeah, there was a plane crash in the atomic. You talk about the book of air flow or flight ninety. This guy are land d Williams. He was the some people, a very few people survived the crash, but they were kind of had made their way out the plane and they were waiting to get picked up in the freezing water. And this guy, r and d. Williams, when they put a rope down to rescue people, he didn't take the rope handed of other people, and eventually the plane song can, he went down, and the news anchor pointed out that this guy, aran d. Williams, was a graduate of the city's in south CarOlina a and that schools harsh discipline had prepared him to be a hero.

That's right. So as I mentioned, history guy and I was always kind of look at worst point in apple las. And the guys like pattern, I knew through pattern in some things that there was another school called Virginia military institute, but I was looking around to see what else there might be. And I wasn't even aware of the city ital until I was watched in those events. And I just kind of struck me the way they they describe bed that um the harsh discipline prepared to be a hero that really stuck with me. And I thought this the place I want to check out so down in Charles in south CarOlina and of course i'm in upstate new york an and south CarOlina is sounded pretty good so went down there and checked IT out and I knew that, admitted I rolled into the into the gates. I knew that I was going .

school yeah this is um the the citadel is originally the the south Caroline and military academy in eighteen forty two and when IT was originally established. And you ve got some pretty cool history that you cover the by the way, I haven't get the book everybody. I'm obviously to read a couple highlights, but there's so much detail from from this experience for you just get the book.

It's an outstanding book. And one of the things you cover is a little of the history behind the the school and this school, the the south Caroline and military academy. They actually had A A dead battery on morse island.

And when president lincoln sent down the U. S, S, the star of the west, which was a ship, the first shot to the civil war, were actually fired by cadets from the south CarOlina military academy. That may, that may have worked out well for the south CarOlina military academy, but they lost the war. Eventually the the school shut down for ten years and and then after losing the world was shut for ten years. And then IT reopened ten years later and then now .

they renamed .

at the siddle so yeah um really IT seems like a next level of harsh discipline and that that that was sort of what you experience that yeah .

without a doubt, you know kind of apples and oranges or or iron and nickel, I guess would be a Better way to describe IT because army basic training, you know very pragmatic, very physical, like I say march in the sun, shoot and weapons IT all you're not doing a lot of that. That's it's it's mental.

But it's a at the time you went through the the pleb system or the nob system is nine months long and IT was twenty four, seven and there was no getting away from IT IT regulated. Everything you did from you couldn't have something close, very little time off and very intensive rooms had to be kept inspection order, and then very, very intensive pressure on you just getting cheated out constantly. Very harsh corrections made.

No, they they didn't necessarily hit you so much, but you're doing a lot of push ups. You're doing a lot of different exercises and punishments and corrections and been inapposite ted in the right direction. And like I said, you could not get away from at the city.

That's one of the big different things. Even in the military. There's usually you can get away from stuff. You get your room or you get somewhere you can go where there's a break. There is no break for nine months with the cattle.

So at that time, in the early eighties or mid eighties, IT was IT was a different system and IT IT was very intensive in IT. And IT was a great there's a couple of different seminal points in my timeline of my personal development, and that's definitely one of the one of the big ones. And IT wasn't just a negative beach down and then build backup thing.

But the whole aspect, at least for me, when this gets to the history they were talking about with the city ital, the long history that I talk about the book, is that White so important, is IT really establishes a standard of what, what you should live up to, dedicated service to the nation's self sacrifice. Never complained, never advances your own interest over your teammates or over your nation. They really beat that into you and and that is the standard um I mean again in its twenty four seven they beat into you that you get to live up to.

And so when you go to the naval academy or you go to west point at the naval academy, they call a plea summer at west point, it's called the beast dry, right? Uh, those are probably like nine weeks or something like that. And for you, for you at the city, l is nine months you of them like that, right?

Yeah, we I mean different military schools in vmi in the months you mentioned, you can all discuss some debate about who's tougher. Who's Better is set at that. But we had quantifiably the longest system.

No one was as long as us. I mean, vm s was about too much shorter than hers, I think, at that time. So we could break in rates to the longest system and arguably the tougher system in in the country. The time and I was all .

about that the so I had to swear my meals, which I read about you have in the book, when I was to auto cannot go, which was only thirteen weeks. And we only had to square meals for, I think, probably about four weeks. By the way, I lost twenty pounds squaring my wheel meals.

With that means echelles, you can look at your plate. You have to look straight head and put your fork into the plate, you know, come straight up in front your face and bring IT in. It's real hard to eat. Uh, did you have to square your meals for for that many monto?

Absolutely, absolutely. And they kind of take you to the next level. You're only allowed to sit in the front three inches your chair.

You've got to do this. This what looks ridiculous, but is a good tool called bracing. So you have to, like, tense up your whole body and pull your chin as hard as you can.

An exaggeration sit of attention and you have to eat like that. So you know you're getting the food ups trying to square away and obey and also you are required to keep everybody else food. You're the server at at the table.

And so you know they are a classroom you're serving them and they know when they're putting the pressure on you. So it's it's all about building stress, and we talk about that in the book, and I know this is something in the more than familiar with, but it's all about building stress, deceiving, persevere. And so at the cattle, you're not gone through swarms and marching and twenty cys, there are other ways to indo stress and that's that's definitely one of them.

Was third a chAllenges first, how many people quit .

at the time? I think we had by thirty percent trial rate, okay. But that's .

because people are applied and they're they're going to get to get career out of IT. There's also, I think the dell has a really high percentage people that actually go .

into the military. Yeah the time they did so IT was that's one of the weird things about the city, is you don't have to go in the military and south CarOlina, a whole different tribe within the united states as some people know, but know software on a kind of seize that as their military service going to the city, which is not right. But they think that IT is.

And so a lot of guys would just do there four years and get out. So you didn't have to go into the U. S.

military. But eventually sixty five, seventy five percent did. So it's pretty high rain.

And like he said, he darted, bent through boot camp in so you're just you're just A A glutton .

for punish. Doing this stuff was .

already a anything that was significantly chAllenging for you.

uh, the academics, you know and I found out now because now that i've got a couple master's agrees and teach college no, being eighteen years old, I just that's what I was focused on. I was trying to find every opportunity to get a rifle in my hands to get out the field. You know, i'm talking about IT.

So that's what I focused on. What I I really should have focused on was maybe studying in math a bit more um and i'd get up the more and you know four forty five in P T. We actually had A A sergeant from a range of beta there and he ran a program.

And so I get up in the morning pt with him, and then I fall asleep through class all day. So so maybe a little more little more baLance, a little more pragmatic approach to think it's great that I could do my pt test, but you plan need to pass that math test to graduate, you know? So and .

this whole time you're still uh A A national guard soldier so you get done you get done with your nob ear, which is your fresh menu in college and then you go to the inflight course at for banning that's right. Yeah so you you're heavily in doctor the individual .

yeah and I won't say I was thrilled to get those orders at the end of nab go right back to the infection school, but now I was and IT was a great experience. And so I was doing the national girl on the weekend. They had a cadet ranger company that this guy from from one seven five ran and I do that like every weekend and so yeah not not a whole lot of baLance going on there.

And then after not beer, I went right into the emptor y school and that was IT was good training in those years. IT was ragan years, a lot of money still vian unversed roman IT, very good. And then I I got selected to come back to the city's and run the castrate, run the training for the freshman. So I do show up really went basically right from the infatuation to that. So yeah, nonstop, nonstop process.

You were, like I said, a heavily inducted .

you good word that I was in the and then you .

end up a version national guard unit, a mechanism unit right there outside .

the gates in the city. D out and we do that for one weekend a months um as you're getting .

ready to graduate or any other big any other big things, take ways. I mean, again, you talk about this in the book, but anything you want to mention about the city deal in general before we get to your .

graduation again, just just to emphasize, you know, it's a there's different ways to train people for combat. And the city is not a real physical place, but it's it's a very mentally growling place and it's all about find ways to make you make the individual reach down and persevere and keep pushing and especially built in that concept that if you quit, you're let down the guys you're left in your right that's that's really what's an important you thing that I was taught throughout most of this training. But the the decided .

especially so you graduate um when you graduate, i'm going to go to the book here. You say earlier that year, we had filled out forms to request which branch or job we wanted to enter through the form though the forms had spaces rust to list ten choices to be ranked in order of our preference. I only filled in one with infinity when our branches were posted.

That spring, to my shock and dismay, I was assigned to the field artillery branch. I had not requested further. IT seemed like an unlikely match given my recent goals with math.

I protested using the chain up to the senior army leadership of R, T. C. At the city, but to no avail.

I'd follow my orders and march off that summer to the U. S. Armies, artillery in oklahoma. So I had to be a bit of a shock.

Oh yeah, very shocking. And obviously math wasn't considered when you think about artilery ics. You know no no math involved there.

He was army. But yeah, IT was my first taste to army bureaucracy. And I think anybody has been in the military can attest there's there's two different sides to the military.

There's a bureaucratic side. There's a field or so actual the soldier worry your side. And so this, my first taste bureaucracy, just put in, you know, peggs in holes as all they were doing.

And that's that's what. And so I quickly I learned from that, though we will see later on. But yeah, the bureaucracy just stuck me in the in the utility now know, as IT turns out, fantastic experience.

Brother, my mind hugely you I get practical application at maths. I'm actually not too bad at IT now and and really enjoyed IT and gave me a three dimensional view the battlefield. But no, i'm manufacturing.

I always have been. I mean, that's one of the things I always tell people to talk me about the military. And like never let the military tell you what you're gonna do.

And while you may not, you know, have the material in education to know all the aspects, the military, if you're going to, if you're onna, sign up and present that black check to the military into the nation, then you should at least do something that you want to do. That's gonna you happy because you're going to sacrifice a lot one way or the other and so don't do some job that you don't want to do. And you should least have the the the job experience, the pleasure of the atmosphere that you want to have.

And so I mean, I wasn't inferred from day one. And so that was that I was called to do. And so I wasn't going to give up on that.

I was wasn't going to let the army tell me. And that was the last time that I let the army. I didn't go to the army and tell them what was gonna was opposed to them telling me I always set the deck beforehand. So was a good lessons.

Er I think there are a lot Better about that. Now the I know the marine core used to just you just up to be a marine and that was that you are going to get whatever they gave you. The marine court does a lot Better, but everybody that all the service branches do a Better now because they realized if you got a guy that actually wants to do the job, you put him in, he's going to do a Better job.

But yeah, you definitely have a lot more. You know you can, especially when your first joined the army or first join the military, you don't think you have any say, but you actually do. If you, you can make things happen.

So you end up reporting some of one thousand nine hundred eighty nine. You go to the U. S. Army artillery and forth sale okhotsk is sort of the epic of artillery training. You get marines out there as well um and you learn the art and the science and the physics and the ballistics of at all and you end up uh learn about ford observers. So that tells a little bit about ford observers and what they do.

S, yes, ethos, always interested in in rangers and within their tiler. You know, you can shoot the guns and do all that types of thing. Or they have four observers that go with the inventory.

And so I was wanted to be in the inventory, and I knew that was as closed as I could get. So I focused on trying to be a forward observer on artillery that we go up with the infinity units and then control the artillery and other fire supports. So that's what I kind of gravitated toward.

And then I would see that the rangers did that even a little bit differently. Instead of somebody from our tiler unit, they would actually have these board observers in the range of patterns. And so I knew that's that's really where I want to go.

And so you start volunteering for dangerous school.

I did. Yeah, I hundred percent was going to do that. That was a good way to go back to to the infinity. But when into the program, they ran at fort sill, again, run by some ranger's regiment guys, the program to get selected to go arrange school. Unfortunate I was.

So you get picked up a ranger school fast for a little bit. The book after the benning phase, those that remained moved to nearby camp arby. Densely wooded with forest broken by creek bottoms and swarms.

Darby is located in a remote corner for benning. IT was named after the hero of the ranger regiment and founder of the rangers during world war two, bridger general William o. darby.

At camp arby. We made, we began long foot patrols and constant cycle of range emissions that ran on for days, keeping us tired and hungry. We Carried weapons, black amunition, heavy packs and scant food through the winning heat of the days and the cold nights of the georgia november.

The growling patrols at camp darby proceeded, preceded by the first weeks of physical trading contest, the bending phase of ranger school. Though the benning phase was primarily designed to cut the class size down by attrition, an I made the grade on the first patrols, a camp army, and successfully continued onto the next phase of ranger school in the mountains of north atlantic and the frigid swamp's of florida. Not only our ranger students pushed physically through forest and mountain marches, but they are constant on edge, being assessed and graded around the clock by the rangers instructors.

The is are veteran rangers whose job IT is to teach military skills and constantly monitor students for weakness or failure to maintain standards. During each phase of the course, ranger students rotate through the jobs of leading patrols and raids, with each position carefully assessed and graded. Arranger stood must not only make IT physically to the end of the phase, but must pass the our eyes formal grading and assessment in order to proceed further on in the course.

Additionally, the ranger student must make the grade in the eyes of his fellow students. This test comes in the form of a pure evaluation survey, ranking each student in the group, with the bottom ten percent being cut at the end of each phase. This becomes a lottery, with the pool growing smaller as time goes on, a reality that keeps the ranger student constantly on edge.

Do they cut the bottle? I thought, I thought I was like, if somebody gets ranked the bottom a bunch of times and row, they get rid of them. I didn't know. They just slipped off the bottom ten percent.

What is I recall? Yeah, that was the bottom at a ten tent. Guy would get, would get there. He would either get a mark against him to get moved to another bottom and but again, at stack up against you and everybody's accumulating different demerits or Marks against him and just another one and neck, he moved out your squad and can really such a back. So it's tough.

And then the other course tough part about IT that is in the first couple of phases mean you're get rid of the the guys that need to go the dir beg or but it's left is pretty competent. And so now you've got to go through the competent guys and cut the bottom and you but the people aren't done. And so you start to rig things mathematically. And I take the best guy ranking tenant yeah. So anyway, there are some things you can work, but it's still it's a lot of pressure and you don't know and it's you got to build coalitions and it's it's an interesting dynamic to .

a period of elsa. Yeah from guys that i've talked to, basically they say that you are a good guy and a good guy. Okay, put me rank me last this time.

I'll rank you next last time. Echo, and that way none of us are getting cut. But if we actually don't like someone, oh, and there are a rt back, we can just put them at the bottom and their gone, which is pretty.

I think that's, I think that's great. Yeah, yeah. How much weight did you lose going through range school?

I lost, I mean, and I don't have a lot to lose going in, so I lost good twenty some pounds. yeah.

And what did you think a radio school compared to now you've been through all these other courses. You you spent four years at the city did nine plants of that please, or nob situation um this must be you must be pretty freaking tough to annoy at this point. You bring must take any .

big yeah I mean, good thing. I was so Young, I didn't know any Better. Know, I thought that this life was so now that I know that's not the case and not sure have been so easy, but actually ranger school was really good cultivation because I could put a lot of the mental chAllenges from the city ital together, a lot of the physical chAllenges from infinity school.

And you know, again, it's at two o'clock in the morning, and they just give you A A change for the mission, and you've got to figure things out and get people move in. And number is asleep. It's when you gotta really reach down as you know, and and motivate yourself and then motivate everybody else. And so there was a good IT good, almost culminating event to build her, to put those skills together. So because, again, it's very physical and very mental all the same time in your school.

Is any major chAllenge as well? You there, did you make IT .

through in one shot? I did make IT through in one shot, which is really fortunate and most people don't. But that's not bragging because I I get thing up on the way with quite a few, quite a few demireps and get saved a couple times by people.

And so I but I think my strength was that that I did well on patrols. And so you know, also learn kind of that eat those to the more you help other people, the more you help yourself, you know and that's a good thing. So I I was in tune in to that. So I didn't make IT through, but I got quite a few demirci and right ups and so I was stress .

now you end up getting orders to, uh, second infrared e division in south korea yeah and just .

kind of go back to one of the other points. The army told me so I I wanted to go to the lightest inventory unit that I could go to. Where does the army want to send me to a land's missal?

The time, which is like like going to NASA and I wasn't have any of that. So i'll use the citation network, found a civil coronal, I said, and I just to go to a place with light inventory, I, so we get the slot in career. So I took that. So, so that was the first learning. I learned my lesson there and set the conditions and told the army where I was gonna.

So that was good. You will make that happen. Um you arrive in korea, it's ninety ninety and that's that's kind of a good place to go at this time frame. You know being on the dmz, this is good as gna get in ninety .

that time at that months place to go to face off the north. And there was no wars going on at that time.

Course, by August of nineteen ninety. You know, in the book here you talk about IT, who saying, vae await, uh, now you end up securing a spot in the eighty second airborne because you're manuvers you you seem to be on some manufacturing to try to get to go to war.

Yeah, definitely army came down, said, no boy's live in in career, you know, going to stay stabilize. The eric is a mission, but I wasn't having any that. So I the army was deploying after the storm.

I was work in the system and work in the system. And again, I wasn't going to letting by IT down. I was going to make sure that IT, because I knew the army would say one thing.

And then that there was reality underneath. And in reality, they had more guys come in. My replacement was common, and so why should mean in my replacement will sit there? And so I would stay in very tune on that.

I was up at two clock in the morning, come back to dc and and worked. So I got my way all the way down to a unit that was already deployed in as a storm. And then and then, you know, life had the lord had other plans.

Me, yeah, the other plans was that you had screen for or applied to be a to go to to go to arrange regime, right? And is sort of at the same time, you get both sets of orders offered to you. And you go in the book here, what I take, the orders I had in hand to go to war with the eighty second or airborne, or follow my original dream and join a ranger italian convinced none of this was happening by chance, and bolstered by my belief that there could not be a war without the rangers, the arm's spearhead combat unit, I accept the assignment to join thr battle, an seventy fifth ranger regiment. So your thought was, well, eighty second airborne, you know, there are ready there but if i'm going to range, of course .

i'm .

and you .

were wrong.

I was wrong over a little too quick for that.

Yeah in third berti have been lined up for a special Operation to secure the U. S. Embassy in some hostages in when that when so i'm saying let those people go the third patti, I came off that hope but but the other battles already lined up to to go and so we were we .

did not go um fast for a little bit in the book. You say we spent the next few few months of watching the returning soldiers of the regular army strike around for bending brahm, pointing at their combat locals and asking us, where were you? We knew this was a one off the regular army, and that at some point that the nine eleven call would come in again and the fire bell would ring for us. Meanwhile, the rangers return to cycle of weekend, week out training like we are going to the super poll. So that had that had the state .

or that's done by still things. It's still things. But I I had a great, a great story though, on same Patrick day, savana, georgia is a huge, huge event of population, city doubles and one first range of chance in savana.

I was in third, so I went down there to watch the parade. And first range of beta always has a company. March in the parade.

Well, in that parade, all the desert storm guys were there and and they literally like run around and head their heads on sideways. And I, I mean, really kind of clown IT IT up you. But but just jubilant that they were home so good on him.

But then after the clown show kind of passes by, the crowd is hushed and you could hear marching. And here comes a company from from first patient with bain that's marching by. I mean, just look in fantastic. And somebody the crowd said, here come the real fighter and so that that kind of point me back again really is really cool.

Now before you got here today, I was I was down on ecology. That life of a ranger, the data day life of arranger is about as spartan ah as you can find in the U. S. military. Talk to us a little bit so you're now and range of italian what's what's that like what's day to day life like yeah .

for the whole bataan for the whole unit that's it's a hundred percent focused on the mission. I mean, get ready for training, but that training is focused on being ready to go. Um you're on an eighteen hour notice that that's a rotation can like farming in a firehouse waiting for the builder ing.

So the bataan road take that responsibility but they they have responsibility bill respond in eighteen hours so that's really incredible timeline to have to meet. When I say respond, that means in an aircraft wheel up going down range to a mission. And so you literally have to be like thirty minutes response to get to your unit and get your stuff and go.

And that rotates but that's that's a big party, your life. And so IT really you really have to be a hundred percent dedicated to IT. Um there's no I don't feel good today.

There's no hey, my kids birthday today so I can come isn't none of that. And the range of the tian has has to be like the rest of the army is not like that the rest of the mail. Yeah, that's right.

So that's why that's why the rangers, most rangers don't stay in for allowing ing period time. And when you meet a guy that's been in the like of met guys that we're in rangers for twenty two years and they're just like hard, there are type of human right there. They live in the same way like a sparrow for twenty years.

So yeah and I A great point because you all meet some to say I did four years in the army or four years and the reform, and I good, good on you, but that's not that huge thing. But if I meet somebody that said they in beta, I don't care if they're in there for three years or thirty years. I mean, you were in batti and so that's that's a different, different lifestyle.

And I would say, again, I was a lip tenant, so know I had to meet all those standards, I to confirm that. But again, I was more treaty, little more of like a gentleman, we would say. But the private, the Young guys that are there, it's it's just like the guys that the city that, except they are getting smoke physically around the clock and they GTA be completely dedicated.

So you're right, hundred percent. It's the primal, spartan lifestyle. And that goes on for them similarly for like a year until they go to ranger school and when they graduate ranger school and come back with the tab, then they started get treated more like a human. But it's there was a year of that for those guys like my head is after Young guys raised in the time.

no doubt. And then my fast forward little bit. In one thousand nine hundred ninety two, coronal dave grade, junior, took over the commander of the seventy fifth range regiment, and a fast pace training cycle became even more intense.

Coral grain was the son of one of the arm's legendary generals, cornal grain. His father, who had a general dave grain senior, was an empty officer and three war U. S.

Army veteran who cast a long shadow. His son, dave grain junior, was intensely competitive and strove to equal, if not out due his father's legacy by one thousand and ninety two. He was well on his way.

Having served as a recomputation une leader with the eighty second airborn in vietnam, then becoming a special forces officer and later an army pilot, dave grain junior had a career path not even possible in today's army, one that represents quite accomplishment as a cap. And dave grains junior commanded the company from the first range of beta that had gone into iran and one hundred and eighty as part of Operation eagle claw. He next tried out for the army's elite and secretive special forces Operational detachment delta and was selected to service as one of its senior officers and experience veteran iron man triathlete and inspiring leader.

There were few men who could equal kernel l ranges reputation or drive as the seventy fifth ranger regiment commander. Kernel range made IT clear that chief among his priorities was to get the ranger battles into action and take on america's enemies. So he just comes in steps up .

even more was incredible. You want to turn a free train into a bullet train. That's that's what happened in, and at least in the life, the tempo that we had as you would go to the field, you come back and then no, you might have a what we will go little downtime like maybe go into the range and doing some training and think. But none of that even compared doing branch came in. And so I mean, we literally were load aircraft like to europe, light korea line to south amErica and come back back and cleaning gear and then loaded the next aircraft and going again, I was just a unbelievabl Epace.

And by the way, you say you fw, going on aircraft and food somewhere, you jumped, we just jumping everywhere yeah .

that was not a commercial flight that was getting into A C one forty one um and I love to see seventeen today, but again, it's nothing compared to the one forty one as far as you know. Comfort did see one forty one as you, as you will know, was just a medal, two with a with a net. And we would pack guys in so tight. I mean, you literally compressed and you heard your girl stack on you. And then you'd at some point, hours and hours and hours into that flight, you would have to make enough room to to wiggle into your parachute strap IT on and then hook up and paris shoot out IT was just unbelievable experience.

no doubt about IT. Um you guys are portion real hard and and you say this in the book and variably during intense realistic training, their accidents in the swelling does of nava that fall be camp lost ranger surgeon Geoffrey palmer, who is absolutely shot when he crossed into the fire of another of of other rangers. So you guys are pushing hard live fire.

There's another training mission you talk about. The great all make the trail aircraft of this formation was the U. S. Air force special Operations helicopter could containing a number of key leaders to include the user for squad commander and the commander of the first Angel patteran reta corneal can styles with styles in the helicopter.

With styles in the helicopter was my commander from third range of batan john ki, my son joon john carney there to observe and provide feedback, bringing up the rear of the tight formation flying under night vision goggles, the U. S. Air force pilots could not design the cause way, and struck at at over one hundred miles an hour causes the aircraft craft to crash into the lake, killing most the U.

S. Service men on board. Macular sly, one of the U. S. Air force pilots, survived the crash floating in the lake until is rescued by legendary range dramatic doc donovan. Don evan had been monitoring the exercise at a nearby air force space, waiting for the live fire to begin. But upon the learning of the crash, he rushed the waters, had seen the.

Seeing the burning aircraft about a mile, he commented, red, a tiny ruber boat, and paddled through the darkness and frigid waters to the work in time to save the struggling pilot. John kenly had not only been a commander, but a mentor to many of the junior officers, and his loss was a hard one. These are not the only losses suffered in training by the ranger met regiment that year.

More rangers were killed that year during intense training. The most units lost in combat during desert storm. Yeah um push the envelope on that training.

Yeah I think that that says at all and and we were as careful and all that as we could be. But you paramount above safety and we were going to be practical and safe, right? But paramount about safety was we were going to build accomplish the task that we had to do in combat as realistically as possible. So there wasn't any well, it's too dangerous to if we had to do in combat, we were we were going to rehear IT. And unfortunately, tragically, you lose guys and so that's .

what happened yeah there's definitely a very fine line to walk when you when you in charge training and because you have to push hard, you have to make sure that the guys already executed combat. And when your shooting life fire, you find at a helicopter ers your fast roping, your para shooting, your diving like everything that you're doing is risking every single one of those things and you have to take some level of risk to to train properly and be ready. Otherwise you're going to go in the battle field and you're not going to be effective. Actually, by the way, again, this this information get get a book um you metal a woman during the june block leave in one hundred and ninety three bath and I were married at sixteen hundred hours and another range of her friend of mine, capt. In jim clingman, married his bride cafe at eighteen hundred dollars is pretty funny so you guys are going on block leave and everyone to go live up and get marry actually yeah .

yes because we all went on leave with the same same two weeks together and so that calendar filled up. You just have the picture. You get your time.

Slade of the chapel and got, yeah again, because I was an officer, I got a little more downtime in the average danger. And so when I had time, I go in town, met, but he was a local there in columnist, georgian. And about six months later, we get, we get marry again.

So much stuff, the great, great information to hear. But i'm fast forward little bit. The U. S. LED.

United nations mission to feed starving refugees in the chaotic, failed state of had begun with, begun with initial invasion by U. S. Troops in december one thousand hundred and ninety two under the orders of president George H.

W. H. The mission had achieved initial success securing the key cities of kismet and bio in the capital moga issue once U. S.

Troops had become established on the ground, the rival somali militias faded in the background, and the state was set for the U. N. To provide humAnitarian aid to the starving.

In addition to the food and relief supplies, the U. S. LED coalition was able to bring relative stability to some of the major somali cities. By early february.

The initial mission with its objectives of humAnitarian relief had been achieved, but by this time, president bush had left office under his successor at bill clinton. The mission soon began to change. Pressed by the U. N. Secretary general for aggressive disarmament of the somali militias and embolden by early successes and relative ease of securing the country, clinton began to gradually implement a plan for nation building to attempt to reestablish a modern civil society in somalia. How much attention will you paint at that?

Just a little bit because, again, we were trained in flying, going on all these different countries, but in but at the same time, we always looking to see there anything that we can get in, anything that we can that make pop up for us. And so kind of similar as the storm we watched units roll out to somalia to go do this peacekeeping thing, this humAnitary relief ing engineer units, all that we were kind of hope.

And and then months and months won't buy and nothing happened. And so we just can't faded into the background. And so not as much get got a little bit by surprise. It's interesting.

I had guys in here that were in the naval academy or at west point in like one thousand hundred and sixty five thousand thousand and sixty, they even know anything about the like. IT was just so off the RAID alpha guys until, I guess I was like one thousand nine hundred sixty five battle. I drink valley, but that's where I would really started to hit the news. But people weren't even thinking about IT. Yeah, they on't even talking about IT.

So yeah, the chance of being thinking about soma um however, summer in one thousand nine hundred ninety three, over in somalia, two american huz huz had been ambushed in four us troops have been killed today that news would barely make the headlines but one thousand nine hundred ninety three, after decades of relative peace, this is a major event that ripped through the nation as we SAT our tents absorb that news. Our complete matter came in looking. Crest phone, a special Operations task force, was being formed before brag, north CarOlina a to deal with the determination situation in somalia.

And third, batti have been ordered to send a one ranger company to join that task force. Our neighbor's in bravo company have been selected for the mission. That news hit us, an alpha company, with shock and wave of disappointment.

But I barely had time to absorb IT as a runner arrived with a message from the patan headquarters. I was being urgently called to report the battery commander, lutanist al, next night. Not having time to think about what was going on, I heard off to the viti headquarters tent. There's a real hard thing for people to understand, for civilians to understand that a call comes in that one company from the the time is going to war and you're not that company and just how past your .

kind of and again, it's the difference between a ranger special option unit in the regular military. I mean, that's that's why we're there. They're waiting for that. And that's a really interesting passage.

And and again, in a couple that two a couple of of things that happened in my life, such as career getting diverted to the range of the time from eighty second of the absolute last second. And this it's it's beyond as I talk about, it's beyond just coincidence. It's beyond just playing. It's coming into alignment because my we're going to talk about my counterpart and b company had just had just departed four hours before to go home on emergency leave. And so that just that window opportunity is so small at the beyond coincidence?

yes. So there you go. You get called into the the patent commander of danamon night greeted me kori, both an area of seriousness when I arrived, that is ten, as I knocked and walked.

And he asked me, are you ready? When I immediately gave him the standard danger answer, who is r he quickly got to the point make night, informed me that the u tenant, who was my fire support counterpart and the company, had departed for place just hours before and gone on a home for a family emergency bravo company, would be departing to join the task force now, assembling a four brag in a few hours. The batti commander then informed me that I would be his replacement.

So very go fast forward, little bit the tension and excitement and how you're going to go get with bravo company. The tension and excited and bravo company were palpable as preparations for departure were underway. I checked in with the company commander, captain mike steel, and his first surgeon, glen Harris.

Captain steel was a hawking former college football player. He'd been a starting line man at offence of tackle for the university of georgia when harold Walker received the eisman trophy and they had won the college national championship in the one thousand nine hundred and eighty one sugar table. I D only deal with mike deal a couple of times back at for bending where he'd been on the bittern staff before he took over a command of gravel company. He had a reputation for being grouped and stubborn, but also for being a completely dedicated ranger. So you knew him.

I did yeah get from check from staff work. So I went over to meet the company commander to be his right hand man for our support. Meet the first third try to agree to the company. That was all happened and very fair.

And like you said, it's happening fast. Next thing you guys want to to see one, see one forty one you hadn't do the joint special Operations command j soc, and you are onna, go and integrate with delta.

That's right. yeah. So I i'd move from a company and and we were on a deployment on exercise. And so in the middle, that exercise move over to be company, literally pick up my gear, my pack and govern, get in line and get on the plane and then we fly into four brag and and started and linking up with with the delta at break.

And then how's that you you talk about the integration with delta as you guys show up there. So mean, let me give a little precursor. A delta guy has been in for a long time, right? Um they get obviously the best training in the world.

They're highly selected. And there I mean just straight up alter, you know and so rangers, like we are talking about, these kids can be eighteen years. You you going to be in a ranger of the time and be teen years old. And and there's a lot of rangers that are one hundred thousand and twenty years old, Young. A lot of them are on their first enlistment.

No may've been in the army for two, three, four years, at least the the front line rangers, every deltona guys been in the army for ten years or so, much longer puter time, right? So immediately there's a little bit of a just a discrepancy on on that. You just got two different cultures, the other big cultural differences, rangers are frequent as we talked about just spartan a troopers right and delta their professionals and they have more training, more experience and they have more um liberty with how they Operate.

sure. So that's to kind of set up what you are walking into. sure.

Is that accurate? Yeah oh yeah, hundred percent actually. And I I would also agree with the point, emphasize maturity. There's a lot of maturity there are with with delta. And then there was also more of a hierarchical thing and it's a literal and a figure of in those days, you even the rangers, we're going to fight alongside what we don't talk about delta. You can even discuss delta is so secret and so you know kind of black that you can even talk about IT.

And so we were trying to discuss amounts ourselves and what do you think the mission is? I mean, how they how are they? We're trying to figure things out.

We're learnings was to discuss IT. And so that's kind of how so almost like an oppressive heat. You know, there was so such a black thing that we can even discuss IT.

And I can see in retrospect now I mean, that's that's a very difficult professionally, that's a very difficult way to integrate into a team. If you are that. In the dark, literally, about how somebody works, what they want you to do. And then we show up and and were trying .

to integrate. Yeah then like red out of the gay again year, they are treat you guys like, okay, this is what we're gona do. Here's we going to hit the target. You're like what target? Yeah you know like you guys literally did not have any information and it's it's it's it's a rough kind of out of the gay um integration.

I would say yeah very much so. And it's it's a really interesting study in in the dynamics of organization. So we knew that there had been a mission being considered for somalia special Operations mission from couple months now.

We were basically aware of that we had been briefed on and but we knew that they were looking at some sort of special Operations mission. And obviously, delta was aware specifically aware of that. They were read onto IT and they were training forward and they were making their plan.

But we as b company, three, seven, five, had not been brief from that plane at all. And again, there was this this culture of, well, you can even say the word delta, you can even discuss that so um we show up on the range at four brag. They didn't know that.

They thought, oh, we've been beef ed and we were planning already ready to go. And so they're like we're going to live here right now. We don't even know what we life on.

We don't even know the mission is. So just some organizational frictions right out of the gate difficulties overcommitment. And so we .

dug into IT and started, yes, it's just the combat experience and lack of combat experience because no one had I mean, I don't know what don't know what percentage of delhi guys at this on this Operation had like a ton of combat experience I doubt was lut sure they might had some lingering one thousand nine hundred ninety three.

You know, vietnam ended in in what? One hundred and seventy one, seventy two, seventy three or couple people still there. But a lot of those guys were either very, very senior or they'd retired or gotten out or whatever.

So like in the seal teams, we had very few vietnam guys left when I got there in nineteen and ninety. And so having guys with combat experience, and we had guys that have been in desert storm right and back then, we would look at IT like they had combat experience. me.

Now I look at IT like it's a different thing. It's a different level of combat experience. It's like someone that had been in a street fight. There is someone that was a professional lama, a fight, you know, like the street fighter, you you the guy has been a street fight, okay, cool one time versus someone that trains every every day. And that's what you know, what what we end up getting for combat experience in the global war on terror. So again, I think there's a lot of a lot of things that you learn in war that probably were not front of mind at this time with anybody in the military.

Yeah I hundred person agree with its as you said, as we we've deployed now for decades, there's just trends and things about combat that we know intuitively that we just didn't know back then. And so I think the number one thing is you can never make an assumption. You can make an assumption that that somebody he's going to know something and understand something, you know, get everybody in the same pages is really, really key.

Yeah yeah. So you go through this and you go through this. You guys go through a spend up and a stand down and spend up and a stand down and just, uh, echo are going for launching now stand down as I got no where not going spend up, but no launch.

And this happens a lot and IT definite happened in the nineties lot and you guys you go through that a bunch of and again, it's really great to your your debrief s and hear about this integration and the chAllenges and the rehearsals and how you guys find me get kind of unified about what you're doing. And meanwhile, this whole thing is spin up, stand down, stand up, stand down. And you you can actually get stood down to the point where they go OK. This is not happening and they put you all on aircraft and send you back to texas like this is not happening.

We did all that training for a couple weeks and get briefed on the plan, made our plan, and then life fired IT and did IT over and over and over again at me once the training, training get going. And IT was IT was very good. We rehearsal from all angles. And all a sudden the commander brought us in and said, kate scratched and and that's kind of a fairly red Normal thing, not out of the ordinary special Operations. So we get back on birds and food back texas.

You guys get back there, you say, as I walked in alpha company area and began to settle in providing short answers to all inquiries, just as we have been directed, but before we could unpack our rocks. And what was now becoming a pattern in this drama, a messenger arrived from britain headquarters, a new order to come from washington. We were to immediately rejoined b company.

The mission was ago, but there are also more changes. Additional rangers from first portal alpha company had been cut by officials in washington saying, good, quick to a disappointed first bottle e and my F, O. Sergeant lesson er, we headed back to join b company.

Within hours, we were again reloading the waiting U. S. Air force transport aircraft and were soon flying back across country to four brag. So there's a couple of things that I I mentioned there, which I had mentioned yet, but there was actually an additional ranger platoon have been to add IT on.

So they're going to have a little bit of bigger force, uh, that means you to have just more ground, right? Combat power point. And that got cut.

And there are some other things that kick cut which which will talk about, i'm sure, fast for a little bit. I had not completely digested the shocking excitement of last few days with all the dramatic ups and downs. Just over two months ago i'd been single.

Now I was married with a baby on away. And instead of had heading to a classroom room at four betting georgia, I was with b company and task force ranger about to embark on the auto city of my life. Fast fd.

The next day, the entire task force was broken down into groups of deployment checks, then moved to the airfield aboard buses driven by personnel from support personnel from delta fast ford, almost immediately after the c. Five took off when the engines had a mechanical failure. So now you guys have to land.

You have to get a delay and you end up being the last a aircraft. And fast forward, finally, near the end of August, the huge transport touched down on the warm runway and into the reality of mog issue. So you finally show up there.

Yeah, the good the good news was even though we got jerk around a lot once we got back to texas and get off the plane, but they immediately told to go on the train, didn't stop then I mean, once we got back on the birds and flood brag, we're only a brag like twenty four hours. And IT was all the same stuff of guitar. Last minute shots, Rachel.

Last letter, hand that to the chaplain and get on the sea. Five and o so that train moved pretty quickly. And that was, that was good. That was a good part.

Yeah, it's wild again thinking about the the war on terror uptempo like you know here we are talking up miss the world coming from washing this was just a day life know during the war on tair what was happened um and it's funny too because when I was a Young CEO in the nineties, everything was about training for what we call the big mission, one mission right like we would hope and pray to be able to get one mission, the mission, the big mesh we call IT uh which was which was actually uh A A mindset that we had to change because we realized you once the war started is not one mission that's it's gonna night after night after night after night that's what we do on marathon um by August twenty six the entire task force that arrived in moga issue in the talk.

We soon met major general bill garson, who is the commander of joint special Operations command. IT would now command the overall effort of task force, the same leaders who assembled with us at four brag lta kernel at night, the third range of preti commander, leta kernel hero, the sea squad commander and coronal boykin commanding delta, each had his role to play and would assist major general gerson. But the overall responsibility command was his, you give a good description.

Total text. He was a guy was in vietnam, in the hoenig program. He helped found out to under a cornel backwards. And then you talk a little bit about some of the other um kind of add hawk things that we're going on. Our primary intelligence collection platform was A U S A V P three o yan and I some rain warfare plane.

So this is some of the integration issues that we have is like all the sudden we ve got this random now again, of course, the U. S. A V P, ryan, anti smart warfare.

They're awesome at anti submarine warfare, right? And that's their perspective. That's what we're looking for and .

we're asking them to do something different yeah this is actually one of the reasons I wrote the book and and it's uh you know not to be the the the critic but to show how things were back then because there are a lot different than they are today and the good news story will talk about this. The good news story is the U. S.

Military is used this and really, specially j sac, and really evolved to the capability, really gone back and look at what we did wrong and really fix things. And so one of the aspects of IT was IT was really a pickup team. And even though we did a lot of training and we tried that, we thought we were integrated.

We weren't integrated at all. And so really, we didn't in integrate with delta. The range company didn't in integrate with delta until we showed up a four break that first time.

And so just a couple weeks before, and now you start going to the test force level and build that task force capability that was really a pick up team. Guys had never worked together before. And to the extreme point, to bring a very professional air crew in from those that p three iron.

But nowhere in they are training that they ever dream they're going to be hunting some somali gentle to the streets. They were looking for russian submarine. So did almost a bizarre up aspect to the test force. But again, I don't mind criticizing and bring those words out because jx really learned and really built an incredible capability based on a lot of these shortcomings.

Fast for a little, but you guys get murdered. One tf. Soldier gets wounded. Uh, the actual talk gets a, gets around on the roof and you right? As a fire supporter, part of me was perversely thrilled to be murdered for the first time I tried to respond. You, professor.

yeah, right. You know, again, I was only my, still my twins. But this when I focused on since I was, no, since DNA, basically.

And so I was, I was, the whole thing was just a fantasti C2Be the re. You know, everybody y's, everybody y's only fear instead of getting killed, our fear was we're going to get cut and sent home. Um so he was the whole whole thing was just like a once in a lifetime .

thing yeah you have the feeling of like we're so good yeah and we're so awesome and we have such great firepower and we trained so much and will just you know this is going to be for a lack of Better words that can be easy for us. We're going to go and high five and will knock out these Operations and it'll be no factor yet.

That's a great point. We talk about a little bit in the book, but you know you're data day experience or or executing these Operations is so much confidence, so much of a feeling of like you just said, they were with delta and they're the best in the world. And we we just won this big war against iraq and and crush them, and we ve got more firepower in technology.

And so actually took a lot of effort to be a professional and sit back and say, and I hold on the menu, gets a vote. And so what happens if, and what happens if we get in this bad situation and you actually had people like, or why are you thinking about that? Why do you think about get nabulsi? Are you thinking about, you know what, I can be surrounded when I going to get their aircraft shutdown and people like pushing back on IT. So I took a lot of professional effort to really go through contingencies, overcome that. That who said you could say.

yeah, that's one of my main complaints about politicians is they think that they think everything you just said, like of this war that we're about, the start is going to go exactly how we plan and that's what's gona happen, right? And when we get bogged down and you fast for it's been two decades like you, no one thought of this. No one thought that we might get bog down.

It's it's totally ridiculous and yet that that stuff happens and that attitude of like, you know sort of what do you worried about you know, when you come to me and say what the phone of our aircraft goes down and and I go, I quickly in a WIP like what you talking about? What are you scared yeah like that you know, no one wants to be called a coward and when you say, hey, what about a contingency for a vehicle getting blown up? Are you worried about told out no factor OK one vehicle gets bone up, couple two vehicles get blown up.

And then where are we like having the where we fall to ask those questions of like no, how long this doesn't make sense. And there's definitely stories i've heard where no one in the room, people in the room had the thought, but they were they didn't want to raise their hand and be be the coward to say, will held hold on the second why we do in this or wait a second, what if this happens? So yeah, like you said, IT takes a whole level of professionalism, especially in the nineties. IT would be hard for a guy that grew up in the, you know, guy that joined in two thousand and two that just meant, you know, his old career or war. IT be hard for them to reverse their mindset into .

like that nineties .

mentality or for me with the ninety s mentality. You guys get ordered and you immediately, like you say, the tf began a mejor reaction um what they send a tune, rangers out on patrol, they don't run in anything. And then there are some intel comes in and that we're gonna launch um a mission against the harbor gaiter.

I saying that right? Yes, harbor gaiter, which is like a clan type group and in the S N A, which is somali national alliance, you guys can go out and do a hit. You had them until you get these coordinate.

There's guy draws up the the sketch of where what you're going to go do and then boom, you go out and you go load up your crap and of fast for and through some of the stuff super sixty four that your bird, you're going to be harder and fast for a little bit. This would be the first real world mission for many of us. Fortunately, the past with few hitches.

By the time we sorted out the render blocking positions in the dark, the delta Operators were well into the current of the buildings. The rangers establish the parameter, and we call glimpses in the dark of the delta Operators moving around the target building. They soon emerged with a handful of prisoners blind folded and with their hands tied with plastic flex cuffs.

The single intimately melt against the world, guarded by delta Operators as the clearing teams began to come out of the target building. After about thirty minutes on the ground, the delta a had completely cleared. Had the building completely cleared, the smaller prison secured, and we're prepared to move.

The decision was then made to extract the entire force on helicopters, which would land in a smaller in court yard fast for a little bit. After a short flight back, we landed in the still dark airfield. Streaming off the aircraft, the key leaders broke off and quickly moved toward the talk to conduct our post mission hot wash brief while the rest of the Operators and rangers headed to the hanger.

Our somali prisoners have been lifted out before the assault force immediately formed to the airfield. They had been processed to move to a small razor wire enclosure. A js into the hanger mood in the talk was calm and almost anti climatic.

The U. N. Headquarters had responded to the RAID with a surprising report that identified our prisoners in as U. N. Workers and that what we had hit was their office.

Yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. So yeah, a couple things there are. Obviously our mission was to go over there and try to neutralize the the leadership of the somalis that were pushing back on the on the U.

N. effort. And IT wasn't all the somalis. IT was actually only one tribe out of five that was LED by marmar did so. That tribe was the harper together, who were taken over a half a million people in that try moga issue. And their political and military group was the somali national lions, and indeed was ahead of IT.

So the mission going and capture him and that the national level leadership thought that if they did that, the man would collapse the resistance. I mean, we knew that wasn't the case, but again, we we weren't going to argue, we just wanted to go. But the the interesting thing about this too, again, from the ninetieth perspectives.

Sm, in all special Operators, now I think you're so used to go in and everything so developed, you get your intel systems in place and you get your targets developed and you go and start picking and choose and and hitting and things. Well, that wasn't the case here. And we started from like not even a cold start, and we basically had to take the intelligence list from the the regular U.

N. And regular U. S. Army units that were there and say, where do you guys think the enemies that and they gave us this, listen.

And this is in the first couple days in the ground before we get our systems in place. And we learned how to do IT, because there was a lot of learning going on back then how to do this targeting. And so basically, they gave us this listed in the top place was this this legal gado compound.

And we hit that only to find out that he was owned by the somali national alliance when they would run IT out to the U. N. In the day. So ah just kind of a crazy situation trying a new sorter way through that. But again, I look at today versus then, I mean, we just did not have an intelligence system in place and we were trying to get IT in place and learn how to do IT, which would be very form. And I think anybody and special Operations would go somewhere today.

Yeah, I always tell a story about my first limit to iraq and baghdad. And we went out and, you know, we have mission, task and calm. And I get the, I get the map and there's a, you know, satellite imaging shot and there were red x on the building like this. What we're going to hit and i'm like call, we go hit the building and we hit the building and it's like a totally Normal person's house and but we start talking to those people that go, oh, we know what you're looking for, go two doors down and and so we hit building two doors down.

We find I D making material all that but I come back from that Operation and I said to myself, and I said in my little guy, I like who put this red here, who who who put this reaction on this building and they're like, well, we got IT from them and I, okay, so I went to, I just follow that right chain until I found the guy and he was like A E four intel guy, right? That had been told to put together the thing and he pulled the a you through various sources. But when he told me how he put the redesign that building IT was very obvious that I wasn't corrupted properly and he could have easily CoOperated IT.

But he didn't. He just was like, you know, he had to get that done. And hey, the things do until he put the red axon boom, sent IT up the chain boat. Here I was an went cool that guys will go get up. And so that's a lesson that I learned that I never made that mistake again.

Not that we never hit the wrong target building is sometimes things would happen, but for the most part, I knew the reason I knew who put the red x on a building. yeah. And this is a very important thing.

But that wasn't pass to me. That's not lesson you've got passed down. I try and pass IT on hopefull someone listen, this podcast right now goes that makes sense. But what happens when you what is the night and you get tasked with hit the target, but you don't care where that target came from? I would.

but that's that's a great point too. Like you said, the more of things changed, the more they stay the same. So even even with our religious of bus systems in place.

Just like you, we've all got stories like that. That's a great point. And it's just again, it's I Carry that with me. All my career is verify where this came from. Figure out what there.

You know why they said this should be the target, pull that string because the more you pull that string and IT and its on you was a commander to do IT. When I was that Young, I didn't know that he had to go verify and kind of check other people's work. But if you really get a kick the door.

you got got to check everybodys work, no fast for a little, but you say, while the media grief, ly described our first rate as a quote und Operation, and the U. N. Expressed their displeasure, major general garson into the patients, step back and exercise mature direction, the task force had reacted in part to a deed, goes with the murder and probes, and had failed to immediately grasp the subtleties of tracking him in the city.

We quickly realized that on this type of Operation, there would be no looming force to assault or flags to capture, only careful study of patterns and vulnerabilities, while waiting on opportunities for a quick strike would lead to success. This would be accomplish by continuing to weave our intelligence net, casting IT throughout the city and building a picture of where to find a deed day after day, week after week. Fast forward a little bit.

September six, we received a promising lead. As usual, the birds with the delta assault teams landed first, followed closely by ranger, black, cox and landing delt. Operators cleared the bill and again, get the box. You can get the details of this stuff, uh, smalls began to react.

They come looking, and now you get kind of your first contacts RPG some heavy automatic weapons, a fast for little with the ranger or patos response, with violent and overwhelming with fifty caller machine guns and mark one thousand nine hundred ade launchers trading a small ly position. The short, almost one sided exchanges have been the first real contact for the rangers. One of the rangers in the convoy, specialist joe harasser, received a light wound into to the leg.

Gent mike pringle, standing the third of a vital commander on b, had his helmet spd around by a machine gun bullet. Later, intelligence confirmed I did had been there, but avoided captured. So you can get your first contact.

Yet we're closing in and started.

Puts some pressure. And the weird thing about contact like that is for most people, IT doesn't make you feel more vulnerable. IT makes you feel less vulnerable, right? Like, oh, look what we did. They took their best shot and we .

were able to come .

out on top. 嗯。 What was the opp temple just talk about because i'm kind of skip in. I'm that what was the optimal?

So isn't continuous flow of intelligence coming in as we develop our system Better in our network out there getting all kinds of reports and some of them would start to get traction like there might be a meeting here today, he might be at this house tonight. We might know where he's going to drive this afternoon. And so that was continually starting mature.

And as A A mission would start to Crystalize you, they started to say, okay, it's looking Better and Better. That is going to come to this meeting. And we start the test force would start to to strap up, get everything on, move towards the aircraft, then waited on you what we call trigger.

Now on on something to launched. The mission for sure is going to be there and the conditions are set. We go in, but there's a continuous process of you're in the talk, you're watching the intel, you're making a plan, okay? It's not going to work on another, another, another report, and we will start doing the same thing in that.

And these will get to different levels of maturity. And then sometimes we would actually launch um so continues kind of roller coaster r of stand up, stand down, stand up, stand down and even to watch the intel is very fluid. And so you know, again, one of things we talked about and take IT takes a lot of patients.

And IT was very easy to to say, let let's go breach that place and go in guns blaze and just IT just to expend some energy, you know. But IT takes a lot of patients to let things develop in. That's only thing that I learned.

Gentle grisson, as you mention, very good at that. Very good at be impatient. He had plenty combat under his belt, so he did never improve.

But now we were all to said, why we just go strike this target, we can see something there. IT was a patience game, and that's what the APP tempo was like. In addition to that, we learned that we were a helicopter born assault force.

And so when the helicopter force would take off out of the airfield, everybody knew something was going on. In order to reduce that signature, they'd have us fly, no matter what, two or three times a day. And so that was a blast, and that was IT was a lower cost to ride flying a rooftop level around that city two or three times a day, sitting on the side of black cock for the best pilots. But everybody kept us busy.

And only because I think we've of I kind of skip py this your job, describe your job so you're you're kind of in charge this this team afford observers were attached with two of the ranger chocks out there.

So my job still associate your utility. And so specifically, I had ford observers with each, with each of the ranger elements, and their job was to control fires. Normally that would come from I, an acy went thirty or a helicopter gunship, or from mortals.

In this case, we had two black occurs with snipers on board. And again, this is the kindle, gentler, trying to take a reduced approach to things. So they had snipers on board. And then in reserve, we had four attack helicopters with rockets and gatlin guns.

Going back to some of our previous discussions, know I had to go through when I head a kind of fight with chain and command to get them to put rockets on the helicopters. They say, I, you're not onna need that those gatti guns are plenty. I can't had to fight with them almost on a mission by mission basis, as is talk about to get them put rockets on IT.

But that's the base of the package that we had. We would have snipers. And so my ford observers would see a threat and they would call that in to the snipers on board the black ox, and they would fly over with the snipers and try to engage that threat on the ground.

So that was their javis for reservs. As a little tenant, I was with the company commander. I controlled all those guys. I was all each of the positions in the night try to make sure we d conflicted and gave assets where they need to be given.

And at this point, IT sounds like you guys had a fairly solid sort of standard package that you are going to do, which look like, correct me from wrong, rangers are going to go in and isolate the target building basically in four different corners of the building or the target area. And then delt would come in, hit the target, get IT cleared, and then you either collapse into the building and get extracted via helicopter or uh, extract via the ground force yeah and .

and that is essentially what the the template was with rangers as security element on the outside and doubt a hitting the target on the inside. One of the things that that we did and delta made this decision because of potentially we would be doing in daylight and the potential threat on the ground they didn't want. They want of the initial surprised to be on their side so they would go in first.

So the assault element would go on the target on whatever building we were resulting. They would assault that for so little bird helicopters and black ox delt would go and hit that target. And then as they were doing that, the rangers were fast roping in all around them, a stabling said security premier, that's one of the reasons the deed was able to squirt out on the mission you talked about. Um but again, for the safety of the assault or is going initially, that's way we decided sequence .

IT and the use of vehicles. So I love to tell a story. In the nineties I used to do training missions on what we called halo trucks, meaning we couldn't afford, or we couldn't coordinate to get us to use helicopters.

So we would pretend that our vehicles were helicopters. Not ever imagining, not me ever imagining, that I would only conduct real Operations my whole career from vehicles. So so the the fact that you guys were using vehicles, how well did you guys plan for that back in the states?

So the range of time does have some vehicles, but we don't at that time, we didn't drive home these or five times trucks. So that's one of the things we get to brag. It's I guess, what you're going to use.

Hum, these and five, ten trucks. And so we had teach guys to drive those kind of little a different. And the other interesting thing was these were not armored. So these results skin the same level of armors might have one fifty. Um so we were doing to do the mission with that.

So in addition to the helicopter result force, we had A P toon h probably about eight vehicles, five, ten trucks and hubs that we're going drive from our base out to whatever whatever target we were hitting. And that comes y would come to link up with us. And then IT would give us an option that we could drive out on those vehicles, or we could load prisoners on there, or they also mounted the fifty calibrate machine guns.

And mark nineteen, canada launches we talked about so would bring some more firepower to the fight. But yeah, was just a regular cambodia soft skin we call vehicles. And the rangers had to learn to drive those at four brag and then employed those in somalia. So I was an interesting in another asset.

Uh, fast forward little bit. On the afternoon, september twenty four, twenty fourth, osmond auto was positively identified and he was like the number two men in the S. N.

A. Underneath deed he was possible vely identified, entering a small White dan accompany by a single body guard who drove the car. This all force launched but maintained a distant orbit, while the reconvert discreetly tracked auto through the crowds. Looking ahead along the vehicles route, the task force laid a trap on relatively broad throw fair. Just a few closely space buildings delt less salt almost put on the ground after the after eight, eight, six little bird stopped autos s vehicle with a burst of warning shots into the road ahead of IT as deal assaulters stormed up the vehicle, the driver braining came out of the car, the a forty seven he is immediately neutralized with a leg shot.

This is another example of the relative restraint that characterize our approach the missions at the time, as the assault is dealt with, the driver auto fled into a nearby building assault and began to secure and clear that and other nearby building, sorting through a number of some, all as they encountered as a delta assault tiers. Questioned one of the somali ales, he confirmed he was in fact osmond auto. As the delta assault teams worked on the ground, some all is a nearby neighbor, ds began to react and converge on the intersection where the action was occurring.

Fast forward to with upon landing, the leaders quickly moved to the talk and received news that auto had been possibly identified. This is a major score for test for ranger, boosting our confidence and simultaneous ly increasing pressure on indeed so to pretty good Operation. Little vehicle in addiction, guy scored to way. It's interesting that the guy gets out of a vehicle is a forty seven, and they should in the leg. Delta, dell, the guys arent shooting someone.

the leg, and that aiming to shot someone hundred per yeah yeah yeah hundred years so that's just I talked to the guy, he said he did that intentionally.

which is kind of unheard of today and yeah ably not be a living. yes.

And this mission, there's a number of learning points for things that dismission illustrates. You talk about that confidence that we had. So one of the contingency plans we had was and there is two aircraft with snipers that would orbit over the top of the mission.

And if one of those aircraft came out of orbit, and in this case, IT came down and picked ottawa and flew me away, one of the continues was mayer craft that I was flying on. Super six four would come in and backfill that. So you would always have two black ox.

So we did that on that mission. And, I mean, so I got a ring side seat flying in super six four, because waiting IT put on the ground at a ringside seat to this mission. And IT also shows the somalis were really widely, I mean, they were really smart about how they did business change their profile all the time.

Sometimes i'd write in big, heavily armed convoys, sometimes just one man, one by ty god, always changing that signature. We just happened to pick up battle that day, and so they didn't put the whole salt force. So i'm writing in super six four.

Six four comes in, becomes the second aircraft in the orbit. So I get a ringside seat to watch all this. And we're taking lots of ground fire.

We can hear the machine guns, rounds crack around us. We can here, the RPG going by is are trying to shoot at us. But all that me was, or they can hit us, you know, as good as we think we are, and they .

can hit us a, speaking of which, fast forward just days later, when a black cock from the regular U. S. Forces supported the U. N, was hit by an R, P, G, and shot down while patrolling over the city to the crew members, survived the crash but found themselves alone among the gathering somalis fortunate the crash that occurred not far from the nights hood of somali clan friendly to the U. N.

The survivors were able to escape and evade a hostel, uber gear, until they reached a nearby haven where a smaller family hit them until contact with the uniforms could be made. So there was even though even though you have that high confidence, but also this is a regular uh, U. S. Aircrafts, not a tf one sixty, which are the best pilots in the world.

They are. But you know, you you're looting to exactly the point that i'm making this you do this in combat though you you rationalized things to to motivate to yourself. And we were Young guys and so we thought I were, we're angers. That's delta and these are one sixty guys so they can get hit other regular arming get ut, but not our guys. So we're rationalized and a .

little bit yeah what we did not know was that a shadow saudi extremist named osb in ladon, then based in nearby sudan, had offered deed the assistance of his group alki, a made up of islamic terrorists. Some of the terrace had been in the afghan war against the soviet and brought them, brought with them experience and modifying R, P, G launchers to enable them to be fired into the air. The shoot down of the U.

S. Helicopter was in fact, result of this alkali assistance. So this was going to word out kind of.

Fast forward, while we are always postured and standing by the response to alert, on sunday, october third, the commanders gave us a break from the intensive training and daily signature flights. So you guys run a little bit of stand stand down scenario. Then you notice a bunch of activity around the talk.

You know that this means were spending up fast forward. According to the intelligence, a group of the deeds top leaders were meeting near the olympic hotel in the vast bakara market in the center of harbor getter territory. However, the somali spy was providing the information, did not believe that I did, was present, fast forward.

Another significant report was that a large group of about four hundred militiamen who had been previously sent to sudan to train with alka ya at the invitation of asia bin ladon, had recently returned to moa issue. These four hundred newly trained fighters were now set up not far from the corner market. All of this information warranted our profession onal consideration, but they are not overly concerned or intimidate us.

We had faith in our plan, knew our time limitations, and we're taking over two hundred of the best fighters in the world. We also knew the one sixty earth would be overhead and the time consideration. This is not the thing that you mentioned that we didn't cover, but basically you guys realized you have like an hour to get the job done and the somali resistance couldn't organize quickly enough if if you were in and out in less an hour, they wouldn't be able to really put up a decent fight.

Yeah, that's that's exactly right. So we would reverse this so many times that no matter how we hit the ground, we can do IT in under hour. We could even if, like awesome osmond of did score IT out, we could track him down, get them on a bird, get out, collapse the whole thing, no matter what.

We could do that in under an hour. And so IT was pretty a well oiled machine. Now the other important part of that clock, though, is with my ringside seat to watch in us monitor, get taken down as you could see the smiles assembling. And you know, IT just takes them a while because they don't have communications and they're just trying to get a burning the neighborhood gether.

And so they would throw tires out the street, the tires would burn, everybody would see the smoke, and then they would kind of react like militiamen, or like minute men and come to that and then try to get their act together and organized and get in the fight. But that was going to take them more than an hour to do that. And we could see that, we could see the resistance increasing as the clock was taken on osmanii.

And that mission took about fifty minutes, and then about fifty, fifty five minutes, as the last guys were getting on the birds, snipers were starting to engage threats. They were starting to take some ground fire. And you could see people come in, I mean, literally, crowds come on down the street, and people manuvers to get in. So we knew that that our our template, our our clock on the mission .

was valid .

in in .

the book. I think at this point has been like four, five missions on the grounds out about .

the right number six total, up to up, up to before october there. The six missions.

uh, fast forward as the brief ing went on, standing off the site, consulting with cornal boykin, major general gas and weight the risk he to realize dangers, but shared our faith in the plan. And this was too lucrative, a target to pass up while this new smi intelligence source seemed somewhat tentative, the information he provided added up. The decision was made to launch.

As the intelligence rep concluded to his brief and made his last comments, the leaders began to move toward the door. I noted the heavy somali c security element again, moved again and moved over the kernel boykin to ask if we would go in by getting rockets on the age age sixties today. He looked me deliberate and answered, yes, jim, you're getting the rockets.

So there you go. yes.

So I get to get these rockets on security .

of the target right the hanger .

soon echoed with orders to get IT on and the chalks moved out quickly through the middle ternopil at um you know and you guys had done a lot of spin ups and scratches. You come on here and this happens again. You know, you guys go out, you get on the aircraft and you're back off the aircraft, back on the aircraft.

Um finally looks like you're going hearing back to super six four. I climbed into the hang in the back and squeak into place, packed in among the other rangers and waited. As I got settled in.

I looked out the right side, the aircraft, and notice biller ars and moving among the birds he'd walked out of the talk with. The assault force was now shaking hands and giving encouragement to Operators, rangers and pilots as they settle up. An aircraft IT struck me that he'd never done this before. They all force was soon reloaded and .

set board the aircraft. Yeah, interesting situation. You know, we did some of the many the missions we did, most emissions we did were within the harbor, gather territory and and we knew kind of the conditions out there. But again, we had a lot of confidence in six missions. We felt like we'd validated the things that we were confident in.

But this one, you know, it's a great point that we had actually spun up and stood down like three times in two days before this, over a twenty four hour, but lesson forty hour period, gun or stuff on gun up to the aircraft scratch. So we were used to that. But on this one, I will say IT had a different field, and we could see the level of security.

We did not usually see that many somali fighters on the ground of the actual militia guys that were their point security. And the place that IT was located next to a lot of activity that was going on very close in the Baker market, lots and lots of smelly fighters there. So we knew that was high threat, and we could feel that was high threat. And he obviously, he knew IT to. And because that was just one of those kind of, kind of ravens that fly into the picture, you know, he came out and shook our hands, goodbye.

Get into IT fast forward, as the first wave of helicopters clear the area, the four ranger black hogs continue to come and slowly toward the target, trying to remain steady and allow the building dust car super six force him to inch forward, still high above the rooftops as the pilot struggle to keep stability. Finally, we realized our black ocs were just renewing the milk key.

Turning storm there was obviously could not get any lower when the order was shouted for ropes out. There was another delay as one of the long thit Green robes got hung up on a telephone wire as the pilots jacked the bird forward to untangle IT crude. Chief bill cleveland lean forward out towards mini gun, then finally called the rope clear.

And on the ground, we still seem too high, far above the roof shops. As the aircraft began a hover in the cloud over the engine noise, we suddenly heard to go, go, go. But the rangers in the doorways hesitated for a brief second as we seemed far too high.

Then the orchestrated surge began. As I press forward in the sequence, I watched the ranger slide down, instantly disappearing into the milky cloud of Brown. As the aircraft routers thunder in my ears, I could see the rope swing in front of me just far enough out that I had to commit my body way to reach IT. So have you guys been in Brown up before on these other missions?

We have, but not this intense yeah for this one for whatever reason that was that was just the most one of dust we've seen. And we obviously we trying to do things at night. So i'd say only one or two the missions before been in the daytime.

And I just whatever reason, the conditions were much Better on those who didn't have that much brand on this one. Like like I talk about. And I was classic assault though we came out of, came out of the worst out of the setting. Sun then then started inching in and and just an unbeliever altitude that we were read, I mean, again in the book. But we just could not believe they're onna .

put us out of that altera ninety had had to be.

had to be the full link to festive because we were there was multi story buildings and we were far above those. Um and again, after a point, you couldn't see the ground. So you knew you are still way up there and we were waiting for them to go down lower and settling and they never did.

They're go. And woods, a little bit of disbelief. But but then rangers are rangers, and they just went and went, and IT was on.

I finally crashed in the street. I took a few disoriented steps, slammed into a wall before getting my bearings amid the swing, dust and thunder of the helicopter above me. I heard another sounds, sustained gunfire as a ranges around me on the south corners of the target buildings began to sort themselves out.

IT was obviously those. The north were already in contact with the enemy. Fast forward, all around me, the rangers that are one on the southeast ranger block composition we're set facing outward amid the tight allies and debris of the narrow street cap in steel and his radio Operator, along with the air force C, C, T. Surgeon, clustered by a telephone poll a few feet behind me. So it's on when you guys get on the ground yeah.

that was unique to cause, you know the ominous surprise, uh, the fact that we could go anywhere in the city to gave us that ominous surprise. And so we never really had to assault into a fight IT would develop afterwards as smiles kind of fired out where we were at and start pRobing, but probes a lot different than attacks.

And because that security limit that was on the ground, fortunately, they all understand and fight, but enough often did that that the fight was on, at least on the north side, pretty much the minute we hit the ground. Another kind of interesting point I wants to make cares about the template. So it's gonna have to understand our visualised.

But I never really knew where I was in the city and I didn't have to. We had this template that we rehearsal over and over again. So I always go into the same place.

I was always going to be at the southeast corner. The same teams went to the same locations around the target building. So all I had to do was, no, that's the target building right there.

And I was immediately oriented. I knew I was in the southeast side. I knew who was on the northeast, northwest, southwest.

I knew delt was inside the house. So that's the orientation. But I never really knew where I was in the city.

If you'd asked me to pull up my map and show you what street I was on, I wouldn't mailed to do that. All I, all I, all I knew was what target house was. And if I was in the right spot, I was locked into that template. That was my orientation.

So looking back now, would you do more map study going in?

Oh yeah, without a doubt. Yeah yeah, yeah without a doubt. And I would encourage the complete leaders to do a .

lot of map study. Yeah right. We were really paranoid. Um so my first appointed to iraq, we were in back that, but and so we'd Operate all around back that.

So we would get in a little bit of a similar mindset where we would basically know the target building and then a few blocks around the target building and there would usually be some kind of a reset point. We would come across a bridge, or we'd come to a big intersection with a big mosque on IT. So I would always have at least one really good landmark in my head.

We're okay now. We're three minutes from the target. It's two turns away, right? But in remote, what was awesome was just Operating in the same streets all the time over over.

And you know, you'd know the battle map. You'd be look at that building, nineteen that's building for like we had that familiarization. But looking back, I would say to myself, I should have had that much familiar ization on all these Operations.

But when I was in back in from back, that we hit other other cities as well. So just a good lesson. Learn for combat leaders out there. Man, get out that map and do a city, know some landMarks, because if you get turned around out there, IT is a nightmare.

Now, one thing that was really interesting for us was that first deployment to iraq for us, the big army had these moving maps inside their home, these with blue force straker s on the stuff. We didn't have those yet. We were a little bit ahead.

We had been ahead, probably six months ahead of the technology. And we've got these panasonic laptops with, we had figured out a way to put the satellite imaging on our laptops and put our GPS into those things. And so we had really good awareness of what was happening.

And then are because we still had a little paranoia of the technology we would build, uh, what we called pace notes. So pace notes is something that we used to do for land now. So for land now pay notes, I would say, okay, i'm going from point a to point b in eighty or or in two hundred meters.

I'm going to go down a river. After that, i'm going to notice on my left hand side there's going to be this thing and I would write thes Epace n otes d own s o t hat I w ould k eep m e f rom g etting l ost. Well, our navigators started making pace notes for our for our transit, for the targets.

So those were so helpful because you could take a look at the faces and they had actually print them out so they would print out here's the intersection. Here's what it's going to look like. Here's the next.

Here's the bridge that we're going to go for. There's going to be a sharp left turn. And so in my head, I could kind of follow th Epace n otes w ithout e ven l ooking a t a m ap. So I think those things were very helpful. And I was very appreciative of my point, man, that would put together these space, not some kind of give me like the quit brief, like here's are going to see, here's to see again, these these mere notes for combat leader's man, right? There are good things to know.

And I think the other aspect of that is IT goes back to check in other people's work, you because your life depends on that, your mission success depends on. And so kind of some of the context though is we weren't what we call the battle space owners. We didn't know the ground out there.

There was united nation's forces that owned the ground. We were coming into their area hitting targets, and it's the same template that we Carried on to the iraq and afghanistan. So I think it's a really good technique like you're talking about IT. I think you've got to do is check other people's we were dependent on them as the battle space owners that if things went sideways and we were going to be fighting outside of the target area, that we will be depending on them. Well, you know, again, you're a life and you're unsuccess is depending on on and so you you should check out the people's work and get family with their area and not just be dependent on them to to be able to bring the situation awareness to the fight .

so it's a great point. Yeah and going to shake the hands of the people that .

on the battle .

space hundred is highly recommended. And pulling out your battle. M. P, P, that was nice and romantic because we all got eventually coordinate on one big battle map that everyone had the same thing.

But, you know, weed roll in islanders, early in my first appointment, weed role in the some battle space. Go meet the company commander, and he had a Better map. So now we got our battles map.

He's got to here. He's battles map and we got different names for different buildings. That's a problem. Oh, so sorting that thing out is is really important in the way you do that as coordinating amongst the the conventional units. The other this is just again for the Young combat leader out there.

I used to ask these Young seal leaders, I say, what's the most important piece of information you can have on the battle field and you'd say where the enemy is, how many weapons they have, how many people they have, uh, what the scheme of maneuver is? I'm like, no, none of that stuff matters compared to where you are. Yeah, you need to know where you are on the battle field if you don't know where you are.

IT doesn't really matter where you think the enemy is because you don't know where you are. So again, Young combat leaders out there too good maps that makes a pay. No, it's gna pay off um fast for a little bit back behind me further the west I could see sergeant first class Shawn Watson, the team leader at r for directing his. Rangers I did not have visual contact with the rangers at the r two position to the north, but confirmed I had comes with my ford observer at that position by checking in with specialist joke Thomas on the radio, similarly surgeon jeff ma felin at our three on the other side of the target building to the northwest, and private first class jeff Young, and are for next to us to the west, checked in on the radio as they covered those positions. So those are your direct cause.

Observers at four different.

different elements on the ground and you have good comes with them.

Good comes are .

they passing their requests through yes, standard of people identify threat .

and then I would hand the I set off to them, I would be conflict and set priorities.

And um while delta to clear the building and the rangers held our blocking positions, there were various activity involving somalis around us. We are not heavy contact now, but we are being targeted by individual gunmen working in the windows of the buildings and all the streets around us taking occasional pot shots. This is you can just start to feel the escalation here.

Gunmen persists. Surgeon born due back and fourth with molossian shots and controlled by fire middle. This exchange of somali woman walked across the intersection in front of our position.

Seemingly a oblivious to the firefight, SHE casually raised her hands, and I don't shoot manner, but then SHE began gesturing. Importing towards our location. So this is gonna a get ugly quick.

yeah. And something i've in six wars, i've never seen this again, is the civilian population, I think, just so used to fighting going around and that they weren't, you know number one, weren't weren't afraid to get involved um they've just walking through our positions IT wasn't a huge horrify, but there was there was some shooting going on and people just walk in in the middle of IT and I just you get to step back and say what I can't believe i'm seeing what i'm saying. But he would just in this case, you just walk in between the the elemental fire back and forth like SHE wasn't going to get shot then SHE was really scouting this out and pointing this out and really brazen and you know just one of these things the first time in real combat you're just not believing what you see .

in yeah again going back to what it's like. The women and kids weren't coming in the .

streets at all.

You guys, you start daland some assistance, some support from the snipers on super six one a fast, all the deltas. Assaulters had captured a number of key targets and were now bringing them down to the street. We had one ranger seriously injured on the north side on the insertion as the pilot struggled to keep the aircraft stable.

Private first class taught blackburn had missed the swing fast rope and fAllen approximate ty feet to the street. The chocolate or there at are three in the northwest sargeant matt Evans men had his hands ful working to move the unconscious blackburn to a safe position, coordinate medical attention and deal with the contact going on around his blocking position. Delt metics had moved out to r three from the target building to assist and now continue to work on blackburn. Gent first class bar bar bulk a hawking dark hair at delta assault and metic assess the eighteen old rangers injuries as life threatened.

Yeah so A A lot going on here too. And just to set some context. So i've along with the rest of my position, the guys of my position, fast robed in. We're got the security prominent around delta in assault building as they're going in and the training all of A D lip tenants, there's some contact going on. But the fast rope, i'd mentioned how high we are and where we were Brown out.

Well, one of the difficulties of that that I hadn't mentioned yet is that, you know, anybody that's a pilot knows you have to have frame of reference in order to fly, especially maintained a hover in a helicopter in that Brown out. We were literally in a cloud of dust, and the pilot had no frame of reference for horizon in order to keep that helicopter stable and hovering. And this goes into fast roping.

So a lot of people you know in special Operations see fast roping and you're not know any equipment on and and you could basically do IT one hand and swing around. Well, that's not how our festal open was when we're we're in body armor, we're wearing in our radios were in weapons and you're loaded down with about one hundred and some pounds. And when you try to faster, al like that is a much different, different dynamic.

And the other aspect of IT is, no, you don't have that rope. When you're in the helicopter, you've got to jump out onto that rope in the current in the rigg that we were using in the black cock. So you're basically jump in out of the black cock catching that rope and then you're slide down and you're not going to be the control how fast you're going.

But in any case, with the pilots unable to keep that hover, that rope is moving. And now you at ninety feet, that rope is moving with the helicopter in your a time and so you can catch that rope. And blackmon, we ve got video of a blackmon missed that rope and fell ninety feet. So he's critically injured down there.

Chronic night felt he had enough vehicles in the convoy to cut three loose and send them back the airfield with the stricken ranger. So they kind of make that call.

Let's get him out of here. They did. And so again, the other part of context is the convoy that we talked about, the five, ten trucks in the hubs with the heavy weapons had driven from the airport.

They go out to the target building while we're get the security we've helicopter, while we're get the security parameter set up and assaulting that camboss links up with us when that far a drive. And those vehicles are now waiting to take the prisoners out, to take us out. And the range of batin commander whose with that conboy makes the decision to cut out some vehicles blackburns injured, they're na send them back to the airfield so he gets immediate attention.

Those guys take off. Um this is interesting. You mention some of the rangers mistakenly believe that sucker's team was turning away from the growing contact and abandoning us.

Ah I never forget that I mean, they're furious. No just couldn't wait to get catch up with because they got ran away. And just interesting fog war stuff i've .

i've talked about in this podcast. There's um like massive not surrenders but retreat that took place in the world war one because a runner was going from the front line to pass word and they had to eventually tell runners like don't run back because I would IT could cause panics. They see one guy run in the another guy runs like the runner runs.

He's little, he's called a runner for a reason and he starts run back to past information. Someone sees him run and no, we're running. Yeah, they could cause us panics that happen going back to the book.

Along the route of the three humpies, working their way through hobby getter neighbor od, the some allies were beginning to assemble and react on math. The appearance of the U. S.

Vehicles in their middle hales of gunfire from buildings in allways along the route, the machine gunners in the terms of the hubs were firing, conversely, now slewing their machine guns around to hammer windows and alias specialist dominic pila, pa, or pila pill pillar, a tall boysterous ranger from new jersey men AM24 machine gun in the back of stricter truck。 He swung the machine going around towards smaller militia man approaching from the ali. They fired simultaneous y in the gun and dropped to the street.

But pillow also fell to the floor of the hub e. He had been killed instantly by an A K forty seven round to the head. Small convoy spat on, firing nonstop, but being shredded the fire from the neighborhoods. What seems like a lifetime later, striker dw struck ker, drove his bloody and bullet scored vehicles through the gate to the airfield, moving directly to the task force range or compound.

Meanwhile, back in my position at our one Cliff walk cut called me to say he was coming back in, coming back in over our position to take one more look at the small for the smaller gunman who had been harassing us as I watched the black cock come in low about two blocks out, as I turned to scan the streets, when super six one passed in front of me, I briefly turned away. And as I looked back, I heard a muffled bang and metal grinding as the aircraft began to slew and twist unnaturally, trying to process what I was seeing. I initially tried the reason that Cliff was turning hard for a shot, but in reality I felt doom as the aircraft.

Then I called a glimpse of Cliff and his copilot dawn brightly through the windshield, fighting to maintain control. Then someone in the back of the bird lurching forward, super six one that span off to my left and out of sight to the north. Seconds later, I heard the ominous punch of the impact.

The calls began to reverberate across the radio net. Six one is down. We have a black ockham.

So what do you think now?

Yeah, so again, let's going on. almost. IT was control chaos for sure, but we were within the confines es of our plan, our template.

Tes, so was moving forward as we needed to do. But now you cut off an element from the convoy. They're racing back.

They get their own saga that we talked about. We didn't even know about that at the time. Like I said, some guys thought they were running.

They didn't know that was a whole other mission going on in drama for them, as I mentioned. And with my ford, observers were turned to deal with threats. We had a threatened in front of us.

They're start firing. So I said, I told Cliff, who was the pilot of super six one, one of the snipper birds, I told him, and admission, go back up a safe altitude. But, but, you know, again, these task force pilots are different than most pilots.

They were just as aggressive as anybody on the ground. And clifts main focus was to get the snipers and dorgan's in position for a shot. So he came over again, want to to keep taking a look and unfortunate got tagged you know, like I said, your brains trying to tell you one thing oh, it's it's okay.

He's just trying to take a Better shot but it's like watching a correct you know things are going out of control, violence and dramatically and that's what was happening here. We lost that bird. But yet the the missions continuing, we're still on the time and we're still on the templates were focused on getting the prisoners, the detainees out of that building into the convoy and maintains the promoter because at the same time, the Clarks taken and that resistance is increasing. So we still got firefights starting to grow all around us.

Do you feel like you still have the momentum in the upper hand at this point?

We did. Obviously, this was a gonna, a huge bump in the road and and going to goes back to no one where you're at and and I knew where I was at, but now we got a bird down four blocks away and I don't even know I don't even know what part of the city we're in really and he's down four blocks away, and we know we're going to have to deal with that. And so now these things are starting to creep up in your mind.

You know you you've got the plan that you're try to stick to and we're still executing that. But now the enemies had a vote, and and the K. S, S. Starting to come in, creep in just a little bit more and a little little bit more.

But you still feel like you have like kind of the upper hand, like we're still gona handle this.

Oh, without a doubt, we're we still were you know a coast of force. We still had forty assaulters on the ground and and seventy summer rangers. And so we knew as you the task force was still attacked.

And and again, really I can't emphasize not enough. We could take on whatever we felt like. We could take on whatever came, whatever they want to throw with us.

We could take on. And IT gets down to one of the themes of the book is because I knew the guys to my left. In my right, we're not gonna quit and they were gone to attack just as hard as I was going to attack. And so when you have a unit like that with that kind of cohesion, and we were professional, we knew there's thousands of people out there. And so we weren't looking to stir that horns ness, but we also felt like whatever .

they throw at us, we're ready. So when when six one goes down, the pilots heroically had kept IT together as much as they could. But when IT, when I hit, when the impact, the ground hit a wall, and he killed, killed both the pilots you end up with the cruel chief and the delta snipers are on board um one of the one of the survivors, dan bush h, he could be seen immediately climbed out the wreckage.

He he's ends up going back James smith, another delta sniper, pulled them back from the corner that they're just like fighting IT out. And finally, you get one of the little bird pilot, chief coral mayer. right? That's right.

He goes in, makes a landing, the wires and there's rubble and there's all this end, the itself. He puts down cover fire. Jean Smith loads dan bush up there into the helicopter. The helicopter takes often, and then you get, i'm going to the book here.

Despite having just survived the crash with serious gashes face, jim Smith refused to get on board and remained behind to help hold the position like these of these kind of human beings were talking about. Um so you you get so so many details and you get that book fast forward a little bit. When the call came in, the super six one was down a number of pieces in the contents.

Y plans were ordered into play in addition to super six four coming into replace super six one in the orbit over the target area, the combat rescue team to include my F O. Butch, how do I say that? Gally, which gallia was called in.

So this is what you're talking about earlier. There are some contingencies that are going to start happening, right? And they say they start happening.

Yeah one of the amazing things about this battle is it's all on video tape. And so even though it's chaos and there's all these movement parts, uh and more and more movement parts as the battle goes on, it's all on video tape because we had that p three orion filter ent, we had our own ronssoy craft filament in color. So you can watch all this.

You can watch dam bush crawl out of the the rubble record of the aircraft to get on the corner fighting take around. You can, you can watch all these things happens. Carl maria, fine in so you're really amazing.

Cliff and down of White bally and super six one, some of the best pilots ever in the world. IT keeps that aircraft stable enough so that you can a flatland IT can pancaking hits a wall, crumples on top of them, kills them. But they're kept IT stable enough so that the guys in the back survive, which is really amazing.

Like I said, like we just read, the snipers craw out, the cruieves crawl out. But again, now the context is there four blocks outside of where the target areas, all these somalis, that's where they are gathering. So they literally land like an horns nest, immediately start fighting.

We did have one more ACE up our sleeve, and that was a combat, certain rescue team. We had one aircraft dedicated with air force pjs and rangers and medical on board. We immediately put that aircraft in the fast roped in.

One of those guys was one of my guys, butch gale. Yet i'd actually brought budge with me from a company. So he and I were two, the only guys from a company that were with b company that day. But he get committed with a combat search rescue timing. And now they're fighting .

on that objective. He one year guys being ford observer.

He was he was a 4d。 He was e 5 just graduated ring school not too long before that was the sergeant and he was a ford observer with that team。

And and speaking of the the video on everything, and I forgot to mention this, but you mentioned in the book, when you hit the ground, you pulled out a camera, took one picture, apparently it's the only photograph taken from on the ground in the whole battle.

Yeah, little ninety nine cent disposable code at camera. I taken one or two pictures out of the aircraft, but I kept to myself you'd remember to take a picture of a target. And so IT seems I got down the subway. I snapped off one picture of the target.

Fast for a little bit, while the combat rescue team was fast roping on the crash site, back at the target building, I watched the delta assault is coming out the gate into the street. They loaded the prisoners on the five, ten trucks as the ranger or convoy prepared to move, and we began collapsing the premature, the time around the target building.

Then the new order came down from the command aircraft over the radio net to assault to the assault force on the ground, along with the combat rescue team now fighting to secure the crash site. And we tended to to oso's group moving in that direction. The remainder of the assault force would consolidate in the street and move by foot to secure the area around the crash.

Yeah, so keeps seen a lot going on. One of the decisions the commander made was to take one of the range of black compositions and send them over, because from their position they were the closest friendly forced to the crash site. So they sent some of those guys in the direction in the crash to help out because again, we stir that home.

Its next over up over their they're fighting in the minute they hit the ground with the with the red helicopter, the crash helicopter. At the same time, we're collapse in the premier. We're deal with amenity pressure, getting the prisoners on the comb.

We get rated to roll up the mission extract. So these are the things that they are going on. That's the decisions but made and what they're getting ready to make the decisions. What are we going to next?

Yeah when you think there's a lot going on, you know I watched the movie black down. I think many people watch be black down and and I think the way they try and convey IT is just through a lot of chaos and it's hard to tell what's happening. But there's just these little uh, many in engagements happening all over the place, heroic actions taking place everywhere, decisions being made like IT is IT is four four freking chaos.

Yeah yes, this is this is where we started to feel though the plan started to coming off the rails. Know I talked about if if we Operate in, execute in, accords with the plan, and we get out within under an hour, everything's going to be smooth silk, and we might have some little bump in the road like blackburn fAllen off the road, but we can control all that. We had plenty account at power and training and rehearsals, al, to control all that.

But now when we start to feel IT started to come off the rails, I get the car teams gone in where trying to collapse. The premier were still fighting, not a lot of fighting at this point, but there are still more fighting than we experience in other mission. So we're getting pressure on the criminal and we're getting on the convoy and we're starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Know because again, you're only talking about you're talking to less than one hundred and fifty guys on the ground. And we and we knew for well the numbers of the enemy.

Back to the book, I looked down at the s scho divers watch strapped to my wrist. Luminous style showed sixteen, thirty hours, and I realized we had been on the ground for nearly hour. This is talking about the world began to till now, out of the rear sequence of the plan and registering the shock of contact with the enemy.

Almost immediately, the assault force of rangers and delta Operators began pushing east along the narrow streets. My stomach is in a cold, not now. As I moved along side cap and steel, I knew the chances of survival slim for the crew of the crash helicopter.

And now we get into kind of what I started the book with, or started the podcast with this. When you can tell, things are just starting to escalate their enemy fires caused in the crowd's beginning to surge towards you guys. And this is what I was just talk about.

You say this point, the small unit training and leadership of the rangers and special Operators to begin to play a critical role for each small group of rangers. The world became centers on the street corner or alway in front of them. The fighting narrow down through tunnel vision to just a few meters.

In this type of combat situations, soldiers are forced to focus on the fight immediately around them. At the same time, they also know that the battle is raging well beyond their small piece of ground, and the enemy is out. They're closing in.

They have to trust them, men to their left and right, knowing they are standing fast. IT will not break, just as they are doing for their comrades. He had the pressure is increasing .

yeah this is this is why I like the symbolic of a shield wall um and I get lots of people always talk to me about all we get this technology, we get drones. We get this and get that. Well, i've lived the example of that's not always to be enough.

And IT comes down to, just like I did twenty five hundred years ago, like a shield wall. And you got to fight what's in front of you. And you've GTA trust the guys. You're left in your right that they're going to fight what's in front of them where you're all done. And you know, the interesting thing is I never again, I was Young and naive at the time, but I I never felt like we were going to get over run.

I never never occurred to me that, oh, you know, we're all going to get killed her, and never felt any kind of panic like that because I just had so much faith in the guys to my left, in my right. I was worried about Gillian. I was worried about Cliff wall cut and down of in brightly because I knew somebody who's gonna dead in that crash. So I was worried about that and we will get there to help those guys. But I I never was worried about being overrun or that somebody was gna run and we're going to collapse.

Yeah, that's the the name of the book with my shield. You know that what you talk about here, that Spark shield wall. So I will comes not only from holding the enemy to your front, but dependence on the men around you to take a step back, to falter and leave the man beside you as exposed is.

Um you say I continued forward in the middle of the street alongside camped in deal and his radio Operator. As I advanced, I came across a wounded ranger lying on the side of the road. Immediately in front of me, I was surprised to look down into the face of one my ford observers. Sargeant, my good. All that right.

Good in my good. Al.

he had taken an A K forty seven round through the hip and wasn't pain, but seem more surprised and frustrated at being hit than anything else without pausing, fixed on pushing forward to the crash. I I stepped over him and kept moving, knowing that a medic behind me would patch him up to this day, I think, back on that moment with waves of guilt, but also knowing IT was a tactically correct decision. Do not stop and help him.

Yeah, there's allowed to comes back with that. But you know that's one of the things though trying to convey and I convey more than some the other examples is not many cases. I mean very, very few cases of guys being panic or historical or or scared of the fight and getting out of the fight, like mike I looked on, his reaction was, damn, am out of the fight and I want to be out of the fight.

I want to be back in the fight. And so that's lots of reactions like that that day. So really, really hard to convey. E A people don't can understand the attitude that rangers an Operations brain to the fight.

Um the fighting continued in room in intensity as the assault force began to move forward relentlessly. Nothing was going to stop us from reaching our comrades at the crash site all around me.

Ranges were rushing forward to cover, fighting to clear their corners, throwing grenades or hammering down allies, automatic weapons behind me, guarding the rear of the column, Watson directed his teams fighting to hold back the growing waves of smallest Watson rangers fought from positions along the street while they anxiously awaited for the rest of the caller in front of them to move forward. His machine gun teams rode almost continually now as he completely directed their fire, conserving precious ammunition. impossible.

Sean Watson was an old school ranger and a plank holder, meaning as a Young private, he had joined the third. The time was when he was originally formed in one thousand and eighty four. Now he is a continent ranger pour tune surgeon with a strong personality and sarcastic dry wit that was legendary and bravo company.

He was the driving force behind his range of pti e in his calm but forceful leadership was now holding them together in the dusty streets as the battle grew in intensity. One of Watson machine gunners, pete nevy, saying that right, yes, was firing from a good position while covering the streets in front of him when in A K forty seven round suddenly tour through his ARM almost simultaneous y docks straws. The range of pti e medic with chock three was also hit by around fortunate that bullets struck one of the smoke ade strong as Carrying setting IT off in a small explosion and golfing him in a White cloud of smoke.

Strong emerged from the smoke and debris, with his uniform equipment badly torn, otherwise uninjured. He immediately rushed across the street to netho. The incoming somali fire cracked all around around as he dragged the wounded ranger to a safer position and went to work on his manal darm. So the casualties are starting now up here.

Yeah, guys are starting to fall all around us as the fighting is picking up. And IT seemed to me like every step we took, every second that went by. I just the increased level of of fighting an intensity to combat. Um one of the things about that that passage to is we talked about the Young guys in in the vita a lot of eighteen and thousand nine hundred and twenty year olds. But we also had in our rank structure platon surgeons, our first surgeons, we had a lot of senior guys, and they are there.

The absolutely the critical glue that held everything together, you know, in the way the mission was laid out, shown Watson was a surgeon, but he was in charge that blacking position when the count, when the assault element came back together and started moving towards the crash site, you know, he was in charge the rear guard, and he literally was back there, are doing what ranger senior n cio. S do best, is just control machine guns, control the fire. And IT wasn't like a lot of hollywood heroics of up yelling and follow me, was very calm, very cool under the most intense conditions which control those machine gun and taking out fire and and a lot of a close range because now they're starting in to close with us and just very calmly and cool, just directed his guys and just a rock of leadership shown lots and back there.

And I got a lot of this from Kenny time, as you know, one of the great things about writing the book, because i've told the story a bunch. So I wrote that out. Then I had to go back in research and filling some gaps.

And Kenny Thomas, one of the squad leaders that wrote a book and night night got this from talking to Kenny in from reading this book. And so IT was happening like within meters of me. I think I could also see IT out of my prefer vision.

But like we talked about, I was focused on what was in my front very close to me. And kenyan john watts and those guys are fighting right behind me. And so I had I talked to them and get some clarification. So that was one of the great things about rightness. I got to research IT and fill some gaps in.

And the distance that you guys are trying to travel as four blocks.

like total, about two blocks es and two blocks to the north.

And and what worries me here is as you take casuals, obviously your mobility ties slows down. Are you trying to get people move? You're trying to move them moving down. Men again, speaking of a hollywood is help a lot harder real life than that is when you see a guy in a movie like throw someone on their children, run like it's no problem. So that's going you started to get bogged down, right?

Definite slow as down continue on .

here around Watson rangers shooting down the streets and pouring fire from the upper stories of surrounding buildings, the smaller continued to hammer into the column of americans across the street from surgeon Kenny Thomas fired at the darting somali gunman while throwing hand grenades over the walls around his position. Fast forward as a rear column. After watts and held fast, the delta assaulters up front continued working their way forward.

And then fast forward, I moved up a few steps s behind a team of delta assaulters, working their way forward along the wall to are right sunday. They began to drink and twist like they were being stung by bees as bullets ripped along the wall. The assault in the lead jovi and friendly early film more drop forward and hit the ground with dead weight feel more.

And the rest of the delta assaulters war black plastic hockey helmets, rather than the heavy bullet proof film more, had just taken A K forty seven rifle round to the forehead, killing him instantly. The rest, the team behind him, was wounded in the same burst of fire. They do recover in a narrow ally to the right dragon film's lifeless, less body with them.

Fast forward, I realized I should be talking to my ford observers and the helicopter and the helicopter gunships to bring fire support. Rather, they are engaging in the firefight with the somali behind the burn. But the question was, why were none of my ford observers calling? Just minutes prior, around the target building, I had clear communications with the helicopter's above and my ford observers on the ground.

But now all I was getting on in my radio headset was faint, static, moving back from the tree toward camp in steel and taking scan cover behind a slight rise in the road to my front. I began to go through my checks. I pulled up my handset.

I pulled up the handset of my back up radio and was met by a roar of calls from my ford observers. So you had a bad radio. Radio bitter was bad.

yes. So this is really interesting part of this. When we first get formed up in the task force, not get a little technical for a minute bit, it'll all work out S H F, V H F thing. So you god bless s air force, god bless ccd guys, but that's who did far support for delta.

And again, being the junior partner to come to this test force, we were told you're going to switch from uh from our FM radios that we use to uh f which is they are force users. But we had used FM radios. I mean, that's what the army uses.

That's what guys on the ground uses, FM radios. And we train that way forever. And the one sixty of guys were used to that.

They worked with us on IT. But the C, C, T aspect of delta said, now we're going to use U, H, F. radio. And we protected, but to no avail. I was told, you know, take your new radio.

And so they gave you a full new radio.

Oh yeah, every one of us had to get a brand new radio, and we were familiar with them. But but that wasn't our standard. IT wasn't so much equipment.

IT was the frequency, right? So but we had to get new radios in the training at four brag and integrated into that. So weve got out there and started doing our missions and that but you know, again, this is standard.

Again, for the junior leaders, this is standard communications planning pace plan, have a backup plans. So we had a number of backup PS and that standard. But I also didn't trust the uh f radios.

And so we Carried FM little hand held FM radios in our cargo pockets of our pants as a backup means for communications. Now the problem was fighting you on the ground with the U. H, F.

Radios that I cared in my back. I head IT in the headset, and I could monitor IT, and so it's in my ear continuing. So I mailed to monitor any calls and I might get in, not like I head reached down to get a hand, said I was in my year already, but I wasn't get anything.

And so I had to start thinking, why am I not get anything? I know someone is going you wrong here. And that's when I went my back up and found that that they were on the backup radio. The uh f radios were not working on the target. Um we can go into why so well, we didn't know and you're not gona know because you know if you hadn't trained on IT had gone through IT extensively, you're not gona know things like this had happened in combat.

But when aircraft get shut down, they have A U H F urgency transport der beacon and that beacon puts out a signal of where that that crash site is while the transport er beacon on that black op that was right in front of us was going off and IT jammed every other U H F frequency around us. And so we get close to that black off that emergency transport. Der jammed our radios, we could not talk, and we had to go to the back up black, the backup FM radio.

Back to the book, I focused on the calls from special joe Thomas, who is now in position at the crash site with a tomo. I proved his request almost immediately for support from the age six gunships that I knew would be orbiting overhead, waiting to assist. You guys start doing some danger close calls, you tell the guys get their panels out like that means we want you to know exactly where we are. Um this was a good point. I remember red veterans of Operation just caused telling stories about the invasion, panama and the tragedy involving the gunships during the during the past Operation, when rangers had called in eight six gunships for support, a missing unica had caused a frattini de event where at least two rangers from third bettine were accidently killed by friendly rocket and mini gunfire, although they were not to blame for the tragic incident panama, I knew this was, this weighed heavily on the pilots of the one sixty eth. As they demonstrated now, they were risking everything, even to the point of recklessly exposing themselves and their aircraft, to enemy fire in order to prevent that from .

happening again. Yeah, i'm unbelievable. And i'm finally get the gunships on the on the radio they were standing by where to go transmitted.

I knew those guys known him for three years, trained with them for this mission, immediate air rate to o and I thought, okay, here we go. We're about to get all this firepower come in. And what I get is that helicopters fly and rooftop, level rid of the top of us.

And every somali gun will point IT up in there and shout of those counters. But all four of them died because I could said they were not gonna a shoot friendly. They were gone to. No matter what happened, they recklessly expose themselves to make sure they knew where we were and keep us safe.

Fast for while I was talking with a gunships, a delta Operator, sergeant norm hoot hooton, appeared in doorway immediately to my right. He yelled for captain deal and made to come in off the street and take cover. As logical as that seemed at that moment, we could not. Rangers were fighting in the streets all around us, and as leaders, we had to remain their exposed along with them.

Just as importantly for me, I had to be a position to observe the impact of the gunship rounds and confirmed they were on target and said, and striking safely outside of firmly positions, I could not do that from inside the building as seconds passed and I waited for the gunships to come around and line up. Begin, another voice broken on the radio. IT was a fake call saying that super six four was downtown th of the objective and needed assistance minutes before when super six one have been shot down.

Our ranger black OK super six four flew back into the target area in accordance with the Price establish contingency plan. Now super six four had also been hit by an RPG and crashed about a mile self of us. So now you must feel even more of that tilt of things go inside .

ways yeah it's it's a case of, you know, again, you're fighting what you ve gotten funny but but things are spinning out of control and you're get overwhelmed. And so now I knew the contingency is super six four coming in, but did not know labor shut down until somebody broken on the radio net with their call sign. But again, this is, this is chaos going on, controlled chaos.

And you've got ta disregard that. I had to cut them off and disregard that and says, we were prosecuting a far mission. They get to shoot right now, so you've got to get off the net.

I did get a message from the command controller aircraft that was they were working on some sort of continency. And I was in the past that to them at some point, and again, IT turned out to be gary gordon and Randy sugar on the ground that I was talking to. You didn't know that at the time, but you've got got to cut them off. I mean, almost brutally because I I get the aircraft come in shooting right now. It's a lot of lives on the line.

I mean, you see in the book, just seconds later, I finally heard the age six firing with chainsaw sound of gatlin guns, followed by the rip and boom of the two point seven five and rockets. The firing was so close that spent shall casing to rain down on us. And we could hear the streak of the rocket motors before impact.

From my position, I raised my head to observe the strikes impacting the vicinity of the smallest just past the burn to my north. Reaching back down for the handbook of the back up radio, I quickly checked in with my ford observers, specially joe thoms are confirmed. He responded, fired for effects, telling me the rounds were on target and hitting where we wanted them.

Just the geographic context to on jotham's like red on top of the craft site. So the aircraft is like litter right next time. I'm only like fifty metres back. I'm not far back at all, but i'm far enough back that my radio wasn't getting jammed. His was so he's talking to me on the handhold remained to me just about fifty metres away we're all under the same direct fire but he's read up next to the aircraft and I was able to get through my uh, chef and talk to the attack helicopters and for me that's the critical point of the battle right there when you .

guys finally started getting the the helicopters dial in and they started laying down that fire, yeah.

because there was so much K S. Going on, I mean, that everybody y's frightened and we're talking about fighting IT ranges of like ten meters to fifty meters, we know with only a small number of us and thousands of smiles converging IT was IT was getting to the point I was more than .

we can handle, even munitions, ammunition.

wise magazines. I mean, you didn't have time to change mags at how that's how close IT wasn't was so many guys coming at you. But when we got that firepower going, the attack helicopters just crush in that neighbourhood what that gave us. IT didn't kill everybody around us, but he killed people come on and so allowed our guys to deal with everybody that was in the parameter ter, clear out the wall right in front of you, clear out the building just to your right. And then the guys that would would have been come in the back of, and they were engaged by the attack helicopter.

IT gave us some breathing space. Fast forward a little bit. Even as the little birds torn in the smallest approaching the crash site, there were still numerous gunmen all around us.

Just seconds after I sent my last transmission to bar of five one, I felt bullets cracking very close to me and watch them punched two holes in the wall of metal shed feed away from my rear. Knowing that surgeon Kenny Thomas and some of the rangers in his squad were just beyond the shed behind me, I was afraid they might be firing across my position. I called out ranger, ranger, which was our verbal recognition signal between members, the task force.

As I was trying to yell above the growing din, I felt an impact on my right leg, like an electric shock filled by falled instantaneously by an explosion of blood and bone. I'd been hit by an A K forty seven bullet, which shadow my leg and felt like being struck full force by a sledge hammer. The firing came from a smallish gunman who was hidden unseen behind a stonewall on the other side of the street and just feed the wave to my left.

He had popped up with A A K forty seven over the wall and snapped off a ragged burst as he fired down into our position. The third ground had struck me in the leg when the gunman started firing. Mike deal had immediately rolled violence away to his right.

BMP lls, his Operator, his radio Operator, with him, his reaction had been automatic to the bullets, Petering the streets and walls around us. Both men ran in, ran the immediately, ran into the immediately adjacent building, which delta assault ers had just secured minutes before. Now I found, found myself lying wounded and an agony in the dusty street in shock.

I pray to be able to get home to see bath and my unborn daughter. I began to drag myself trying to follow cap and steel toward the building to my right. Then delta tic bar bulk came charging out of the doorway, told me as the firefight raged, he grabbed the heavy strap on the back of my armor vest and drag me out of the firing and throw the doorway into a tiny court yard.

Another one of the surgeons press me down and try to reassure me as I struggle to control the pain. Blood pored from my shattered legs, spreading out into a pool around me on the dirty floor of the court yard. Bolo immediately went to work, reaching into the wreckage of my leg, packing the multiple holes with fishful of a special clothing bandage.

Quickly, he pushed the needle of an iv of fluid into my arms to replace my blood. boss. Then he then half rolled me over, cutting away I flap in my pants to explode my backside and injected me with the thread of morphine.

The drug rolled in and pushed the intense pain away. He told me to make sure I let any other dogs who treated me later know i'd already been given one those of the powerful pain killer. After a few minutes starting to stabilize, I asked bulk if the bleeding had stopped.

And then for his assessment, he said, IT was bad. There were a couple of big holes in my leg, but amazingly, the b bleeding had stopped. Can they save IT? I asked.

He was non committal, but said IT may be possible. Initial side of my blood falling around me and the damage to my leg left me shocked, but I thank god for the miracle that the bleeding had stopped. So now .

you're hit yeah priority start to call us you will survive. That's the first thing you know is jacko but you know in a close firefight like that, I mean you're feeling IT more than you're in seeing or hearing IT. You far as the rounds that the energy of those rounds going around, you're feel in that crack, that gun shot itself as a secondary thing.

There's so much energy. And so that's little what I felt. I felt the energy of three rounds going by me. And that third one hit me, and, you know, you get these guys talk about all I took around to the arvilla man. I want to know how they did that because because I felt that, I mean, IT IT hit me hard.

And, you know, it's an important part about mike steel being there in the street next to me and and reacted in the contact and that's again, that's something train. He trained how to react to gunfire like that. That's what what he did.

But he doesn't change a fact. I mean, next thing you know and by myself and pretty badly wounded and all i'm doing no emphasize, there is a bar bullet for bark to come out and to get me can. I can't ever size enough much I own for that.

I believe the expression is your own, your life.

I do my.

um. Fast forward, outside of the room with the medics worked on my leg. Delta assault norm hood was firing out of the window down the street. Now, who went in an action using the m two a three forty million million gane launched blue a hall through the wall with the gunman who had shot me, was hiding, charging across the street through the whole norm, took the gunmen out, then raised back through the somali fire and into our building, who would eventually earn the silver star for his hair wish that day.

Have that more of phy affect you mentally? Are i've never i've never been injected with morphine before。 Is IT like a is that a drunk thing? Is that is that just a lack of feeling thing? No.

it's it's not a drunk thing. That's that's the amazing thing is, I mean, especially, I obviously deal with pain, right? So you got such intense pain, and over sudden that pain starts recede, right? You started to calm down and that pain receding.

And what I had, what I actually had to fight against, was thinking that I could do stuff, what I couldn't do, and again, with those gunships and calling that stuff in, you know, you didn't need gym letters on morphine trying to do that. And so that's what I had to fight against, is I want to be back in this fight. But I really, and at one point I thought I could stand up and that's when barr said, your own drugs, literally your own drugs, you know, so that's that's not gna happen. So I mean, that's the thing is that it's difficulty of judgment .

that he had boned the round, had bone yeah.

yeah, that's that's why IT hit me so hard. And so I lost the four inches of my tb machine bone. I just exploded and that became strap al and should ted my leg. And then IT followed my tib down and came out by my ankle. But that that bone, that foreign a tibia, was quite a bit of shrapnel that blew a great fruit size hole in the front of my leg, and then the bullet tour of the breast of my leg.

So, and yet the bleeding IT seems like I didn't hit our order or something. Well, the other .

interesting thing the doctors told me is that that turns out have three arteries. I had three arteries in that leg, and the the board actually took out two of them. So if if I D only had two arteries, they would have had amputate. But I had one artery running down the back of my leg that most people don't have. And so they were able to save like a IT was arterial bleeding.

And I was, I did IT IT took out. Did they turn you up? Her.

you know that it's the maculate thing. He didn't turn na at me. He was able to get to a quick out stuff into the whole, and he had pressure pants on me.

But he didn't have a turn IT on because, you know, today, immediately right to the turn IT. Well, I probably would have lost my leg because he was wasn't ten hours later to I go to the hospital. So i'm in a way I thank god. And we weren't doing then what we were doing today. So I was able to stop the bleeding with a quick clot. I don't really know how again, two arteries blow out um but that's kind of the maculate thing if you go to people have gone to four bending the museum there in my boot that I was wearing on my on my left leg is in that museum I donated IT and there's a bloodstain on the back of that that's about three interests take and that's the depth of the blood that we were relying in the pool there. Most of IT was mine.

Um fast for a little bit. At this point, the eight six little birds were focused on supporting the fight around the first crash site. This left super six two in the other black hat care in the delta snipers as the only available aircraft to help one of super six two crude chiefs manning a.

Dorgan was, and delta sniper brad hauling immediately jump behind the dorgan to take over and continued firing. Super six two begin to take more hits and that pilots knew they would be unable to stay in the air much longer. The entire task force waited for the reaction force, but confidence in their arrival began to eb.

Everyone on board super six two, as well as those listening on the task force radio net, knew the situation. The promise help was showing no signs of arriving soon. And based on our previous observations of other incidents in the city, it's timely arrival would be unlikely. Knowing this, the two remaining delta snipers on board super six to master sergeant gary gordon and sergeant first class Randy shoe guard repeatedly requested that the pilots put them on the ground near the second crash site to assist our wounded comrades of super six four.

Twice these requests were related to the officers in the command bird, and twice they were denied observing the now approaching crowds of somalis and out of options to save the crew of super six four, the commanders finally relented, and soon super six two landed near the crash. Gordon shoe guard jumped out of the black hawk and moved quickly through the ally ways and debris to locate the rack of super six four. Moving to the front of the aircraft, they simultaneous ly engaged approaching somalis and lifted mike dan out of the cockpit, placing iran under an overhang.

They left him with a rifle and move back into the fight. Armed only with their snipper rifles. The delta Operators return to the reck, taking weapons from the aircraft and continue to engage somali gunmen who approached the crash site. As the smallest pressed in, Randy sugar heard the sound of gary gordon and cry out as he was hit on the other side of the wreckage. He wished mike and luck and move back in a position with A M sixteen rifle he had secured from the wreckage of the helicopter, holding as long as they could.

The americans of the second crash site were finally overwhelmed as the gunmen and mass of the crowd over RAM the site, as they had done with the pakistani and nigerians earlier in the summer, with brutal and cowardly savory, the somalis killed the wounded americans. I amid the wreckage, the somalis beat and toward the bodies of the dead american soldiers. The crowd swarmed across the crash site and pushed to the spot where my dan lay injured and nearly helpless off to the side.

They immediately attacked the badly wounded pilot with their fists, sticks and river buts. The snow ling cloud of somali faces parted, and the ran felt something heavy smashed into his face. Looking up from the ground, he saw that one somali had began to beat him with the severed ARM of one of the dead americans. Suddenly, gun shots rang out, warning the attackers away. There was momentary hesitation, some argument, before the crowd closed back in and seized the ant, lifting him above their heads out of the wreckage and into the nearby.

And you garta gary gordon.

yeah. So that account exit comes from a number of different sources. Me talking to make rent, you know my knowledge of of what went on on the radio with them, probably one of the last people to talk to to those guys on the radio when they tried to call in.

And then from your podcast from listen to like iran on here, I did I did not know some of those details until like talk in your podcast. So I got some of that. And and i've mentioned before, this is one of those battles. Every time I listen to somebody talk about that, I learn more stuff. So that's what that account came from. Another thing, another blessing about writing this book was I I had to go back in research, and I talked to a bunch of the air crew, the guys from super six two that are lives still today, and some of the Operators, and learned a bunch of things about about that, that attempted to save those guys on the ground. So there's a lot of things, a number of things in the book that no one was able to connect the dots time before .

some new a new information is a great account, really is heroism from those guys. Just I mean, the metal hour for those two more years?

absolutely. And you know one of the key things here on that account is a lot of people to think that they we're just going to go down there and do their best tune. But there was actually a plan.

The plan was current mayor, who had previously lifted dambulla of the crash site, had dropped down off at the hospital and he was going to combat at, he did, he came back, and they located that second crash site, and he land. And IT is little bird, about four blocks south. And the plan was, they were supposed that gary gordon ranny sugar, we're going to extract the crew and get down to Carol mayor's aircraft and be evacuated. And that's what they were trying to do. IT was a long shot of former on hope, but they did have a plan, and they just not enable executed.

Um fast forward a little but while the drama played out at the second crash site with super six four, the ranter convoy continued on its own tragic c. The convoy had been in contact with the enemy since its arrival near the target building earlier in the mission, when they had first arrived. As the vehicles wait to be called forward in the target building is some always had begun to fire on them.

Iraq er propelled gade struck one of the large three, one of the three large five, ten trucks and disabled IT, the driver is partner, were able to escape the vehicle and load onto another truck. The overall mission had then changed with the downing of super six one. The convoy was now ordered to move the crash of super six one, bringing along the somali prisoners and some of the assault force who are already loaded up and on board the trucks.

But events began to conspire against the task force this point, and the convoy suffered the brunt of the consequences. The somalis were experiences street fighters in the heart of their home ground. They barrick the narrow avenues approaching the crash site with burning tires and the recks of cars. The clock was also working against this as we now been on the ground for over hour, and the smalls were massing in the thousands and approaching the contact area get guided by the usual system of burning tires. As the trucks departed the initial target building, moving along the main thrown fairs, they were met with the storm of small arms and RPG fire.

The convoy passed through this, got little fire, exposed the unarmored vehicles, and halted to unable to turn down the narrow and barricade to the crash site, trying to navigate with only general references through the streets and under intense fire, the convoy commander, lutte cornal, make night, pleaded for assistance from the aircraft overhead, defined a viable route as instructions were sent down from the various aircraft, including the p three o riots surveilling surveilLance plain. They had to pass through multiple layers of communication from the command bird before finally reaching midnight. Anyone who's let a convoy know this, a difficult proposition under the best of conditions in in a milestone of enemy fire and chaos of combat, IT is all but impossible.

Rangers assigned to the vehicles, along with those who have jumped on board with the smaller prisons, fought back desperately against the fire coming from all sides. The convoys, heavy weapons, fifty cow machine guns, mark, nineteen grenade launchers mounted on the trucks road continuously as other americans fired their weapons out of the windows and over the sides of the vehicles. But the concentrated five of the somalis began to take its toll.

Some of the vehicles were hit and disabled by rocket propelled grenades, forcing the americans to bail out. Under heavy fire, the Operators and rangers began to fall in the street and on board vehicles. Yeah this is it's maum maham.

Yeah the perfect way to 哎。

it's it's you know we got so good at this sort of ground Operations and convoys and convoy Operations and how to Operate and how to do and what the risks were like that that just became part of our you know part of what we do in the global war until and in iraq, especially in an urban environment. Um you know we also eventually got armored vehicles, had you know gaming things for for land mines. IT was like a totally different game.

And these guys out here, you know, even even like the fact that we would drill like a freak in nascar pit crew to change tires to rank for to we had our whole vehicles were set up, if we needed, is we could get a vehicle reg for to in like thirty seconds. We could get tires change like a, like a nice car pic crew. We like everyone knew how to drive vehicles.

One knew how to Operate vehicles. We just were we were really experienced at IT these guys in this chaos and in totally unarmored vehicles. It's it's, it's horrified to read.

I just learned to drive but a month before. And like he said, unarmored in an earth thing too, in the context of afghanistan, iraq. Listen in iraq, for sure, you always had a battle space, you know, and they may have been a good distance away, but you knew where you had checked input.

You knew you had outpost that you could rely. We didn't have any of that mog issue. There wasn't any, especially where we were at. And we knew we were strike an enemy territory. But inside the enemy territory, there wasn't any friendly and anywhere news missing.

Yeah, one of those things I remember of life because of the lave was he come back to talk to a, to a some of the general officers, and they were kind of theorizing about calling A Q, R, F.

And and they were they were given a brief and they're kind of brush off if I remember the story correctly, life was tell me is like they are kind of brush off like, well, if we knew cure, I will come over here and we've asked a couple questions like, well, you know where we're exactly and and what is their recognition simple going to be and where are their lanes of fire gonna? They're started drown down. And the guy kind of was like, well, I mean, it's not like we really would ever have to call the Q R F.

And life was lifted. I've called the Q F so many times, I can't remember. And but that's the kind of thing. You know you when when I was a Young shield in the nineties, the Q R F was one part of a brief. You, I was two words will call the cure after gonna. Come to this point of here, we didn't think about who they were, what weapons they had, how how to manage their fire, what what lanes of fire reference. We didn't think about that stuff because we just didn't .

know doesn't become important to become important.

Continuing on here, surging, casey choice took an A K around forty seven through the backwards protective vest, had no armor plate round with through his body, struck the front plate, bounce back into a fade ily, wounding him. Corporal James cavanagh, I say, right, provided covering fire with a mark fifty one. The trucks turns sudenly cava co. Was also struck by round and die sy slid down inside of his vehicle.

Yet another situation, rangers of his platoon picked him up off the street, thrown the back of a hn vi, which also held, dealt to Operator mastor tim Grace Martin Martin, well known in the task force, partly due to his badly scarface from a previous accident, but also because you want the most ample and competent delt Operations in sault force. He climbed on board the truck back at the target building to help secure somal prisoners. About that same time, about that aboard that same home, the another one of my four observers, private first class Chris calls, provided covering fire as the injured Rogers was loaded under the truck carls and felt an explosion rock the truck, defining him as another RPG struck and blue Chris Martin and rod out of the back of the vehicle. The rocket wounded rod again, turning off the back of his left fight, but Chris took the from the blast. IT is lower half of his tour, so fatale wounded somehow managed to still clean the life.

A convoy situation was not appropriate. IT now cleared the main, gone to the fire, but missed the turn again. The aircraft robbing overhead far above the chaotic male stream of the battle, directed turn around and go back the way that would come.

Things now began to all the dissented grape for the convoy. More vehicles were hit and disabled as they were more casualties every minute. When a range remaining a fifty cow machine gun in the turtle, one of the humvees trucks went down with a wound.

He is immediate replaced by a ranger surgeon, rena ruse, minutes later revise to an A K forty seven round of the stomach just under a bullet proof plate. Tough, but ami book ruiz insisted he was alright, but died later alongside Grace Martin in the casualty collection point on the airfield. One of the two remaining five ten trucks in the convoy was being driven by private first class Richard coley.

Vehicle blocked to the impact of vst of a rocker propeller grenade that slammed through the driver side door. The round hit colusa square in the side, severing his left ARM and killing him instantly. The rocket penetrated the shield door but failed the dentine remaining empaled in the Young rangers chest, tail fence and nose protrude either side of his body.

Convoy situation now became a question of survival, down to one barely running five times, and a few shot up on these. Almost everyone, including the somali prisoners, had been hit. So this is just I mean.

it's some ten miles from yeah yes. And it's just some context to so again, as as things started to change at the target building, if the camboss arrived, as we've mentioned in some of the assaulters with the prisoners that had hit target, itin got on the convoy with the prisoners in one of the the blocking positions also got on the camboss.

So when we rejected to move with the crash, said the assault element, the guys that had gone and hit the target initially, the Operators in the rangers from the helicopters, they were told to walk a you two blocks east and two blocks north, the conboy couldn't do that because the the streets were such so much wreckage in substate. So the camboss had found a different route. So now you get another group going in a different direction.

And against some of our our guys of our combat power had gotten that combos. So the assault and that had gone to the crash site was much reduced. And a lot of those guys run that camboss. Among them, Chris and some other guys got killed. so.

Going back the book here a little bit forward decision was made to call off the attempt to reach the crash site in turn back galera, which a this is sergeant first class bob gallaher use a patch on surgeon for the rangers. Gallaher took the lead now, and the convoy pushed south toward to the airfield, still fighting, but crawling along with just a few vehicles left running, including one truck pushing another that have been disabled.

Every vehicles loaded with casualties back at the airfield attack CoOperation center personnel watched the RAID and then the widening battle unfold on video screens. Major crag nix, my former company commander, and one of the rangers staff officers strove to put together a second range convoy to join the fight. To form this convoy, nickson was able to scrape together handful of other humvees, a few of which were lightly armored, and even those couldn't stop a rifle or automatic weapons fired.

Nixing quickly put together a convoy with the task force had left for manpower, joining the vehicles and crews from the infatuation tune. Cooks, supply surgeons and clerks now volunteered to join the new convoy. These rangers illustrated the ethos of the seven fifth ranger regiment. What does the job of the inference line portals to conduct combat Operations? Every ranger, no matter what is special to your specific job, must be prepared to fight and display the war, your spirit, the extreme circumstances and male room of the battle on this day in mog issue would now require them to live up to the ranger creed so that IT all the boys are getting in the game.

Everybody now, I, everybody getting put into this next combos now, because we, as we talked about, they cut forces before we deploy to mogadishu. So we went in, they're very lean and everything was in the fight, and we only had so many ACE cards we could throw away through the combat search rescue team, through the ground. Can boy the ground conboy fails. So now we got to put together what we got left, and literally guys coming out of the of the talk, the Operation sergeant major, the clerks, literally those guys get them on born and trying to .

go back out fast for the major nix in the singer off, or quickly brief ed to the convoy. Immediately they set out their hand. Torts have crashed at a super six four.

As the second convoy approach the traffic circle, smoking military vehicles could be seen approaching from the south. Nixon brought the convoy abruptly to a whole, directed them to temporary positions. The turk guns kept covering fire as what was left of the first ranger convoy, now LED by gallagher after big night had been wounded, began arriving at the traffic circle.

The site of the first convoy was shocking, with vehicles piled high Carrying heaps of wounded on top of the dead at every vehicle, badly damaged. As the two groups of rangers began to link up, IT was obvious. The situation was critical for the survivors.

The first convoy and they needed assistance to make IT back to the airfield. Nixon, midnight and gallagher briefly gathered around the vehicles in the middle street near the traffic circle. The decision was made to help the first convoy get its survivors back to the airfield and reorganized there for another try to reach the crash site of super six four.

That's a scene. Yes, these, this one, this one convoy just all shut up. A bunch of wounded, a bunch of killed an action, wounded an action. And they happened across each other at this interaction and have a quick power.

yeah. And again, I was, I was out with the assault force. Now we were doing other thing on the crash, on the first crash site.

But I got most of this account from the guys that I mentioned in the in in the book, did a bunch of interviews with them. And from what i've seen and I read from the A, R. And so that's right.

I was able to pull this account from together, talk, and almost the guys were there. And one of the one of the reactions to that conboy that I get university when I talk to people is just like stun. Shock you when you see a number of conboy vehicles, road and bodies to stack, and blood literally pn out of the vehicles to stun. shock.

Once back inside the compound, the rangers of the second convoy in bed medical personnel swarmed around the damaged vehicles, Carrying off the wounded and unloading the dead. The scenes inside the bullet riddled, blood covered vehicles were lacie, stunning of many of the rangers and Operators.

While the casualties were quickly unload, the somali prisoners who remained unhurt were put in the holding pen after doing what they could for their wounds. e. Comrades, the second convoy began.

The second convoy began to reform. They were rejoined by surviving rangers and Operators of the first convoy. So these boys that just came back from the first convoy barely load up again.

It's right when you talk to them and in a lot of them will tell you that's what really took reaching down, knowing your back into the same thing with the same ads that really took some some reaching down. But but you know known that we were still out there. Motivated as the convoy .

rolled out of the gate was immediate engaged by heavy gunfire from the somalis, IT soon became obvious they would be unable to penetrate the second to the second crash site with little no hope of success on their current attempt makes them ordered them back to the air field rangers in delt. Operators who survived the first two convoys now began integrating into the larger united nations effort.

Finally, late in the night, various american units were combined with the pakistani tanks and malaysian armored cars, and the convoy set off north the city. That's with a tenth mm division. So this is when we finally um get the and there's a lot of political things going on here. You know you talk about the owner ship of the battle bats and to get the support that they needed took some time yeah .

and there's a lot of interesting dynamics you in the U. N. Coalition that we talk about the book. But one of this you had like pakistani a military units in indian military units, greek military units and turkish military units in. So now now you're trying to ask enemies to come together and fight.

So i'm actually very appreciative of the pakistanis in the malaysians because they didn't sign up for Q, R, F. That wasn't their job, and they just got kind of woke up in them in all the night, said hakan. You bring your tanks and bring your armored vehicles and go out into this fight.

And i'm very appreciative the fact that they did that, but the difficulties and trying to get that together. And again, we have a different, different culture of of want to go into that fight. There was a little bit more presidency to go into that fight, let's just say across the board among people. So IT IT took emerging to get them all to go up.

Back at the first crash site with the assault force, more wounded were brought into the casually collection point laid on around me. The rangers in delt Operation continues, continue furiously, and method ally clear the streets and core yard immediately around us the devastating fires of the little birds continued to tune to the neighborhoods as we fertilize the short stretch of buildings we occupy and consoler dated into a type parameter.

Daylight began to fade, but the fight continued. The decision not to bring night vision goggles are now proving costly. There are a few sets available, mainly taken from the rack of the helicopter.

Still, the night gave us other advantages. We put our store blights out and use lasers, actually making them easier for the orbiting aircraft to identify our positions in the daytime. It's a big lesson learned, whether that won't definitely got passed down if you're going out bring freking night vision doesn't matter .

what time IT is yeah hundred percent and and again, I can't say enough to given the choice again, I would have brought my note vision with me. But I do want to say there was a bit of a rational and so let's go back to the ninety foot fast rope.

And so every single mission we went on, we had to evaluate what are you going to bring because we're maxed out on gear and you know even we slide and down, there's only so much you can Carry on that vest rope. And so three thirty in the afternoon, we made the decision to bring more bullets and hanger. Ade, so I was IT wasn't a case to begin lazy or negligent IT was, am I going to a bring water nigh vision or bullets and handle ades? And in that day I chose bullets.

And in retrospect, I certainly would have brought water and night vision. I didn't bring any, didn't bring anything. So I to, I get to sample the the, you know, the fruits of local super water.

So think we did a few tablets we could put in the water, but yeah, we drink out of the basically out of the world right there, in that house that we stormed into. So again, I mean, everything was gear toward. I got to slide down this rope with this weight. And so what am I going to bring again? Can emphasize enough, have night vision with .

you and water you .

ever been a heat casually just about.

yeah I I almost was. I was in the mountains of and we did like a, uh, link up, you know, over one mountain ridge with a fire team that we linked up with the squad. We link up the tune, well, start off solo Operation, so linked up with my swing body eventually.

But we kept going over these. I'm looking at my map and like, okay, over the next ridge line, when we get down to the bottom, there's a stream. I'll build a ref.

M, I can't one stream next, next, you know, eight hours later, another ridge line, sweating like crazy, get down to the bottom. The next one looking for the street. There is no stream. This happened three times out our water and I like, oh, oh no, i'm gonna be a heat cash.

Like, i'm majority because I sweat a lot anyways and after that, I I like, I was so paranoid about water for the rest of african career because I luckily that we got to the fourth ridge line, to the fourth gully, or whatever knows is a stream. And boy now is the the walls. Like the squad leader, i'm like a second.

And we stayed there very good while. Yeah real in a drink. Meanwhile, black OK approach trying to provide some resupply IT almost could get shutdown while unavoidable this decision because now, because now once this resupply hello comes in and IT all skip shot down, it's like you're not many any cause I actually .

got damaged so badly IT crashed back at the airfield, was on a commission. So yeah, yeah they said that we're not going extract .

anybody while I unavoidable decision proved tragically fatal for corp. Corporal Jimmy smith, who had SAT to my right on super six four and have been alongside me in the parameter early in the day after we'd moved away from the target building as a combined group moved toward the crash site, Smith had pushed ahead with other members of the squad during the furious fighting around the crash site at forty seven round tour through palace and separates from moral argv, Smith had fought to hang on for hours.

But despite the medic struggle to keep my wife in the dark hours of the night, he finally gave his life. From the time we established the parameter and continuing throughout the night, the question was repeatedly asked about reinforcements. When we, when will the Q, R F.

Get here? Through the night I lay in the casually collection point, my leg, a dolf throb through a morphine hazes. I listen a captain deal in the radio.

Our position was an island in the sea of smaller attacks. We knew that our comrades continued to fight around us, would never give up or let up, let anything penetrate into our tiny perimeter. We also had the little birds overhead with the confronting rip of the gatlin guns and boom of their rockets.

But we needed help more americans to get the fight and help get our wounded and dead out and back the airfield over the coming hours, as the salt force hung onto the perimeter around the first crash site, we slowly received reports of these efforts and continue to wait. Finally, we heard the thunder approach of the relief convoy. We could markets progress as a due were by the amount of firing we could hear, the noise grew in intensity to corsini as a crap forward from intersection, the intersection, the convoy was lying down, a tremendous amount of fire powers that moves slowly matho's ally through somali.

Our anxiety rose as the last thing we wanted to, wanted to get blown away by the fifty calls and mark sixteen years of the tenth mountain troops and the mixed force of the U. N. Convoy delivered instructions and warnings were passed to the convoy before one brave anger ran out from the class site to mark opposition with additional cm lights as a recognition signal.

A few more minutes pass until we heard that vehicles racing up the ali american home. These arrived first and move through our position and pass us to the wreckage of super six one next came heavily armored cars from the male sian army. Finally, as the morning broke and the sky began to get lighter, everyone who could be loaded was loaded, and the convoy lurched forward.

Somali fire increased, and the malaysian gun above me in the tt squeeze off birth of his machine gun, raining me with hot shell casings riding inside those vehicles. What we did not know was that there had not been enough groom on the humvees and armored cars for or all of the task force. The unwounded rangers and delta Operators were forced to trail the convoy on foot, running through the streets and across intersections.

The final push to safety has become known as the moga issue mile and is often commemorated today with road races and endurance events. After a tense, halting drive out of the neighbor ods with a smaller fire, increasing things suddenly began to grow the outside the malaysian vehicles made in last turn, and surge through the gates of the soccer stadium before coming, tuner brushed hold. We are inside the stadium housing the pakistani, an army contingent. And I knew that a portion of our deal of our, or deal what's over.

What time is you get back there? Section six or something like that.

Yeah, sometimes to six minutes, sometimes the sun was definitely up. And it's it's just, again, one of those kind of metaphorical things almost is the back that armed red vehicle opened up and the sunlight came in. I was just kind of amazing in the world.

World was different and a huge relief, you know, to look down out and sea guys, guys in the test force. And we didn't know the whole story and we didn't know we were going on, but we knew we'd survived. We knew what happened to us and we'd survived. And then I just kind of started to know the impact of us. We assembled back at that stadium, begin to see kind of results of what has gone on.

And but a lot of the other cash these have been taking cut back to the airfield. Is that right?

Some from the canby or so some from the conboy been taken back there. But basically everybody had been wounded out of the at the target building in the and the fighting around our crack site was there at the pakistani stadium. So we talk about in the book, but there's there was stretchers lined up on both sides that sacrified ld.

I mean, the whole IT just really was an impact to see that, to see that many stretchers lined up on both sides of psychotic eld and then looked down at the end and see, see, you know, the guys have been killed, rapped up and punches. And we'd heard about a couple of guys getting killed. Imports are common in things. We just never you didn't know the scope, scale of the fight until you saw that. That's when you really hit me.

Fast forward little bit, almost immediately, medical approach me and began to check my wound. I still worried about the bleeding, and I knew I lost a lot of blood. As the metaphor helicopters began to cycle into land on the soccer field, I told the medical, i've been hit the day before, around seventeen hundred, so you get labeled the priority.

They put you on the next U. S. helicopter. End of the forty six combat support hospital, straight to pre up. Fast forward, I woke hours later being wheeled into a long Green army tent and immediate recognized everyone in the beds around me. The ten was full of wounded rangers and delta Operators, most of them heavily bandaged with every kind of wound.

That night, we heard the incoming fire in the distance of machine guns on the nearby guard post, opening up along the parameter with no weapons and wearing only a hospital. I began to feel vulnerable again. The next morning.

Things got Better when more visitors from tf anger came over from the airfield that was really assuring to see our comrades from tf. Ranger still confident, ready to take the fight back out to the enemy, especially where our missing comrades were concerned. The rangers in delt Operators in the hospital who are lightly wounded, were similarly anxious to get back to the unit into the line.

However, we had been profoundly changed and we're still absorbing the shock of battle. All missions prior to the rate on october third, we had made scattered contact with the enemy and even taken some wounded, but we are not convinced that made us, quote, combat veterans. Those those encounters just didn't seem to meet the thresh hold of our expectations, passed on to us from world war two, korea and vietnam. But after the battle on october third and forth, the issue was beyond doubt, as if we had passed over a chasm and there was no going back.

The other thing is to that really started to be in bed or or wasn't build in us. This point was very tribal. I mean, there was a lot of other units and a lot of other people involved, but I just wanted test force ranter guys around me. And I was in a position that I was in the hospital, and I wasn't protected by test force rAngel guys. I was very get a lot of anxiety and would IT lasted all the way back to the us, you know? So and that manifest self today, but like any time I come across a guy from test force ranger know whether I like the guy or not, whether I mean there's a immediate bomb like I know you get my get my backup but that was that was really at that point, there was a lot of apprehension about that because I needed to test for Angel guys around me.

Um you end up on a sea one forty one transport um did when you end up in hospital you get A T V in this to what you see a mike dant for the first time is on that's all circulating around track in that story yeah .

it's it's again, i'll bring up begin to you. We know the story now. Have we seen the movie in thirty years later? At the time, we didn't know probably fifty percent of this story.

We knew a few things that had happened. Us things were slowly coming together, but I did not know what had happened to super six four. I knew I got shut down, but that's all I knew. Didn't know if anybody d's survived. And so the see might come across on on the news like that was was shocking and really relief at the same time.

How do you feel about is like chances cause I know when I saw I was like of this, there's no way this guy is gonna alive. No offense SE mike, of your listening, but that's what I was thinking at the time. Where were you thinking?

Yeah, you know, again, IT skills back to, we just didn't have a lot of faith in the world system. We, we were in there with all the faith in the world did. The united states in general is invincible.

And now IT coming down to all about test force ranger. And so I I wanted to think there was going to be an effort to get him out but again, I was apprehensive. Like you mention.

um you eventually get some good advice so you get probably worth bringing up you. You mentioned earlier that the army is not always to look out for your best interest in. One of the doctor told that all hospitals were not created equal. And if you could get to walk to read army medical, yeah.

best, I would say, one of the best pieces, advice i've ever gotten. So kind of the theme one of the themes of the book at this point is just to seeing the praises of the military medical system. There's a lot of support units and comeback guys joke about support pokes stuff, but the medical service and the medical military medical system is absolutely outstanding.

I mean, they are just they really are the best military trauma care in the world. And again, I didn't know me this the time, but what somebody told me was all hospitals aren't the same. Well, to read on the on the east coast and tripled on the west coast are the tip of the pyramid.

There's a hierarchy and a tip of the pyramid. And there were one hundred percent right. And and I just can't emphasize that was the best, best care I could have ever got and was good to wall, to read.

So I was fortunate builder to take, make that choice and go there, because what they were off from you was go home, your home station, and be done. And tempting, very tempting, to go home and see my wife and my family get back there to my stuff and my home, but be treated at the local for benning hospital. And it's not a dig on the forbear hospital.

They just don't have near the resources well to read as equip to be the superpower of medical centers. And so I took that choice to go up there because the issue of my leg was they didn't know they're going, can we will keep IT or not? So after spending .

the thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with my family, returned to walk, to read for the next round of surgeries, continuing rebuilding my leg, while the surgeons to have been able to close the massive wounds are still remain the problem of a foreign gap in my tibo or shinbone, my team of orthopedic gets decided to rebuild my leg using some extreme and near maculate medical procedures during hours of surgery.

They started by opening my back near the waste, then the hammer chunks out of my pants, until they got enough bone material to pack in and fill the gap between my intact upper and lower parts of my tibia. Over time, the living bone would fuse with the material that have been packed into the gap recodify and eventually completely, completely absorbing IT, creating new bone. While this maculate process eventually succeeded.

IT was a very tough surgery, not only included reopening my leg wound, but now my back and pElvis as well. IT was successful, but left me unable to get out of bed again. With new wounds in my back, I was restricted, lying on my side. That's crazy.

Yeah, two steps. Ford, once step back. And again, macular ous medical treatment that they came up with all to read some of the stuff was the first time that ever used that on some of our guys.

If they put in what's cardinal liza ave. Device on my leg, it's like two bicycle rims. And then they were drilled the through the bone to stabilize that, create this, this cage I could walk on.

And then what was tough about IT was I got get to a point where I could walk again, and but then I had to go back in for more surgery that just knocked me right back down, or I ve just bead ring again. So and this is over period of months and months and months. So I just I just took a lot of for me IT took a lot of forty two to try IT to work my way through .

that and keep trying to come back um yeah at home and four betting for march, your wife gives birth to your first first daughter.

Uh, you get promoted .

to captain and you get to do that in front of two companies of your range of brothers. And meanwhile, the army is being cool to you. You say no arauca tic pressure from the army, but the clock ticking on career, you have to go to advanced invitro advanced off. Of course, you graduate, going to make a full recovery, continue to serve the inventory and airborn units for many more years and many other wars close IT out with this again.

get the books .

are so many details in here you say the lord had answered my prayers. He not only called me with near maculate timing and circumstances to join b company and task force ranger, but IT sustained me through the battle. He had brought me not only through the desperate fight and home to see my family, but the struggle afterward to recover.

I knew that there was a reason for not only my survival, but my perseverance, and that the lord had a continuing plan for me. so. That kind of the start of your career.

the trial .

by fire, was only the beginning. You have a lot more work to do. You have a lot more worse to fight. And I actually, in reading this, recognized that you and I would have a lot more to talk about and we've already been over three hours. Well so we're gna save the rest of your career for the next podcast will record directly um echo you going to questions oh yes.

quick questions. So you're leg they got bone from your hip, right kind of rebuild essentially the missing bone. That's right.

I'll fuse together, created a new bone. And how is you now? In some ways it's stronger than IT was. Amazingly, I parachute ted on IT have went back to the inventory. So I rode marched on IT, two marathons on IT.

So yeah, I mean, I have some problems, but I don't think problems at every other fifty eight year old me. So I can not like any problems. Yeah, back stuff in my knees, feeling ssed up and all that stuff. I think, I think it's just power for the course.

Usually they put like a ride or something in there.

Yeah, yeah, there just wasn't enough left. Well, there was was a gap. So nothing for them. They had to have some bone material to create, to fill that foreign again.

So crazy, and IT is crazy. A limit, no permanent lamp, nothing like that.

No, no, not not perceptable. And I have a reason, I have an excuse for being slow on the run.

Good to go. Oh yeah. Good to meet you, right? thanks. Uh, j, in any closing thoughts for this, for this uh chapter.

just A A lot of themes you appreciate you sank the book because there is a lot, lot of detail and there are the weeding cover and there's a lot of themes. But I wrote IT for a number reasons. I wrote at one because I ve found over thirty years now, even though black cock down was pretty famous, there's a lot of people that haven't heard the story and it's not my story I wanted tell.

I try to go to detail about the guys we lost because they deserve that. That's that's why I think when you talk to a lot of guys, one of the things they hope is that people remember him and appreciate their sacrifice. So I felt very strongly about trying to tell that story, trying to clara fy a few things.

Like I said, the leadership are in the research I got to do on the book to helpful ilm some gaps. But I also think um you know our society today, uh you know we talked about making progress and being progressive and there is there is obviously things in the military that have improved from a social perspective. But I also think we've thrown out a lot of things that were important.

And I tried to highlight that the book, and there's things the military have done for two thousand, five hundred years since the barons, and there's a reason that we've gone IT in any know, the military should not reflect directly society matter what society comes up with, what they want to accept and how they want to approach things and diversity and things like that. There is a reason that there's a brotherhood. There's a reason that there's brutal and harsh training.

There's a difference between abusing people and training them for combat. And so I think our society today has thrown a lot of those things out in the baby with the bath water as we've made progress, forgotten about what IT really takes to build a unit. And i've had a lot of experience with this post an army.

And as the military has started to evolve, and again, and I just think the army in the military of taking the wrong direction, the ciders taking the wrong direction, and thrown out the good things in the historic things and the things that make a units ready for combat. So I wanted to try to highlight some of those themes in the book and and I hope it's done that. So I appreciate a plug in that night. Hope people go out and read that yeah.

we ll get in some of those lessons learned on the next podcast here and yeah the books with my shield and army range and smaller you're also on your own twitter x at licker, it's L E C H N E R underscored. Jim, how much do do you do on instagram?

I don't do a lot on on accent instagram. I started that when I became a correspondent for news max. I started on my social media stuff up but but now know this is a fine line on a different stuff that I do so yeah.

well, you're there and again, I I didn't agree with you more. You know, sometimes as I see the way certain things go in society and the military and you you watch them going in a certain direction, and sometimes I asked myself, if we keep going in that direction, who's gonna fight the worse? Because IT takes a certain type of humans that are gone a step up and fight the wars.

And that's one thing that is so clear in your book. You, you, you did such a great job showing that in this situation, this terrible situation, these these men stepped up with unmatched bravery. And when above and beyond all of them to take care of their brothers out there on the bottle field.

So it's an amazing book. Thanks right now. We ll get a little bit more in tude on the next podcast and then we'll talk about the rest of your career, which is is a plenty more to talk about.

Um everyone is listen and thanks for listening. You can support the protest by going to joke a field dot com, organ USA dot com, joo store dot com, h lam front dot com. We're also on the inter webs. Echo is at echo, Charles. I'm at joko willing and thanks again.

Ta kernel gym like nor for your service and sacrifice and all our military personal out there with a particular salute tonight to the army rangers outstanding, outstanding soldiers every way who earn their model without a doubt, rangers need the way. And also thanks to our police launch, cement firefighter's, paramedic, emt dispatchers, correction officers, border control, secret service, as well as all other first responders. Thanks to you for keeping us safe here at home. And to everyone else is listening. Remember that .

attitude from the .

rangers creed, I will shoulder more than my share of the task, whatever IT may be. That's the goal. That's the standard. So train hard, be ready and no matter what fight on. And until next time this luti kerner, jim lanner and echo and jaco out.