Stressors Experienced During Blackhawk Down

¶ … sensory senses and stressors encountered by soldiers in the firefight from the book Blackhawk Down. The special forces that took part in this mission certainly had plenty of sensory and stressor inputs. It was on the night of October 3, 1993 that an assault force of 75 U.S. Rangers and 40 Delta Force commandos rappelled from 17 helicopters into a meeting of Habr Gidr clan leaders in the middle of Mogadishu, Somalia. The mission was intended to capture two top chiefs of the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aideed, rescue any hostages and return everyone back to base about 3 miles away in a convoy of 12 U.S. military vehicles. According to Edwards, "What was supposed to be a hostage snatch mission turned into an 18-hour firefight over two Blackhawk helicopter crash sites. Eighteen Americans were killed in the fighting" (2000, p. 47).

Although Mogadishu is the largest city and capital of Somalia, it was also a harsh and unwelcoming place, especially for Americans during this period in the country's history. The urban warfare that was required of these troops was in sharp contrast to the jungle warfare fought in Vietnam, but the stressors were essentially the same. Try to imagine unseen snipers firing at the American troops from every window and being surrounded by hostile forces that are bent on destroying every American in sight. These were truly strangers in a strange land, and it is a miracle that any of them survived. The American special forces were only equipped with small arms and the convoys that were supposed to relieve them had only 50-caliber machine guns and automatic grenade launchers. By contrast, the Somali rebels were equipped with Russian assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades (Edwards, 2000).

Because the streets of Mogadishu were very narrow, the Somalis recognized that the American special forces would require a relief convoy and quickly set up roadblocks across the city to prevent their escape. Although the American special forces succeeded in securing 24 Somali prisoners at the target house, the mission experienced a severe setback when a Blackhawk helicopter was brought down a few blocks from the target house. A few minutes later, another Blackhawk helicopter was likewise brought down about a mile away from the target house.

At this point, the Somalis were swarming over the crash sites and the crews must have experienced absolute terror as they were surrounded with no relief in sight. The convoy transporting the 24 Somali prisoners was dispatched to rescue the troops at the second crash site, but the convey was constantly under attack and was unable to reach the site. Another convey was dispatched from a nearby American base but it too was forced back by heavy fire from the Somalis. According to Edwards, "The main problem was that the convoy kept halting, exposing those vehicles located in the middle of street intersections to concentrated enemy fire" (2000, p. 49).