So fun fact. The Delta operators used a different method of clearing their weapons. They would empty the weapon and put it on fire and pull the trigger. The trigger can't reset unless you rack the bolt, and the safety can't be reengaged until the trigger resets - so basically you can't accidentally pull the trigger because it's already been pulled. So while the Delta way is on "fire", the trigger is dead and that guarantees there's no round in the chamber. The Rangers did it the "normal" way, with the selector set to "safe", but in that position it's impossible to know at a glance if there's a round in the chamber, which is why Delta preferred their way. The scene is both an overt AND subtle way to show the difference in thought process and attitude of Delta and Rangers
You should know at all times of your rifle is loaded or not. The Delta way is a clever use of the mechanics of the trigger and safety on an AR but either way you should know if it’s loaded when you pick it up.
You also cannot put that weapon on safe if the hammer is down. So if you pick up the rifle and try to set it to safe and you cant, you know the hammer is on an empty chamber, even before you perform a clearance drill.
Well, yeah. That is clever. But only if you KNOW that is what they are doing. Which I never heard of before and the film sure did not make clear. By appearances, like to a bunch of rookies, it looks as though Delta are so badass they strut around ready to fire at a moments notice. Which is not badass, it is dumbass. And, as one clever commenter once pointed out, the rookie Rangers start copying the Delta to be badass too. So it is not really the Delta with his satiety off which is the worry. It is the teenagers copying him. Although. Yeah. I guess the film never underlined that point either.
I went through some training about 1000 years ago, when I was doing all my happy hardcore Army Airborne Ranger crap, one thing those boys did crazy good, was land nav!
A bit of historical context: Todd Blackburn was in his early 20s and actually deployed with Task Force Ranger to Somalia. He recovered from the fall and served as a Florida policeman for many years. He just retired a few years back. 5 Black Hawks were actually shot down, but only two ended up in the city. Super 6-2 (the chopper that inserted Gordon and Shugart) was hit by an RPG in the right side, severely injuring a third Delta sniper (Brad Halling) who was manning the minigun after the crew chief had been shot. The helicopter crashed at the nearby port facility in friendly territory and the crew was rescued. Super 6-6 was shot up badly and barely made it back to the airfield. The crew jumped into the one spare helo and rejoined the fight, flying resupply missions all night long. Super 6-8, the CSAR bird, was hit in the main rotor as depicted and crashed back at the base. All four members of the 6-4 crew survived the crash and only Durant survived because he was placed separately in another area of the crash site. The rest of the crew and the two snipers were over-run and murdered. Air Force Pararescueman Tim Wilkinson didn't stay with the 6-1 crash all night long. He set up a casualty collection point in a nearby building and ran across the 75 meter wide street multiple times to get medical supplies throughout the night. He was awarded the Air Force Cross for gallantry. He treated the man Grimes was based on that night. 6-1 actually crashed in a very narrow alley that was barely big enough for the helicopter itself. In the film, many of the Black Hawk and Little Bird pilots were part of the actual battle, and the Little Bird pilot that rescues the two Delta soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keith Jones, plays himself and reenacted his actual rescue of the two men. A number of Ranger extras were also veterans of the battle. The main cast were trained by the men of the units they represented. All the Rangers trained with the 75th Ranger Regiment, William Fichtner, Eric Bana and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau trained with the Special Forces and Jeremy Piven and Ron Eldard trained with the 160th SOAR.
Kamila, that weapon cannot be put on safety while the chamber is empty and the hammer is down. It cannot fire at all. It's perfectly safe. Plus, that soldier is portraying a special operator with extreme weapon skills. He knows what he's doing and I would trust those guys with my life.
One of those ensemble movies that everyone plays in. Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett, Tom Hardy, Eric Bana, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Piven, Sam Shepard and probably more that I am not familiar with. One of Ridley Scotts best without a doubt.
Kim Coates from SoA, Ty Burrell from Modern Family (playing Pararescueman ‘Wilkie’ in Wolcott’s bird), Ewen Bremerton from AVP, Snatch, Trainspotting playing Nelson, Ioan Gruffudd, etc. etc. etc.
@@BriBryBriBry Not fair and kind of being a jerk here... she obviously doesn't know. To someone who doesn't know them SF troops can come off "abrasive" ... have some grace and don't always try to step on someone to make yourself feel "better"... the whole "typical female" thing.. it's old...
@@verdonix1976 All they did was educate her. they werent even rude about it. Are we supposed to just sit here now and never correct or educate anyone about anything ever again because its "rude"? the whole "white knighting over nothing" thing.... its old...
@@JoshuaDay0550 I don’t even see the comment I replied to anymore, it was snippy and phrased aggressively to someone who may not know. There is a way to educate someone without being a dick. If you think my comment was “white knighting” then I guess I am guilty. Me personally, I just call it being a decent human being.
Interestingly, Lt. John Beales is also a completely fictional character, as there was never a Lt. John Beales assigned to Task Force Ranger. But I suppose having a fictionalised character having a sudden seizure as means of having SSG Eversmann immediately take over command of Chalk Four makes for better Hollywood drama, as opposed to the actual reason. That Evermann's Platoon Sergeant and the original Chalk Four commander, SFC Christopher Hardy, got called away for some Red Cross emergency and so he couldn't make the mission. The former is more exciting and grippingly intense than the latter for casual movie-goers.
@@EvanWade-z4k When I went through Navy basic, there were at least 3 guys in my division that ended up getting Entry Level Medical Separations for asthma, that had NEVER shown any indication of it before then. Two of them were triggered by the gas chamber, the other was exercise induced.
@@michaelserot6844 Sorry for the late response. I actually just read through the book 'The Battle of Mogadishu' that both Matt Eversmann and Dan Schilling edited, and it is mentioned by Eversmann that SFC Chris Hardy did return to the states for a family emergency. The Red Cross emergency bit came from a 575 page document titled 'Capital Preservation: Preparing for Urban Operations in the Twenty First Century'. The document contained a number of case studies, most about different operations and situations in Mogadishu, and one passage is written by Matt Eversmann about Gothic Serpent. Eversmann does briefly mention that SFC Hardy had to leave due to a Red Cross emergency', so I'm not sure why Evermann would contradict that fact by later stating that SFC Hardy had to leave due to family reasons. Maybe he got more info later on about Hardy and why he left, but I don't really know.
His (Eric Banna's character) weapon is on safety. His bolt is closed on the weopon system with no round in the chamber but the safety switch is on the "fire mode".
From my experience it would be close to absurd for any senior officer of one detachment to confront a member of another directly instead of going to his commanding officer. If it had been me Id've simply said "sir please go talk to my CO if you have any concerns" with a wry smile. For the purposes of a movie though I love that exchange 😊
Honestly, the saddest part of this film is that this might have been the only time since WWII that it can be said beyond any doubt that the US was doing the "right" thing. This was very much a justified war. . .but because of trauma from Vietnam and other US conflicts, and the bad press it brought. . .we pulled out and abandoned the cause. And things are still shit in Somalia. Damn shame
You have to change the culture of extreme chronic violence before things get better. It’s just too unstable and violent for a couple thousand UN and US military troops to do anything meaningful
@@crispy_338 Foreign intervention and occupation at its worst is how one ends up with a truly effed up place like Somalia. Used to be an important intersection of ancient African empires, it was occupied by the British and Italians. Briefly became a republic after gaining independence, further British meddling pissed off the local clans, culminating in the president's assassination and a coup. Then that coup's leader -- now a dictator -- became just one of the many puppets of a Cold-War superpower. Graft, corruption, and brutality bled the country dry. And like many dictatorships at the time the people rose up, kicking its oppressor out. Would've been great if not for two things: the centuries-old clan-based divisions that still ruled the countryside, and the African Famine in the mid-80s. Can't keep a country together like that without strong leadership, egalitarian or otherwise. In the end, a shallow-minded UN figured that a mere handful of peacekeepers could manage it, and the US was _again_ eager to 'take the lead' on something it absolutely couldn't handle -- despite sending more than two divisions' worth of personnel.
Well true, but the overall UNOSOM II effort wasn't going very well. Peacekeepers weren't peacekeepers anymore, but combat soldiers who engage in gunfights with Aidid's and various militias almost daily. There was 1 time in June or July where an American attack helo blew up a house (Bloody Monday I believe that's what's called) which was hosting a meeting among elders from various clans. If I remember correctly, they were discussing about how to bring a peaceful resolution between UNOSOM II and Aidid and the country in general. This killing of elders pretty much stirred the hornet's nest, and caused even the locals to be against the UN, and that's why on this Oct 3rd raid, almost the entire city of people were against the US task force.
@@dallasyap3064 I think the key thing is at least they tried to do good for the most part, it may not have always worked out or gone the way as planned but their intentions were way better than the foreign policy we have today. You can thank bush and Cheney for that.
You gotta react to the Generation Kill mini series!! It's an 8 episode series about the Iraq invasion of 2003, it's comedic, has action and it's a real life experience of being in a warzone ❤
Hardly anyone reacts to this series because of politics. It was my war it would be an honor for you to react to it. Crazy how no one remembers how nearly all the politicians on both sides were all for it.
US forces were trying to help Somali civilians but the US soldiers posed a threat to Aidid's power so Aidid's militiamen, who benefited from his power, were attacking them; not Somali civilians, for the most part.
I saw that movie back in the movie theater when it released and its quite epic on a huge screen with full blast sound. Its funny you just recognize orlando bloom, this movie is stacked with big stars. Almost every actor in this is a huge star now.
I was hooked up by a friend (stuntman / Green Beret Veteran) who invited me to an advanced screening while I was in the Marine Corps. The room was packed with current Army and Ranger Veterans. I also met one of the Rangers who was in this battle and another who was part of the fast rope scene.
The older followers of your channel here (like myself) remember this event well. I can remember watching the actual footage of our dead soldiers being carried through the streets by mobs as was shown in this film. There is actual footage of this available to view here on You Tube if interested. The 2 men (Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon) who went to the 2nd crash site knew going in they were most likely dead men but did it anyways. Nothing but the utmost respect and awe for those 2 Medal of Honor recipients.
I had come here to say something similar about being old enough to remember events like this and Desert Storm, and watched things as they were unfolding. So am I safe in my assumption, you’re roughly 40, or over 40 like myself?
Yup the footage of American soldiers being dragged around the street caused severe public outcry in the US, and that pretty much led Clinton to withdraw not just Task Force Rangers but the entire American military contingent in March 1994.
Just a lil thing here, that guy you didn't like was a Delta. Deltas are Tier 1 units and Tier 1 units don't follow the normal military rules because they have their own rules and cultures. They are the best of the best America has so that's why they act like that.
Yeah, IRL Even Navy Seals wanna grow up to be a Delta Operator; as although technically a branch of the US Army SF they accept applicants from all active branches of the US Military, even regular military non-SF members can apply, so long as they their extensive background checks, service history (I.e NO serious reprimands or disciplinary actions in your file), and prior psych evaluations ALL pass their standards, they pass Delta Training, and they pass their first year in Delta during which they're essentially a "Probationary Member" and can still be kicked out at anytime for any reason. So you could be a regular ass grunt whether soldier, airmen, Marine, or an already elite Special Forces member in another branch such as USAF ParaRescue also known as "PJ's", a Marine Raider in MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command), or Marine Force Recon (Force Recon is an SF deep reconnaissance unit, under the direct command of the USMC, while MARSOC is under the Unified command structure of USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command, which includes special forces from every branch except the Space Force and probably Coast Guard AFAIK). When MARSOC/Marine Raiders were initially formed, most of their members were chosen and recruited from Force Recon. What most people don't know however is that yes the Rangers are an elite force, but are actually themselves a Tier 2 Special Forces Unit as well; They specialize in seizing and capturing enemy airfields, and also work closely with Delta when required essentially securing the outer zone of an objective creating a perimeter away from it while Delta carrys out their mission knowing any surprise visitors or reinforcements have to get past the 75th Rangers Regiment first which this movie actually shows. Delta raided the meeting building and captured the prisoners, but it was the 75th Rangers that were holding an outer perimeter at the street corners defending routes to the building, and Rangers arriving in HMMWV's and Duece an a Halfs to transport and escort Delta and the Prisoners back to base. So Rangers have an advantage when it comes to joining Delta as they already have many of the qualifications necessary, such as passing Airborne School, etc. It was officially "estimated" (Since everything about them's so classified) by the government that approximately 70% of Delta Operators are recruited/sourced from the 75th Rangers Regiment. Delta is so classified, they're not probably not even really "Delta" anymore as that's become publicly known; and unlike the Seals they take that shit SERIOUSLY. Whereas "DEVGRU" aka "SEAL Team Six" has been known about for decades now, and seem to have multiple books a year written by Seals and divulging what they've done; only a couple Delta Books have been written and only about the most well known Operations with their involvement already blown such as here with books about the Battle of Mogadishu. As such they are constantly redesignated as different units to hide them. Their true full name is 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delts (1st SFOD-D), but have also been called simply "Delta Force", "Combat Applications Group (aka "CAG"), or within JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) simply referred to as "Task Force Green". Their size is "Classified", their current commander is "Classified", and they're almost NEVER directly mentioned by the White House or DoD unless they accomplished or were involved in something so big/important that they kinda have to (Like The Battle of Mogadishu, especially with Gordy and Shuggart receiving the CMoH each, and posthumously). Delta Operators in pictures ALWAYS have their faces blurred to remain anonymous, which Biden, like everything he does, fucked up in his 2023 visit to Israel in which the White House published publicity photos of Biden visiting but were such inept dumbasses they forgot to blur the faces of the "Top Secret, classified and may or may not exist" Delta Operators functioning as part of Bidens security detail overseas effectively blowing their identities and likely ruining their jobs and potentially lives as them remaining in Delta after everyone's seen and knows their face effectively eliminates their ability to remain undercover on missions where they have to pose as civilians (One of the reasons Delta gets specialty treatment and can grow their hair out and have full beards and everything, is for blending in amongst the local civilian populous in their "Street Clothes" wherever they're deployed whether it's the middle-east, Africa, even Europe such as the Balkans with Bosnia, Kosovo, etc. Imagine going from a life and possibly career devoted to the military, being so good you're in the prestigious ELITE of the elite units, and after the years of dedication getting there some cooked up White House staffers desperate to raise Bidens approval rating with a single *Click* taking mere seconds ruin your career and endanger not only you but potential family as well. Imagine gow soul crushing it'd be getting booted from "Tier 1" down to just support, regular army, or even a desk job; hell maybe let go by the military entirely for absolutely nothing you did, but the actions of your supposed "Commander-and-chief" and incompetent staff he chose. Imagine being that guy and what that'd do mentally, or do to his potential wife and kids with their partner/father's spirit crushed and their own lives upended as well? With Delta already trained in pretty much everything they could want, and already having to possess a "Top Secret Security Clearance" the CIA's civillian paramilitary unit known by a few names but most commonly as either SOG (Special Operations Group) or SAD (Special Activities Division), are particularly fond of recruiting Delta Operators once they've retired. Also not mentioned as much but just as deserving and prestigious in this movie, is the world's most brave and elite group of pilots in the world, the US Army's 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) aka "The Nightstalkers". With their trademark all black painted aircraft, mottos "Nightstalkers Don't Quit" and "Any Mission, Anywhere", they're extensively trained for proficiency flying night ops (Hence their black camo) with NVG's being their only way to see anything, though they carry out daylight missions just as much as the movie shows. Yhose pilots and crewchiefs manning those CH-47 Chinooks and 2x EXTREMELY RARE (and STILL classified btw) MH-60 "StealthHawks" that were all involved in sneaking into Pakistan by flying in to insert SEAL Team Six and capture/kill Bin Laden in the middle of the night and avoiding all Pakistani radar by flying EXTREMELY low level, once again while it's the middile of the night with limited visibility over unknown terrain. That was 160th SOAR, they're also the primary users the MH-60 DAP or "Direct Action Penetrator" was made for; which essentially turns the Blackhawk into an Mi-24 Hind, by turning it into a gunship with an Attack Helicopter-esq electro-optical targeting pod in the nose, along with hardpoints and wingstubs for 25-30mm autocannons, 2.75" Hydra Rocket Pods, AGM-114 Hellfire ATGM's which double as general purpose guided missiles, and GAU 7.62x51mm gunpods (The gunpod version of the minigun), etc, in addition to the M134-DH Miniguns already carried by SOAR as their door guns with one on each side already in just their regular MH-60, now in addition to whatever DAP loadout's being carried as well IF they choose to use DAPs. They're also the ones using the MH-6 "Little Birds" and it's attack helicopter variant, The AH-6; first seen unarmed when inserting Delta on the Bench seats (Yes they're basically sitting on just metal stadium seats mounded to the sides, I don't even know if they get seat belts or straps), then later armed with mini guns and 2.75" Rocket Pods conducting gun runs and Rocket strikes on Somali combatants.
@@pyro1047 I'll be honest I didn't read everything because it's way too much and I only read the first part. Not every SEAL wants top be Delta because SEALs also have their own Tier 1 unit called SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU and that's where most SEALs go for Tier 1. Also not everyone in Delta has Special Forces training or experience because there were even normal Marines and even National Guards who became Delta because they did everything right and they got accepted in Delta. Also I would say the ISA is more secretive then Delta or any Tier 1 unit because the ISA are heard by no one and no one knows them. They themselves are also Tier 1. Everyone heard of SEAL Team 6, Delta and 160th SOAR but no one knows anything about the ISA.
@@richardkim3652 lol, you probably SHOULD'VE read his whole comment, since you decided to reply to it because, he had already explained everything you had said in your first two paragraphs already 🤣
“Look at the dogs.” You’re so sweet. Just to let you know. Stray dogs were wandering into the scenes when they were being shot and Ridley Scott allowed it to add realism. Also 6-8 of the strays were adopted and brought back to the US.
One of the best war movies ever made and it's loaded with the best actors. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Legolas, Prince Hector, Lucius Malfoy, Jamie Lannister just to name a few. Hans Zimmer with one of the best soundtrack of his very impressive body of work he has done in the years. Really solid acting, superb action and and absolutely outstanding camera work and editing. This story is both fascinating and sad. The Delta Force and the Rangers are known to be absolute badasses but the pilots never get enough credits. The 160th SOAR are some of the best pilots you can find on this planet. They're called Nightstalkers because they spend a lot of time flying nighttime with nods ( night visions googles ), they are absolutely crazy how far they're willing to go to insert/extract soldiers. Many other pilots will say nah we cant land its too hot...SOAR pilot will come...might not gonna collect a lot of bullets in the process but if he says he will be there he really means it. They fly low and slow risking themselves for their comrades because its just what they do, for them its not an option to say no. That Chinook that was shot down in the movie called Lone Survivor was a 160th bird with 2 pilots and 6 crew onboard ( 8 SEALS ). The scene that always chokes me up is when Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon requests to be inserted near the 2nd downed bird. They were very experienced guys, they were fully aware that thy are most likely not coming back. They had semi-auto rifles with a medium range optic and limited ammunition on them, setup to provide precise supporting fire from the air. On the ground you need automatic weapons and a lot of ammo. Yet they wanted to go because one of them was down there and damn the odds. They were told that they have no idea when will reinforcements arrive but they went anyway. Thats heroism. I'm not even from the US but I have so much respect for those guys and a 100% agree with the decision to award them with Medals of Honor. Whoever voted for this movie, well done lads. On to 13 Hours I hope. :)
10:25 sometimes you don't know you have epilepsy.until after an episode. Especially back in the 90s. I sat in a jury trial for a medical malpractice case in 2005 from 18 years earlier. Plaintiff lawyers were using a lot more modern science (late 90s-early 2000s) to go after an event that the medical knowledge was only mid 80s. Had no real case as medicine back then was different. I went for my EMT license after that and protocols are changing based on new medical science and discoveries. CPR updates every 5 years, so for seizures maybe he didn't know. And you can have a seizure and NOT be epileptic as well.
TO HELL AND BACK is a true WW2 movie about Audie Murphy who was the most decorated American soldier of WW2. After the war Audie became a Hollywood actor making about 70 movies 1 of them being TO HELL AND BACK so Audie play's himself in his own life story about how he got the medal of honor. I think that's why I love the movie there's only 1 other movie where the soldier became a movie star and played the same roll he did in combat.
Military medical waivers were flexible back in these times and easier to fraudulently enlist & commission. My first company commander (Captain), at the time this movie took place, was diabetic. He was pulled off the line one day and medically discharged. Over the years I served with individuals that omitted disqualifying medical issues: asthma, and tourette syndrome. Delta Force operator Norman “Hoot” Hooten portrayed by Eric Bana would become a pharmacist while in his 50's, in order to help tackle opioid addiction among patients at VA medical centers.
This movie is why I enlisted. I actually ended up serving in this unit, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Truly incredible human beings. We have a memorial 5K every year outside the base, thousands show up, all Ranger buddies past and present.
I served in the 10th MTN unit that rescued those troops at the end of the movie. Every year the unit gets together with some of the survivors and we did the Mogadishu mile which was a run to commemorate the run they all did at the end of the battle. After talking with some of the people who were there about the movie, there were some Hollywood liberties taken, but overall they have all said this was pretty faithful to how the battle went. The details were changed in several spots but the feel and overarching story are the same.
Mog is actually a gorgeous city. "The White Pearl of the Indian Ocean". Visiting today, you probably will still hear random gunfire. Or at least I did when I was there in 2014. Could be a wedding. Could be someone's camel walked into the wrong yard or got too close to the Bancroft compound by the airport. Part of the issue in Somalia is that the country went so long without an established government that it broke up into regions controlled by various clans and warlords. Now, most of the major clans "sort of" get along through a mixture of alliances and brokered deals. It took a lot of blood and bodies to get Mog cleared and stable in the early 2010's, and the different clans controlled different neighborhoods. Outside of Mog, the level of government control is directly proportional to distance from the city. AMISOM and African Union forces, (with lots of help from the UN and mercenary corporations like Bancroft) basically had to go door to door through the entire city, clearing out Al Shabaab militants and others who didn't want to play nice.
This is one of those times where a 'comma' is actually pretty important. For a few seconds, I was trying to figure out who/why you were calling him "Kamilla Hoot" 🤣
This movie is why I wanted to become a Ranger. The same year as 9/11, this movie came out. When I turned 19, my mom died. I was 15, wanted to join, my mom was a Navy vet, my dad was still in the Navy, and neither of them would sign off for me at 17. But at 19, when my mom died? I made her 1 promise: I would never get a tattoo. Her second wish was that I promised that I wouldn't join the army, but I never made that promise.
First war movie I ever watched. Definitely holds some nostalgic value for me. My dad was in the army during the Kuwait conflict era. This movie messes with him real bad to the point he can’t even be in the room when I watch it.
The 2-3 miles the Rangers and Delta troops had to run at the end became known as "The Mogadishu Mile". The Three Rangers Foundation still commemorates it each year with a charity run.
I joined the Army in 2000 and spent a couple of weeks in "The Box" at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. During that time, we did several missions at the Shugart-Gordon MOUT Center, which is a city built in the forest to train units for fighting in urban terrain. At the time, I hadn't seen this movie yet and was only vaguely familiar with just how incredible the sacrifice of Shugart and Gordon actually was. This movie always hit close to home for me. Even little things like the way they say "sarent" instead of articulating Sergeant. That is exactly how we spoke in the infantry. Not an easy one to watch, but so well done.
What always confuses me is that civilians will often just wander through firefights as if not being involved means bullets can't hit them. Personally, if I see/hear a gun battle, I don't care if my house is over there, I'm moving Away from it.
Great Reaction. I was a sophomore in high school when this came out and I read the book years the movie came out. I’d say the movie is about 80% accurate. It’s a great movie and tells the story well. Of course, some things were changed, events compressed for time and some characters were fictional (Grimes) but then certain little details were kept. When the first chopper crashes, it clips the roof someone’s home which actually happened. However, the crash site in real life was more of an alley than a courtyard. One thing I find very interesting is that in the movie when the chopper (STAR 41) lands at The first crash and evacs Sgt. Busch the pilot in the movie was the same person who did it in real life. They filmed a lot of scenes that were deleted but available to watch. Sgt. Ruiz died from his wound in real life, but you wouldn’t know that unless you read the names at the end or haven’t seen the uncut scene where Capt. Steele talks to him during the “Don’t go back out there without me” scene. In the original scene when Steele walks up to the foot of Ruiz’s cot, the doctor, who is standing behind Ruiz looks up and silently shakes his head at Steele signaling that he isn’t going to make it. I think they should have left that in. It makes the scene more impactful as Capt. Steele talks to him better and Ruiz in unaware of the fact that he is about to die.
(“REACTIONZ”) (Oct 6, 2024) 5:455:58 Todd Blackburn 6:207:0213:42 Picking up Hoot 6:45 Hunting boar 7:15 “I respect the skinnies” 9:069:14 She wanted to be a military nurse in Norway but she gets migraines 10:28 “I feel like Im already sweating, we havent even started the mission” 11:48 House of Pain- jump around 11:58 Debriefing before going out 12:40 24:07
The absolute worst story I heard about this, from a Delta who was there, was that in the days following the incident, civilians started showing up at the U.S. base with trash bags. They were filled with body parts of the soldiers who had died and hadn’t been recovered. They were giving them back. Also watching that same Delta still barely being able to talk about Gordon and Shughart, this was last year, really says something.
One of my favorite movies with a star studded cast, now that we look back on it. Josh Hartnett, Tom Hardy, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom, Will Fitchner, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister in GoT) And the actor playing Mr Atto in the beginning of the movie also played Kingsley Shacklebolt in the Harry Potter movies.
8:50 In the book by Mark Bowden, Steele didn't actually mind Pilla's impression...until he made a religious joke. Steele was (and probably still is TBH) a very religious man, and he didn't like jokes at Jesus' expense...
10:15 Nope. Just means he'll get a medical discharge (as a commissioned officer, he might have to resign his commission first; any actual veterans/officers are welcome to correct me and/or explain further); There are no punitive measures (unless the military finds out he had a seizure before & concealed it from the military), he won't get in trouble (medical discharge is usually treated the same as an honorable discharge (depending on the soldier's record)), but he can't be in the US Military anymore.
The thing most people do not realize is in order to provide cover for someone is you got to expose yourself to enemy fire. It takes some real discipline and fortitude to do so.
My first job out of highschool, about 5 years after this event, I was a line cook at a restaurant in the midwest (US). It was a 24 hour diner style restaurant, our night manager was a recently retired low rank noncom Ranger who was in the Battle of Mogadishu. He probably wasn't but 10 years or so older than me. Too this day, I have never seen someone drink as much as alcohol as this man....on the daily. After watching this film (which I've seen many times) it's easy to see why that was the case.
This was one of those operations that has been studied for 30 years as basically a "when you think the op is easy but it evolves into something worse". We can only hope those in charge understand that it is imperitive to have multiple CAS and quick-reaction forces, not just one which is completely il-equipped.
This is the who's who of this generation of actors. I'm sure if you looked at the IMDb page for it, you'd recognise more names and faces than just Orlando Bloom. Sometimes they can be harder to recognise because of the hair and "wounds". My personal favourite is Grimes (Ewan McGregor). I do, as a fellow Scotsman, hear his Scottish accent break through a couple of times.
How so? They show almost every single U.S. soldier who got killed. Like, you don't think they showed enough Somali's getting cut down? Would have gootten gratuitous after awhile.
@@Harkness78 Jeff Strueker was a Ranger involved in the operation and he said in an interview that while the movie was a good portrayal, it didn’t capture the immense violence of that day.
Thats the scene that always choke me up. When they asked to be dropped in fully knowing they will not be coming back. Thats what Hoot was talking about at the end. Those men are just different.
@@neutchain7838 Absolutely agree. These type of men are extremely rare and truly honorable. Much like John Chapman, the first Medal of Honor recipient filmed via CIA drone.
@@-Knife- yep, same breed. Like Eversman said, nobody goes to war to be a hero sometimes it just turns out that way. They valued their brothers in arms' life more than their own and were happy to forfeit it to save others. That's heroism.
I actually know a lot of these dudes. My dad was in the 160th for 20 years and was also a Blackhawk pilot. I’ve met Michael Durant, I actually saw this movie for the first time with Todd Blackburn, and few of the Delta guys, I can’t remember his name right now, but one of the little bird pilots that landed and was firing out the side he actually had to spend the night at our house because he got too drunk for my dad‘s retirement party haha. Lots of good dudes, lots of good dudes that live a very difficult life after this event. I won’t say his name, but he was a member of Delta, and then worked with my dad for a privatized training operations company after they both retired. Poor guy, just too deep in the booze and lived life very intensely and aggressively.
So something I found out many years ago from a Ranger I knew that after this happened IRL there was a drill created to simulate the last scene in the movie with the guys running back to the Stadium, and they called it "The Mogadishu Mile" It entails everything those guys went through with non stop running and shooting targets on the move constantly. I was told it was brutal, challenging and extremely difficult. It dug deep, maybe even to the soul , because they said it changed you forever as a Ranger.
One of the two delta operators that went to the second crash site is buried here in Maine. Gary Gordon, sadly some douche bag vandalized his grave with spray paint a few years ago. Idk if the police ever figured out who did it, but that's disgusting, vandalizing a grave is bad enough, but vandalizing the grave of a medal of honor recipient is just absolutely disgusting. Thankfully his grave was able to be fully restored.
The 2 guys who volunteered to go back? Both died, and both earned the Medal of Honor. They died, knowing they would die, to save 1 pilot. Above, and beyond the call of duty. Real hard pipe hitters. Unafraid of oblivion.
7:53 His weapon was in fact "Rack Safe," as in "Safe Position for Storage." You see the Rangers liked to keep their rifles on Regular Safe: Remove Magazine, Chamber Empty, Bolt Forward, Trigger Not Pulled, Selector on Safe. Delta liked to use Rack Safe: Remove Magazine, Chamber Empty, Bolt Forward, Selector to Semi-Fire, Trigger Pulled. Under that circumstance it is impossible to switch the Selector back to Safe. You'd need to Retract the Bolt back and forth with the Charging Handle to be able to move the Selector Switch again.
Pretty accurate but still many aspects misrepresented. The "Mogadishu Mile ", wasn't really a Mile and they didn't run back to the Pakistani Stadium. They only ran out to where the trucks and APC'S were waiting for them.
42:20 yeah having your femoral artery cut is terrifying. I’ve seen a real video someone pass out from the amount of blood loss in just 45 seconds, and he was dead about a minute after that :( there were people around him trying to help him by tying a tourniquet, but they wrapped it around the wrong leg….
@@praetorxian they do when properly applied. Wouldn’t have helped Cpl Smith, because he was shot so high up, but ranger medics carry junctional TQ’s BECUASE of this event. It actually inspired all current military first aid doctrine, which was almost nonexistent at the time
True! It’s super distracting bc the accent is wrong and the look is MORE wrong. 😆 I think most of the credited roles are British and American of West African descent…. The extras seem to be West African and all very dark, when a bit of melanin diversity would look more authentic
IRENE!!!! lol nooo but some unknown behind the scenes lore. before staring in the documentry family series "Modern family" phil Dumphy was a special forces delta ranger who fought in Mogadisho before attending college, becoming a cheerleader to deal with his pent up PTSD (kinda like bob ross after Vietnam) and meeting his future wife claire pritchett. BUT he still has an affinity for margaritas!!
You can develop epilepsy later in life, especially if you've experienced a head injury. I went the first 26 years of my life without ever having a seizure, and then had them nonstop for three years because of a head injury from an old bike accident when I was a teenager. So he may not have known he had epilepsy until his first seizure, he didn't necessarily lie on his medical forms.
Theres an insanely long interview with a delta squad guy done by shawn ryan, episode 77 on his channel. He was actually there, irl. There is a character in the movie based on him. He was one of the ones that spent the night in the city. Its not for the faint of heart. Delta is our best of the best and most secretive special operations task force. No one tells them what to do or where to be, theyre just there. No one knows whose in charge and they embed with whoever they want wherever and no one in the military is ranked high enough to tell them no. This movie is about as close as you get to what really happened and i like it because it doesnt show us the typical hollywood narrative of our troops swooping in to save the day.
Great reaction. I've mentioned this one before but for a film 'Based on a true story' consider the 1965 British film The Heroes of Telemark. Which without giving to much away is about the most heroic action of the Norwegian resistance in WW2. It is available free on RUclips if you search but errrrr Norwegian actors not given the lead roles. Further back and possibly difficult to find there is Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water a 1948 Norwegian-French film about the same true story, probably closer to said truth. Ten of the men who appear in the film were the actual resistance fighters involved. Its held to be the most effective resistance operation of WW2 and Norwegians did it.
Your comments about the military resonate with me. When Sept 11 happened I had just started classes to finish my last 6 credits towards my Criminal Justice Degree. I had to decide if I was going to stay and finish or enlist in the military. I decided to finiish my degree and put myself through the Police Academy and went on to have a family and Law Enforcement career. To this day I still look back at that decision and have regrets about not serving my country via the military but I know I served my community too.
Great reaction Centane like always! The Air Force Pararescueman Tim Wilkinson who is depicted stabilizing and treating the crew chiefs of the first downed Black Hawk in the helicopter because they couldn't be moved received the Air Force Cross (the Air Force's second highest decoration for valor) for his lifesaving efforts in the Battle of Mogadishu. At one point, he had to run back and forth under fire between buildings to treat wounded soldiers and miraculously wasn't hit once. One of the Rangers, who was amazed after seeing this, said "God must really love medics," and other joked that Wilkinson was such a slow runner that the Somalis were over estimating how much to lead their shots (you "lead," i.e. fire ahead of, a moving target so that your bullets and the target reach the same place at the same time). Little known fact, the Somalis use of RPGs as anti-aircraft weapons was actually really creative. The RPG is not an anti-aircraft weapon. It's an anti-tank weapon. Pointed upward it only has a max range of 300 meters, and it leaves a smoke trail that can be easily tracked back to the person who fired it. Using an RPG to shoot down helicopters actually requires a high degree of skill and courage. Keep up the good work.
The Captain already knows that Delta knows his shit. However, Rangers on the other hand, unlike deltas, mostly excited young dudes in their 20s and they take Deltas as example to themselves, thinking how cool Deltas are. When the captain warned the delta on safety of rifle, he already knows he better leave Delta alone, but he didn’t want his young rangers to show same sloppiness to feel as cool as delta meanwhile they are not on the par with delta skill set. Captain simply wants his young and stupid rangers to stay alive, and definitely he doesn’t want them to harm themselves or their friends by their own stupidity.
These days a mission like this would be done at night with 5-10 navy seals or green berets. And as for finding the General, they’d send in intelligence units and track his whereabouts on the ground, then from a satellite, then take him out with a drone strike.
@@crispy_338 in Afghanistan, maybe. Not in a heavily populated urban center with a hostile force that can rapidly organize. They’d have the same make up, with probably another company on QRF, stykers and a gunship. You wouldn’t be able to kinetic strike a target with that much collateral.
@@crispy_338 it CAN but that’s still pretty conditional. I actually worked for the guy who did the first kinetic strike with a 9X. I didn’t get to see it unfortunately. You’d still be hard pressed to get approval to drop one inside the bakara market of Mogadishu. Either way, this raid wasn’t even targeting Aidid, it was targeting his lieutenants. Kinetic strikes don’t develop targets, so even today I doubt they’d use one. Now if they could PiD him, and had multiple different intel sources, it would certainly be preferable to drop a 9X, but that’s only if you could get him outside. Thats why ST6 had to go in for Bin Laden, he never exposed himself.
Believe or not, ST6 operators were involved in this mission, but they weren't the main course. ISA & SAC were actually involved in this mission too, they were the ones gathering intelligence on Aidid and his top associates and their whereabouts and disseminated them to Task Force Rangers. DC wanted this mission over very quickly despite only being a little over a month. Finding a very HVT takes time. This mission was just a buildup to collect more intel, unfortunately it went south. The setting and political situation of Somalia was just different.
This is an amazing war film, one of the most realistic ever especially for its sound effects (which I believe it won an Oscar). Many characters are real but few are fictionalized (still based on real soldiers). Evan McGregor's character was 1 of them. The real life soldier that the character is based off is John Stebbins, he was convicted by a military court and sentenced to years in prison for doing inappropriate stuff to his 6 yo daughter. So they decided to fictionalize him in the movie. Though a lot of inaccuracies and miss-out, still got the overall story true. The reason why so many Somali civilians came out angrily into the streets during this Oct 3rd raid is due to a previous incident (more than 1 incident actually), Bloody Monday raid on 12th July (2 months before this BHD battle), where an American attack helicopter launched an airstrike and destroyed a house that was hosting a meeting attended by elders from various clans. They were trying to negotiate a peace deal, especially between Aidid and UNOSOM (the UN authority in Somalia). Without a doubt, the Somali populace was beyond outrage by this act, leading to more hostile situations and culminating in a near daily hostile battle between UNOSOM troops and Aidid's militias (as well as some other rebel groups that were originally opposed to Aidid). This essentially turn Aidid's local enemies, as well as civilians, into his allies. This is why u see so many angry Somali mob in this battle. After the disastrous outcome of this battle, not only was this special operations Task Force pulled out, but the entire American contingent was withdrawn too. Indirectly, the US would suffer more repercussions as al-qaeda took advantage of this bad PR.
14:43 This group had done several missions in Somalia with no casualties. U.S. Special forces quite often perform missions where small teams kill 30+ enemy combatants and don't suffer a single casualty themselves. Training and much better equipment and air support.
the half of the cast, including some somalis(mr. Atto for example), is british(McGregor, Bremner, Dancy, Gruffudd, Isaacs, Bloom, Hardy) . Also you have a serbian born american, an australien(Bana), a canadien and a dane(Coster-Waldau). But there is also the son of a former us president. Steven Ford the son of Gerald
@Centane Knowing you had a desire to serve just makes me like you even more. Norway has been a solid ally throughout the War on Terror, and their special operators are high-tier. Remember this: You technically applied to join during peacetime. I suspect peacetime will not last much longer, one way or another, and when that time comes, the doors will open to you. Best thing you can do is make sure you are physically, mentally, and spiritually prepared for when that time comes. I do not wish for war just for the sake of it, but when it comes, its people like you that need to be there. I have some training knowledge, so if being prepared is something you are interested in, I and others like me are always happy to help. God Bless. Also, you need to watch 13 Hours and try listening to two songs: Act of Valor by March in Arms (its about Black Hawk Down) and Drawn in Blood by Guardians of Time (Norwegian band, video features images of Norwegian operators).
I wonder if any of the soldiers from this mission ever looked at the Scandinavian Nordbat 2, from 1993-1995 in Bosnia, and were envious. Headline of an article that can be searched "Trigger-Happy, Autonomous, and Disobedient: Nordbat 2 and Mission Command in Bosnia" Snippets from the article: _"In late 1993, a reinforced Swedish-Danish-Norwegian mechanized battalion (Nordbat 2) deployed to Bosnia as part of an ongoing UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNPROFOR"_ _"The troops and officers from some of the least belligerent nations in the world turned out to be quite adept at both using force and playing the odds in a high-stakes political game."_ _"Nordbat 2 on multiple occasions utterly disregarded orders from its highest political authorities, to the frustration of the Swedish government."_ _"There was no priority higher than that of achieving the mission objectives at hand. Orders could be disobeyed, rules could be broken-as long as the mission was successful."_ (Keep in mind the mission objective was to protect civilians against the warring parties with Nordbat 2 standing in the middle - so the orders being disobeyed were those that kept them from protecting civilians when those civilians were in harms way).
More snippets from the article: _"While several other countries preferred to send lightly armed vehicles to avoid provoking the parties to the conflict, Henricsson wanted the main infantry fighting vehicle of the Swedish Army at the time. This vehicle, known as the Pbv 302, featured a 20mm automatic cannon and fairly respectable armor for a vehicle of its type. In addition, Henricsson wanted a Danish tank company equipped with recently modernized Leopard main battle tanks."_ _"When asked by the media, Henricsson made it clear that his interpretation of the mission objectives (which he had developed himself on the basis of the original UN mandate, rather than taking clues from his political superiors) was that protection of the civilian population was the highest priority."_ _"Vastly outnumbered and outgunned, Captain Simson realized that it was unrealistic to expect that his unit would survive a full-out assault. Nevertheless, he was determined not to give in. The Croats started to fire mortar rounds, but the Swedes held their positions."_ _"In the morning, the Croats negotiated with the Swedes and eventually left, quietly dropping their ultimatums. Nordbat 2 had shown resolve even in the face of hopeless odds, achieving a strategically important victory as a result of a decision made by a platoon commander."_ (Captain Simson). _"Colonel Henricsson made it clear that he would not respect rules and regulations that threatened to prevent him from achieving his mission objectives."_ (Protecting civilians).
More snippets from the article: _"Once the Danes started to take fire, their response was furious."_ (Operation Bøllebank 'Operation Bully Bashing' - there was some controversy about who gave the orders and when, but the result speaks for itself. The Danish force were lead into an ambush and bit back hard "The mouse ate the cat"). Operation Bøllebank Danish Leopards in Bosnia [EN SUB]: ruclips.net/video/mzPs5BxzvK4/видео.html _"Nordbat 2 had once again refused to let the parties to the conflict dictate the terms of its deployment. In several other incidents, Nordbat 2 personnel intervened to protect refugees and took action to prevent the cover-up of ethnic cleansing operations."_ _"On several occasions this took the form of forcing passage through roadblocks. During one such event, the battalion commander himself forced a sentry to remove the anti-tank mines used to block passage by threatening to blow the sentry's head off with a heavy machine gun."_ _"During two consecutive rotations, Nordbat 2 upheld its freedom of movement and initiative in an area of operations where many other UN outfits felt obliged to abide by the rules laid down by the parties to the conflict."_ _"Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders from both UN command and its own government, enabled it to achieve its mission objectives as defined by the first battalion commander: protect the civilians at all cost."_
@@mikeyb2932 None of the armed forces in the Scandinavian countries are very big, but the advantage is, you mess with one of them, you end up messing with all of them.
More snippets from the article: _"Once the Danes started to take fire, their response was furious."_ (Operation Bøllebank 'Operation Bully Bashing' - there was some controversy about who gave the orders and when, but the result speaks for itself. The Danish force were lead into an ambush and bit back hard "The mouse ate the cat"). _"Nordbat 2 had once again refused to let the parties to the conflict dictate the terms of its deployment. In several other incidents, Nordbat 2 personnel intervened to protect refugees and took action to prevent the cover-up of ethnic cleansing operations."_ _"On several occasions this took the form of forcing passage through roadblocks. During one such event, the battalion commander himself forced a sentry to remove the anti-tank mines used to block passage by threatening to blow the sentry's head off with a heavy machine gun."_ _"During two consecutive rotations, Nordbat 2 upheld its freedom of movement and initiative in an area of operations where many other UN outfits felt obliged to abide by the rules laid down by the parties to the conflict."_ _"Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders from both UN command and its own government, enabled it to achieve its mission objectives as defined by the first battalion commander: protect the civilians at all cost."_
I added that last reply with more snippets yesterday already, but with a link (RUclips) so it does not seem to show up for others. Therefore I now added it without the link. If you wish to search for the video the title is "Operation Bøllebank Danish Leopards in Bosnia [EN SUB]"
I remember when these events happened. My friend's son had just started Ranger training. He was very concerned about his son serving under the Commander-in-chief, President Clinton, at the time. When leadership screws up, people die.
Clinton admin did screw up. More specifically it was SECDEF who screwed up. He was the one who denied the needed resources to successfully accomplish the progressively more difficult mission. When General Powell once wanted to brief him about the situation and assessment of Somalia, all the SECDEF wanted to do is enjoy his lunch. The SECDEF eventually resigned after the outcome of the raid.
Delta is the oldest of the highest tier US special operations units. Made even before JSOC (which all the top US military units fall under) was formed. So Delta once promised its soldiers that it was the only Army unit where contact with the enemy was guaranteed in its members careers. While Mogadishu for instance was a known hot spot by the US military and by the US populace (because its troops were there), Delta was conducting operations in various places all over the world. For instance, they also helped train the people, and provided intel for the people (and if you believe the rumors are also the ones that shot Pablo through the ear) that hunted down Pablo Escobar (along with another unit that I'm surprised nobody ever makes movies of in the ISA). So they were one of the few units in the US military whose members actually had years and years of real world missions and combat experience under their belts. It's true that there is always conflict, but there isn't always conventional conflict. So guys can do their three years of active time now (or in the 90s), and never have a deployment to a hostile country. Everybody likes to think it will be like it was for the GWOT where there was twenty years of getting deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, but that isn't the case. And wasn't in the late nineties especially, even if there were some spicy places to go in the early nineties. So delta also just being one of the few who got to do their jobs all the time, also developed a cavalier attitude to the rest of the Army, it's been mentioned that Delta is the only unit in the Army that hates the Army, but they also just knew weaponcraft like few others did. They can custom build their issued weapon with different sights, triggers etc. The weapon isn't really unsafe here, it has a dead trigger, aside from loading a magazine and then chambering a round, the weapon cant go off, the Ranger Captain was just pointing out what he knew to be the Army way of being safe and the Delta guy was being a smartass. Because even if it didn't have a dead trigger, the gun itself isn't going to load itself and shoot somebody else. Interestingly, the 75th would eventually become the main source of new recruits to Delta (it used to be the Special Forces groups), and the 75th would have a huge Glow Up thanks to the GWOT. 75th dropped more people in the GWOT than any other unit, and if you google image search them, it's hard to tell them apart from any of the other apex predators in JSOC these days. Edit: Does it have an actual magazine in the movie? I can't tell in this vid if that is a mag or his wrinkled shirt. Even then you can still have a dead trigger and an inserted magazine, though that would raise some eye brows.
If you read my the book it mentions how they would sneak around high ranking militia members in donkey carts, and even suspected that Fadid could have escaped during this battle in that way so I think paid a little nod to that.
The US military tries hard to identify medical issues (physical and mental) before they put military trainees, who are little more than uniformed civilians at that point, through physically and mentally demanding initial training but they miss a few. Thereafter problems tend to show up at the worst possible time.
It’s is a hard watch but one of my favorite movies ever. Having been an army medic this operation did change army medical training significantly. Also in my own experience this movie is accurate to war in more obscure places
I need to clarify that scene where they were talking about how the Delta didn't have his weapon on safety. It comes down to the fact that Rangers keep their weapons on safe when on the base, Delta keep their safeties off but do not have a round in the chamber so in order for them to start firing they have to charge the weapon to put a round in the chamber. Deltas won't have an accidental discharge as a result either. It was just different protocols and that Captain was an idiot.
I watched a podcast w a delta member on this mission named Tom Satterly he said a few days after the battle men came to the gates with trash bags full of dead body parts. He didn’t understand if it was to ease things off or to say “hey look what we did.” Either way one of the wives of the helicopter crew and delta snipers who was in those bags can’t use trash bags anymore
The young Lieutenant probably didn’t even know that he was epileptic, and what’s crazy is that all the intense Ranger training didn’t ever bring any symptoms to the surface. Perhaps it was the building stress of leading men into real action for the first time that caused the seizure?
So fun fact. The Delta operators used a different method of clearing their weapons. They would empty the weapon and put it on fire and pull the trigger. The trigger can't reset unless you rack the bolt, and the safety can't be reengaged until the trigger resets - so basically you can't accidentally pull the trigger because it's already been pulled. So while the Delta way is on "fire", the trigger is dead and that guarantees there's no round in the chamber.
The Rangers did it the "normal" way, with the selector set to "safe", but in that position it's impossible to know at a glance if there's a round in the chamber, which is why Delta preferred their way.
The scene is both an overt AND subtle way to show the difference in thought process and attitude of Delta and Rangers
You should know at all times of your rifle is loaded or not. The Delta way is a clever use of the mechanics of the trigger and safety on an AR but either way you should know if it’s loaded when you pick it up.
You also cannot put that weapon on safe if the hammer is down.
So if you pick up the rifle and try to set it to safe and you cant, you know the hammer is on an empty chamber, even before you perform a clearance drill.
Well, yeah. That is clever. But only if you KNOW that is what they are doing. Which I never heard of before and the film sure did not make clear.
By appearances, like to a bunch of rookies, it looks as though Delta are so badass they strut around ready to fire at a moments notice. Which is not badass, it is dumbass. And, as one clever commenter once pointed out, the rookie Rangers start copying the Delta to be badass too. So it is not really the Delta with his satiety off which is the worry. It is the teenagers copying him.
Although. Yeah. I guess the film never underlined that point either.
It's basically the same way of checking ur ar, after reassembly, to see if u put it back together correctly, and ur trigger assembly is working right.
I went through some training about 1000 years ago, when I was doing all my happy hardcore Army Airborne Ranger crap, one thing those boys did crazy good, was land nav!
A bit of historical context: Todd Blackburn was in his early 20s and actually deployed with Task Force Ranger to Somalia. He recovered from the fall and served as a Florida policeman for many years. He just retired a few years back. 5 Black Hawks were actually shot down, but only two ended up in the city. Super 6-2 (the chopper that inserted Gordon and Shugart) was hit by an RPG in the right side, severely injuring a third Delta sniper (Brad Halling) who was manning the minigun after the crew chief had been shot. The helicopter crashed at the nearby port facility in friendly territory and the crew was rescued. Super 6-6 was shot up badly and barely made it back to the airfield. The crew jumped into the one spare helo and rejoined the fight, flying resupply missions all night long. Super 6-8, the CSAR bird, was hit in the main rotor as depicted and crashed back at the base. All four members of the 6-4 crew survived the crash and only Durant survived because he was placed separately in another area of the crash site. The rest of the crew and the two snipers were over-run and murdered. Air Force Pararescueman Tim Wilkinson didn't stay with the 6-1 crash all night long. He set up a casualty collection point in a nearby building and ran across the 75 meter wide street multiple times to get medical supplies throughout the night. He was awarded the Air Force Cross for gallantry. He treated the man Grimes was based on that night. 6-1 actually crashed in a very narrow alley that was barely big enough for the helicopter itself.
In the film, many of the Black Hawk and Little Bird pilots were part of the actual battle, and the Little Bird pilot that rescues the two Delta soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keith Jones, plays himself and reenacted his actual rescue of the two men. A number of Ranger extras were also veterans of the battle. The main cast were trained by the men of the units they represented. All the Rangers trained with the 75th Ranger Regiment, William Fichtner, Eric Bana and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau trained with the Special Forces and Jeremy Piven and Ron Eldard trained with the 160th SOAR.
Rules of a Combat Medic
1) Good men will die in combat.
2) Doc can't save everyone.
3) Doc will willingly go to hell and back to break rules 1 and 2.
But doc.....*drops pants * ...... is this infected???
Shugart & Gordon are on deck.
🫡🫡
_"I'll be outside. Good luck."_
They earned their Medals of Honor that day.
I've been shot at and hit with frag, but that level of actively calling what will be your demise is heroicism I've never know.
As of respect they are not on deck
Kamila, that weapon cannot be put on safety while the chamber is empty and the hammer is down. It cannot fire at all. It's perfectly safe.
Plus, that soldier is portraying a special operator with extreme weapon skills. He knows what he's doing and I would trust those guys with my life.
One of those ensemble movies that everyone plays in. Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett, Tom Hardy, Eric Bana, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Piven, Sam Shepard and probably more that I am not familiar with. One of Ridley Scotts best without a doubt.
A bunch of those guys were nobodies who were early in their careers, but a bunch went on to be successful household names.
Kim Coates from SoA, Ty Burrell from Modern Family (playing Pararescueman ‘Wilkie’ in Wolcott’s bird), Ewen Bremerton from AVP, Snatch, Trainspotting playing Nelson, Ioan Gruffudd, etc. etc. etc.
Legolas let the team down that day. Seems to have shaken that back injury 😉
Glenn Morshower from Transformer films. Always play a great Military role.
“I wouldn’t feel safe with him”. Yes. Yes you would
Delta’s are the real deal, absolutely would trust them.
@@BriBryBriBry Not fair and kind of being a jerk here... she obviously doesn't know. To someone who doesn't know them SF troops can come off "abrasive" ... have some grace and don't always try to step on someone to make yourself feel "better"... the whole "typical female" thing.. it's old...
@@BriBryBriBry Operators can beat their women too. Moron.
@@verdonix1976 All they did was educate her. they werent even rude about it. Are we supposed to just sit here now and never correct or educate anyone about anything ever again because its "rude"? the whole "white knighting over nothing" thing.... its old...
@@JoshuaDay0550 I don’t even see the comment I replied to anymore, it was snippy and phrased aggressively to someone who may not know. There is a way to educate someone without being a dick. If you think my comment was “white knighting” then I guess I am guilty. Me personally, I just call it being a decent human being.
Lt. Beals may have lived his entire life up to that point without ever having a seizure. So, it's not that he lied, he was just never diagnosed.
Interestingly, Lt. John Beales is also a completely fictional character, as there was never a Lt. John Beales assigned to Task Force Ranger. But I suppose having a fictionalised character having a sudden seizure as means of having SSG Eversmann immediately take over command of Chalk Four makes for better Hollywood drama, as opposed to the actual reason. That Evermann's Platoon Sergeant and the original Chalk Four commander, SFC Christopher Hardy, got called away for some Red Cross emergency and so he couldn't make the mission. The former is more exciting and grippingly intense than the latter for casual movie-goers.
@@siranon5700 I read it was a family emergency that he got pulled away to deal with
My friend had a heart murmur and didn't find out until he was almost done with basic
@@EvanWade-z4k When I went through Navy basic, there were at least 3 guys in my division that ended up getting Entry Level Medical Separations for asthma, that had NEVER shown any indication of it before then. Two of them were triggered by the gas chamber, the other was exercise induced.
@@michaelserot6844 Sorry for the late response. I actually just read through the book 'The Battle of Mogadishu' that both Matt Eversmann and Dan Schilling edited, and it is mentioned by Eversmann that SFC Chris Hardy did return to the states for a family emergency. The Red Cross emergency bit came from a 575 page document titled 'Capital Preservation: Preparing for Urban Operations in the Twenty First Century'. The document contained a number of case studies, most about different operations and situations in Mogadishu, and one passage is written by Matt Eversmann about Gothic Serpent. Eversmann does briefly mention that SFC Hardy had to leave due to a Red Cross emergency', so I'm not sure why Evermann would contradict that fact by later stating that SFC Hardy had to leave due to family reasons. Maybe he got more info later on about Hardy and why he left, but I don't really know.
His (Eric Banna's character) weapon is on safety. His bolt is closed on the weopon system with no round in the chamber but the safety switch is on the "fire mode".
From my experience it would be close to absurd for any senior officer of one detachment to confront a member of another directly instead of going to his commanding officer. If it had been me Id've simply said "sir please go talk to my CO if you have any concerns" with a wry smile. For the purposes of a movie though I love that exchange 😊
How are you even able to tell he doesn't have one in the chamber? Nothing that would indicate that being the case was shown/said in that scene.
Honestly, the saddest part of this film is that this might have been the only time since WWII that it can be said beyond any doubt that the US was doing the "right" thing. This was very much a justified war. . .but because of trauma from Vietnam and other US conflicts, and the bad press it brought. . .we pulled out and abandoned the cause. And things are still shit in Somalia. Damn shame
You have to change the culture of extreme chronic violence before things get better. It’s just too unstable and violent for a couple thousand UN and US military troops to do anything meaningful
@@crispy_338 Foreign intervention and occupation at its worst is how one ends up with a truly effed up place like Somalia.
Used to be an important intersection of ancient African empires, it was occupied by the British and Italians. Briefly became a republic after gaining independence, further British meddling pissed off the local clans, culminating in the president's assassination and a coup.
Then that coup's leader -- now a dictator -- became just one of the many puppets of a Cold-War superpower. Graft, corruption, and brutality bled the country dry. And like many dictatorships at the time the people rose up, kicking its oppressor out.
Would've been great if not for two things: the centuries-old clan-based divisions that still ruled the countryside, and the African Famine in the mid-80s. Can't keep a country together like that without strong leadership, egalitarian or otherwise.
In the end, a shallow-minded UN figured that a mere handful of peacekeepers could manage it, and the US was _again_ eager to 'take the lead' on something it absolutely couldn't handle -- despite sending more than two divisions' worth of personnel.
@@alcor4670 exactly. Takes more than some crayon eaters and trigger pullers to stabilize an entire country
Well true, but the overall UNOSOM II effort wasn't going very well. Peacekeepers weren't peacekeepers anymore, but combat soldiers who engage in gunfights with Aidid's and various militias almost daily. There was 1 time in June or July where an American attack helo blew up a house (Bloody Monday I believe that's what's called) which was hosting a meeting among elders from various clans. If I remember correctly, they were discussing about how to bring a peaceful resolution between UNOSOM II and Aidid and the country in general. This killing of elders pretty much stirred the hornet's nest, and caused even the locals to be against the UN, and that's why on this Oct 3rd raid, almost the entire city of people were against the US task force.
@@dallasyap3064 I think the key thing is at least they tried to do good for the most part, it may not have always worked out or gone the way as planned but their intentions were way better than the foreign policy we have today.
You can thank bush and Cheney for that.
You gotta react to the Generation Kill mini series!! It's an 8 episode series about the Iraq invasion of 2003, it's comedic, has action and it's a real life experience of being in a warzone ❤
Hardly anyone reacts to this series because of politics. It was my war it would be an honor for you to react to it. Crazy how no one remembers how nearly all the politicians on both sides were all for it.
@@daletaylor5589 I kind of forgot about the series until now, but that' strue i never see it reacted to and it's honestly one of the best series done.
i want to see someone react to it because no one ever does
One of my favorite shows. But the “comedic” aspects, can be very dark. So are the visuals and other material. Just to forewarn.
It's boring.
US forces were trying to help Somali civilians but the US soldiers posed a threat to Aidid's power so Aidid's militiamen, who benefited from his power, were attacking them; not Somali civilians, for the most part.
the 2 man rescue team always gets me. every single time.
Shughart and Gordon. Worth remembering their names. We have what we do because of so many Shugharts and Gordons whose names we will never know.
@@jw70467 i know their names bro
"Gordy's gone man... I'll be ouside"
@@pyro1047 that line is simply brutal and hits hard...
I saw that movie back in the movie theater when it released and its quite epic on a huge screen with full blast sound. Its funny you just recognize orlando bloom, this movie is stacked with big stars. Almost every actor in this is a huge star now.
I was hooked up by a friend (stuntman / Green Beret Veteran) who invited me to an advanced screening while I was in the Marine Corps. The room was packed with current Army and Ranger Veterans. I also met one of the Rangers who was in this battle and another who was part of the fast rope scene.
Slawomir Idziak's cinematography is simply breathtaking
The older followers of your channel here (like myself) remember this event well. I can remember watching the actual footage of our dead soldiers being carried through the streets by mobs as was shown in this film. There is actual footage of this available to view here on You Tube if interested. The 2 men (Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon) who went to the 2nd crash site knew going in they were most likely dead men but did it anyways. Nothing but the utmost respect and awe for those 2 Medal of Honor recipients.
I had come here to say something similar about being old enough to remember events like this and Desert Storm, and watched things as they were unfolding. So am I safe in my assumption, you’re roughly 40, or over 40 like myself?
Yup the footage of American soldiers being dragged around the street caused severe public outcry in the US, and that pretty much led Clinton to withdraw not just Task Force Rangers but the entire American military contingent in March 1994.
@@SFOlson I am well over 40 years old.
@@natskivna Well, than I’m in good company, because I’m over 40 as well.
Just a lil thing here, that guy you didn't like was a Delta. Deltas are Tier 1 units and Tier 1 units don't follow the normal military rules because they have their own rules and cultures. They are the best of the best America has so that's why they act like that.
Yeah, IRL Even Navy Seals wanna grow up to be a Delta Operator; as although technically a branch of the US Army SF they accept applicants from all active branches of the US Military, even regular military non-SF members can apply, so long as they their extensive background checks, service history (I.e NO serious reprimands or disciplinary actions in your file), and prior psych evaluations ALL pass their standards, they pass Delta Training, and they pass their first year in Delta during which they're essentially a "Probationary Member" and can still be kicked out at anytime for any reason. So you could be a regular ass grunt whether soldier, airmen, Marine, or an already elite Special Forces member in another branch such as USAF ParaRescue also known as "PJ's", a Marine Raider in MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command), or Marine Force Recon (Force Recon is an SF deep reconnaissance unit, under the direct command of the USMC, while MARSOC is under the Unified command structure of USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command, which includes special forces from every branch except the Space Force and probably Coast Guard AFAIK). When MARSOC/Marine Raiders were initially formed, most of their members were chosen and recruited from Force Recon.
What most people don't know however is that yes the Rangers are an elite force, but are actually themselves a Tier 2 Special Forces Unit as well; They specialize in seizing and capturing enemy airfields, and also work closely with Delta when required essentially securing the outer zone of an objective creating a perimeter away from it while Delta carrys out their mission knowing any surprise visitors or reinforcements have to get past the 75th Rangers Regiment first which this movie actually shows. Delta raided the meeting building and captured the prisoners, but it was the 75th Rangers that were holding an outer perimeter at the street corners defending routes to the building, and Rangers arriving in HMMWV's and Duece an a Halfs to transport and escort Delta and the Prisoners back to base.
So Rangers have an advantage when it comes to joining Delta as they already have many of the qualifications necessary, such as passing Airborne School, etc. It was officially "estimated" (Since everything about them's so classified) by the government that approximately 70% of Delta Operators are recruited/sourced from the 75th Rangers Regiment.
Delta is so classified, they're not probably not even really "Delta" anymore as that's become publicly known; and unlike the Seals they take that shit SERIOUSLY. Whereas "DEVGRU" aka "SEAL Team Six" has been known about for decades now, and seem to have multiple books a year written by Seals and divulging what they've done; only a couple Delta Books have been written and only about the most well known Operations with their involvement already blown such as here with books about the Battle of Mogadishu.
As such they are constantly redesignated as different units to hide them. Their true full name is 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delts (1st SFOD-D), but have also been called simply "Delta Force", "Combat Applications Group (aka "CAG"), or within JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) simply referred to as "Task Force Green". Their size is "Classified", their current commander is "Classified", and they're almost NEVER directly mentioned by the White House or DoD unless they accomplished or were involved in something so big/important that they kinda have to (Like The Battle of Mogadishu, especially with Gordy and Shuggart receiving the CMoH each, and posthumously).
Delta Operators in pictures ALWAYS have their faces blurred to remain anonymous, which Biden, like everything he does, fucked up in his 2023 visit to Israel in which the White House published publicity photos of Biden visiting but were such inept dumbasses they forgot to blur the faces of the "Top Secret, classified and may or may not exist" Delta Operators functioning as part of Bidens security detail overseas effectively blowing their identities and likely ruining their jobs and potentially lives as them remaining in Delta after everyone's seen and knows their face effectively eliminates their ability to remain undercover on missions where they have to pose as civilians (One of the reasons Delta gets specialty treatment and can grow their hair out and have full beards and everything, is for blending in amongst the local civilian populous in their "Street Clothes" wherever they're deployed whether it's the middle-east, Africa, even Europe such as the Balkans with Bosnia, Kosovo, etc. Imagine going from a life and possibly career devoted to the military, being so good you're in the prestigious ELITE of the elite units, and after the years of dedication getting there some cooked up White House staffers desperate to raise Bidens approval rating with a single *Click* taking mere seconds ruin your career and endanger not only you but potential family as well. Imagine gow soul crushing it'd be getting booted from "Tier 1" down to just support, regular army, or even a desk job; hell maybe let go by the military entirely for absolutely nothing you did, but the actions of your supposed "Commander-and-chief" and incompetent staff he chose. Imagine being that guy and what that'd do mentally, or do to his potential wife and kids with their partner/father's spirit crushed and their own lives upended as well?
With Delta already trained in pretty much everything they could want, and already having to possess a "Top Secret Security Clearance" the CIA's civillian paramilitary unit known by a few names but most commonly as either SOG (Special Operations Group) or SAD (Special Activities Division), are particularly fond of recruiting Delta Operators once they've retired.
Also not mentioned as much but just as deserving and prestigious in this movie, is the world's most brave and elite group of pilots in the world, the US Army's 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) aka "The Nightstalkers". With their trademark all black painted aircraft, mottos "Nightstalkers Don't Quit" and "Any Mission, Anywhere", they're extensively trained for proficiency flying night ops (Hence their black camo) with NVG's being their only way to see anything, though they carry out daylight missions just as much as the movie shows.
Yhose pilots and crewchiefs manning those CH-47 Chinooks and 2x EXTREMELY RARE (and STILL classified btw) MH-60 "StealthHawks" that were all involved in sneaking into Pakistan by flying in to insert SEAL Team Six and capture/kill Bin Laden in the middle of the night and avoiding all Pakistani radar by flying EXTREMELY low level, once again while it's the middile of the night with limited visibility over unknown terrain. That was 160th SOAR, they're also the primary users the MH-60 DAP or "Direct Action Penetrator" was made for; which essentially turns the Blackhawk into an Mi-24 Hind, by turning it into a gunship with an Attack Helicopter-esq electro-optical targeting pod in the nose, along with hardpoints and wingstubs for 25-30mm autocannons, 2.75" Hydra Rocket Pods, AGM-114 Hellfire ATGM's which double as general purpose guided missiles, and GAU 7.62x51mm gunpods (The gunpod version of the minigun), etc, in addition to the M134-DH Miniguns already carried by SOAR as their door guns with one on each side already in just their regular MH-60, now in addition to whatever DAP loadout's being carried as well IF they choose to use DAPs. They're also the ones using the MH-6 "Little Birds" and it's attack helicopter variant, The AH-6; first seen unarmed when inserting Delta on the Bench seats (Yes they're basically sitting on just metal stadium seats mounded to the sides, I don't even know if they get seat belts or straps), then later armed with mini guns and 2.75" Rocket Pods conducting gun runs and Rocket strikes on Somali combatants.
@@pyro1047 I'll be honest I didn't read everything because it's way too much and I only read the first part.
Not every SEAL wants top be Delta because SEALs also have their own Tier 1 unit called SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU and that's where most SEALs go for Tier 1.
Also not everyone in Delta has Special Forces training or experience because there were even normal Marines and even National Guards who became Delta because they did everything right and they got accepted in Delta.
Also I would say the ISA is more secretive then Delta or any Tier 1 unit because the ISA are heard by no one and no one knows them. They themselves are also Tier 1. Everyone heard of SEAL Team 6, Delta and 160th SOAR but no one knows anything about the ISA.
@@richardkim3652 lol, you probably SHOULD'VE read his whole comment, since you decided to reply to it because, he had already explained everything you had said in your first two paragraphs already 🤣
@@FilthTribeFTP Shit no one wants to read a entire essay lol.
“Look at the dogs.” You’re so sweet. Just to let you know. Stray dogs were wandering into the scenes when they were being shot and Ridley Scott allowed it to add realism. Also 6-8 of the strays were adopted and brought back to the US.
Poor choice of words 😂 makes it sound like the dogs were being hit by gunfire. "Filmed" would've been a little more clear...
Retired marine, all plans go out the window once the first shot is fired. You must be prepared to adapt to the situation.
The feeling of battle in this is insane.
One of the best war movies ever made and it's loaded with the best actors. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Legolas, Prince Hector, Lucius Malfoy, Jamie Lannister just to name a few. Hans Zimmer with one of the best soundtrack of his very impressive body of work he has done in the years. Really solid acting, superb action and and absolutely outstanding camera work and editing. This story is both fascinating and sad. The Delta Force and the Rangers are known to be absolute badasses but the pilots never get enough credits. The 160th SOAR are some of the best pilots you can find on this planet. They're called Nightstalkers because they spend a lot of time flying nighttime with nods ( night visions googles ), they are absolutely crazy how far they're willing to go to insert/extract soldiers. Many other pilots will say nah we cant land its too hot...SOAR pilot will come...might not gonna collect a lot of bullets in the process but if he says he will be there he really means it. They fly low and slow risking themselves for their comrades because its just what they do, for them its not an option to say no. That Chinook that was shot down in the movie called Lone Survivor was a 160th bird with 2 pilots and 6 crew onboard ( 8 SEALS ).
The scene that always chokes me up is when Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon requests to be inserted near the 2nd downed bird. They were very experienced guys, they were fully aware that thy are most likely not coming back. They had semi-auto rifles with a medium range optic and limited ammunition on them, setup to provide precise supporting fire from the air. On the ground you need automatic weapons and a lot of ammo. Yet they wanted to go because one of them was down there and damn the odds. They were told that they have no idea when will reinforcements arrive but they went anyway. Thats heroism. I'm not even from the US but I have so much respect for those guys and a 100% agree with the decision to award them with Medals of Honor.
Whoever voted for this movie, well done lads. On to 13 Hours I hope. :)
Don't forget about Bane.
10:25 sometimes you don't know you have epilepsy.until after an episode. Especially back in the 90s. I sat in a jury trial for a medical malpractice case in 2005 from 18 years earlier. Plaintiff lawyers were using a lot more modern science (late 90s-early 2000s) to go after an event that the medical knowledge was only mid 80s. Had no real case as medicine back then was different. I went for my EMT license after that and protocols are changing based on new medical science and discoveries. CPR updates every 5 years, so for seizures maybe he didn't know. And you can have a seizure and NOT be epileptic as well.
TO HELL AND BACK is a true WW2 movie about Audie Murphy who was the most decorated American soldier of WW2. After the war Audie became a Hollywood actor making about 70 movies 1 of them being TO HELL AND BACK so Audie play's himself in his own life story about how he got the medal of honor. I think that's why I love the movie there's only 1 other movie where the soldier became a movie star and played the same roll he did in combat.
I Read the book, the battle is even crazier than the movie portrayed.
Military medical waivers were flexible back in these times and easier to fraudulently enlist & commission. My first company commander (Captain), at the time this movie took place, was diabetic. He was pulled off the line one day and medically discharged. Over the years I served with individuals that omitted disqualifying medical issues: asthma, and tourette syndrome.
Delta Force operator Norman “Hoot” Hooten portrayed by Eric Bana would become a pharmacist while in his 50's, in order to help tackle opioid addiction among patients at VA medical centers.
This movie is why I enlisted. I actually ended up serving in this unit, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Truly incredible human beings. We have a memorial 5K every year outside the base, thousands show up, all Ranger buddies past and present.
colonialist warmonger. shame.
Thank you for your service, brother
Thank you for your service.
@@scottdarden3091 thank YOU
@@KingKong-ws6zx thank YOU
I served in the 10th MTN unit that rescued those troops at the end of the movie. Every year the unit gets together with some of the survivors and we did the Mogadishu mile which was a run to commemorate the run they all did at the end of the battle. After talking with some of the people who were there about the movie, there were some Hollywood liberties taken, but overall they have all said this was pretty faithful to how the battle went. The details were changed in several spots but the feel and overarching story are the same.
U guys got armored vehicles like the Pakistanis and Malaysians had? I knew 10th MTN had Cobra attack helos.
@@dallasyap3064 we are a light infantry unit. Armor is pretty uncommon.
Mog is actually a gorgeous city. "The White Pearl of the Indian Ocean". Visiting today, you probably will still hear random gunfire. Or at least I did when I was there in 2014. Could be a wedding. Could be someone's camel walked into the wrong yard or got too close to the Bancroft compound by the airport.
Part of the issue in Somalia is that the country went so long without an established government that it broke up into regions controlled by various clans and warlords. Now, most of the major clans "sort of" get along through a mixture of alliances and brokered deals. It took a lot of blood and bodies to get Mog cleared and stable in the early 2010's, and the different clans controlled different neighborhoods. Outside of Mog, the level of government control is directly proportional to distance from the city.
AMISOM and African Union forces, (with lots of help from the UN and mercenary corporations like Bancroft) basically had to go door to door through the entire city, clearing out Al Shabaab militants and others who didn't want to play nice.
Don't worry Kamilla Hoot knows what he is doing with his gun.
This is one of those times where a 'comma' is actually pretty important.
For a few seconds, I was trying to figure out who/why you were calling him "Kamilla Hoot" 🤣
If you want to watch another good movie with Orlando Bloom is kingdom of heaven extended version,
I loved that movie!
Beautiful movie. Too long and dull, though. This is coming from a person with a degree in history and interest in that time period.
This movie is why I wanted to become a Ranger. The same year as 9/11, this movie came out. When I turned 19, my mom died. I was 15, wanted to join, my mom was a Navy vet, my dad was still in the Navy, and neither of them would sign off for me at 17. But at 19, when my mom died? I made her 1 promise: I would never get a tattoo. Her second wish was that I promised that I wouldn't join the army, but I never made that promise.
First war movie I ever watched. Definitely holds some nostalgic value for me. My dad was in the army during the Kuwait conflict era. This movie messes with him real bad to the point he can’t even be in the room when I watch it.
@@BillCipher-m9g My husband is from Mogadishu and was about 4 years old when this happened… he can’t watch it either.
The 2-3 miles the Rangers and Delta troops had to run at the end became known as "The Mogadishu Mile". The Three Rangers Foundation still commemorates it each year with a charity run.
Shughart and Gordon! HEROS
I joined the Army in 2000 and spent a couple of weeks in "The Box" at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana. During that time, we did several missions at the Shugart-Gordon MOUT Center, which is a city built in the forest to train units for fighting in urban terrain. At the time, I hadn't seen this movie yet and was only vaguely familiar with just how incredible the sacrifice of Shugart and Gordon actually was. This movie always hit close to home for me. Even little things like the way they say "sarent" instead of articulating Sergeant. That is exactly how we spoke in the infantry. Not an easy one to watch, but so well done.
What always confuses me is that civilians will often just wander through firefights as if not being involved means bullets can't hit them. Personally, if I see/hear a gun battle, I don't care if my house is over there, I'm moving Away from it.
Great Reaction. I was a sophomore in high school when this came out and I read the book years the movie came out. I’d say the movie is about 80% accurate. It’s a great movie and tells the story well. Of course, some things were changed, events compressed for time and some characters were fictional (Grimes) but then certain little details were kept. When the first chopper crashes, it clips the roof someone’s home which actually happened. However, the crash site in real life was more of an alley than a courtyard. One thing I find very interesting is that in the movie when the chopper (STAR 41) lands at The first crash and evacs Sgt. Busch the pilot in the movie was the same person who did it in real life. They filmed a lot of scenes that were deleted but available to watch. Sgt. Ruiz died from his wound in real life, but you wouldn’t know that unless you read the names at the end or haven’t seen the uncut scene where Capt. Steele talks to him during the “Don’t go back out there without me” scene. In the original scene when Steele walks up to the foot of Ruiz’s cot, the doctor, who is standing behind Ruiz looks up and silently shakes his head at Steele signaling that he isn’t going to make it. I think they should have left that in. It makes the scene more impactful as Capt. Steele talks to him better and Ruiz in unaware of the fact that he is about to die.
(“REACTIONZ”) (Oct 6, 2024)
5:45 5:58
Todd Blackburn 6:20 7:02 13:42
Picking up Hoot 6:45
Hunting boar 7:15
“I respect the skinnies” 9:06 9:14
She wanted to be a military nurse in Norway but she gets migraines
10:28
“I feel like Im already sweating, we havent even started the mission”
11:48
House of Pain- jump around 11:58
Debriefing before going out
12:40
24:07
The absolute worst story I heard about this, from a Delta who was there, was that in the days following the incident, civilians started showing up at the U.S. base with trash bags. They were filled with body parts of the soldiers who had died and hadn’t been recovered. They were giving them back. Also watching that same Delta still barely being able to talk about Gordon and Shughart, this was last year, really says something.
One of my favorite movies with a star studded cast, now that we look back on it.
Josh Hartnett, Tom Hardy, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Orlando Bloom, Will Fitchner, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister in GoT)
And the actor playing Mr Atto in the beginning of the movie also played Kingsley Shacklebolt in the Harry Potter movies.
8:50 In the book by Mark Bowden, Steele didn't actually mind Pilla's impression...until he made a religious joke. Steele was (and probably still is TBH) a very religious man, and he didn't like jokes at Jesus' expense...
10:15 Nope. Just means he'll get a medical discharge (as a commissioned officer, he might have to resign his commission first; any actual veterans/officers are welcome to correct me and/or explain further); There are no punitive measures (unless the military finds out he had a seizure before & concealed it from the military), he won't get in trouble (medical discharge is usually treated the same as an honorable discharge (depending on the soldier's record)), but he can't be in the US Military anymore.
The thing most people do not realize is in order to provide cover for someone is you got to expose yourself to enemy fire. It takes some real discipline and fortitude to do so.
Rip Randy and Gary you guys were angels on earth
My first job out of highschool, about 5 years after this event, I was a line cook at a restaurant in the midwest (US). It was a 24 hour diner style restaurant, our night manager was a recently retired low rank noncom Ranger who was in the Battle of Mogadishu. He probably wasn't but 10 years or so older than me. Too this day, I have never seen someone drink as much as alcohol as this man....on the daily. After watching this film (which I've seen many times) it's easy to see why that was the case.
This was one of those operations that has been studied for 30 years as basically a "when you think the op is easy but it evolves into something worse". We can only hope those in charge understand that it is imperitive to have multiple CAS and quick-reaction forces, not just one which is completely il-equipped.
This is the who's who of this generation of actors. I'm sure if you looked at the IMDb page for it, you'd recognise more names and faces than just Orlando Bloom. Sometimes they can be harder to recognise because of the hair and "wounds".
My personal favourite is Grimes (Ewan McGregor). I do, as a fellow Scotsman, hear his Scottish accent break through a couple of times.
The first near miss RPG hit when he's running back across the street is pure Scottish.
"F@!k THIS"
@@phillydelphia8760 Yes. That is indeed one of the moments I had in mind.
Only Band of Brothers has as big an ensemble cast of, now currently, A-Listers.
@@praetorxian Indeed. And they share a couple of cast members and a bunch of crew. Quite similar style in a lot of ways, IMO.
@@markieman64 There are a few scenes where Ewan Bremner’s Scottish accent slips through as well.
The real operation was much worse than the film portrays.
How so? They show almost every single U.S. soldier who got killed.
Like, you don't think they showed enough Somali's getting cut down? Would have gootten gratuitous after awhile.
@@Harkness78 Jeff Strueker was a Ranger involved in the operation and he said in an interview that while the movie was a good portrayal, it didn’t capture the immense violence of that day.
Great film. The 2 Delta operators, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, who died defending the downed Super 64 chopper both got the Medal of Honor btw.
Thats the scene that always choke me up. When they asked to be dropped in fully knowing they will not be coming back. Thats what Hoot was talking about at the end. Those men are just different.
@@neutchain7838 Absolutely agree. These type of men are extremely rare and truly honorable. Much like John Chapman, the first Medal of Honor recipient filmed via CIA drone.
@@-Knife- yep, same breed. Like Eversman said, nobody goes to war to be a hero sometimes it just turns out that way. They valued their brothers in arms' life more than their own and were happy to forfeit it to save others. That's heroism.
I actually know a lot of these dudes. My dad was in the 160th for 20 years and was also a Blackhawk pilot. I’ve met Michael Durant, I actually saw this movie for the first time with Todd Blackburn, and few of the Delta guys, I can’t remember his name right now, but one of the little bird pilots that landed and was firing out the side he actually had to spend the night at our house because he got too drunk for my dad‘s retirement party haha. Lots of good dudes, lots of good dudes that live a very difficult life after this event. I won’t say his name, but he was a member of Delta, and then worked with my dad for a privatized training operations company after they both retired. Poor guy, just too deep in the booze and lived life very intensely and aggressively.
So something I found out many years ago from a Ranger I knew that after this happened IRL there was a drill created to simulate the last scene in the movie with the guys running back to the Stadium, and they called it "The Mogadishu Mile" It entails everything those guys went through with non stop running and shooting targets on the move constantly. I was told it was brutal, challenging and extremely difficult. It dug deep, maybe even to the soul , because they said it changed you forever as a Ranger.
4:03 Blood Diamond not Black Diamond and also that film is set mostly in Freetown, Sierra Leone not Cape Town, SA.
One of the two delta operators that went to the second crash site is buried here in Maine. Gary Gordon, sadly some douche bag vandalized his grave with spray paint a few years ago. Idk if the police ever figured out who did it, but that's disgusting, vandalizing a grave is bad enough, but vandalizing the grave of a medal of honor recipient is just absolutely disgusting. Thankfully his grave was able to be fully restored.
The 2 guys who volunteered to go back? Both died, and both earned the Medal of Honor. They died, knowing they would die, to save 1 pilot. Above, and beyond the call of duty. Real hard pipe hitters. Unafraid of oblivion.
Yeah, it says that at the ending of the movie. Lol.
38:40 Lol "Mira Papa" was not "Somali."
😂😂 I noticed that too.
7:53 His weapon was in fact "Rack Safe," as in "Safe Position for Storage." You see the Rangers liked to keep their rifles on Regular Safe: Remove Magazine, Chamber Empty, Bolt Forward, Trigger Not Pulled, Selector on Safe. Delta liked to use Rack Safe: Remove Magazine, Chamber Empty, Bolt Forward, Selector to Semi-Fire, Trigger Pulled.
Under that circumstance it is impossible to switch the Selector back to Safe. You'd need to Retract the Bolt back and forth with the Charging Handle to be able to move the Selector Switch again.
Pretty accurate but still many aspects misrepresented. The "Mogadishu Mile ", wasn't really a Mile and they didn't run back to the Pakistani Stadium. They only ran out to where the trucks and APC'S were waiting for them.
There's REAL Drone footage of this battle., the movie does a good job making it look like the real thing
42:20 yeah having your femoral artery cut is terrifying. I’ve seen a real video someone pass out from the amount of blood loss in just 45 seconds, and he was dead about a minute after that :( there were people around him trying to help him by tying a tourniquet, but they wrapped it around the wrong leg….
I saw one video where the guy barely realised he got cut and like 10-20 secs later passed out standing. It's crazy.
As a Paramedic, I’ve had to deal with a few arterial bleeds. The femoral artery especially, you’re screwed. A tourniquet ain’t gonna do squat.
@@praetorxian they do when properly applied. Wouldn’t have helped Cpl Smith, because he was shot so high up, but ranger medics carry junctional TQ’s BECUASE of this event. It actually inspired all current military first aid doctrine, which was almost nonexistent at the time
@@TK-hw2ph Smith*
@@FilthTribeFTP good catch. AC got me
Some Fact- actors who played the role of somali was not actually a somalian guy
Nice to know.
True! It’s super distracting bc the accent is wrong and the look is MORE wrong. 😆
I think most of the credited roles are British and American of West African descent…. The extras seem to be West African and all very dark, when a bit of melanin diversity would look more authentic
@@LlamaLlamaMamaJamaac They were from Liberia, Nigeria, and a few other countries (not Somalia).
@@StephenLuke I thought so… I knew for sure they weren’t Somali though. None of them looked Somali at all
51:35 - "How is it today?" - Somalia? It's worse. You've never heard of Somali pirates which attack merchant vessels off the Horn of Africa?
IRENE!!!! lol nooo but some unknown behind the scenes lore. before staring in the documentry family series "Modern family" phil Dumphy was a special forces delta ranger who fought in Mogadisho before attending college, becoming a cheerleader to deal with his pent up PTSD (kinda like bob ross after Vietnam) and meeting his future wife claire pritchett. BUT he still has an affinity for margaritas!!
You can develop epilepsy later in life, especially if you've experienced a head injury. I went the first 26 years of my life without ever having a seizure, and then had them nonstop for three years because of a head injury from an old bike accident when I was a teenager. So he may not have known he had epilepsy until his first seizure, he didn't necessarily lie on his medical forms.
Theres an insanely long interview with a delta squad guy done by shawn ryan, episode 77 on his channel. He was actually there, irl. There is a character in the movie based on him. He was one of the ones that spent the night in the city. Its not for the faint of heart. Delta is our best of the best and most secretive special operations task force. No one tells them what to do or where to be, theyre just there. No one knows whose in charge and they embed with whoever they want wherever and no one in the military is ranked high enough to tell them no. This movie is about as close as you get to what really happened and i like it because it doesnt show us the typical hollywood narrative of our troops swooping in to save the day.
Thank you for honoring those men. I really appreciated your reaction!
"No chains shall sully thee
Thou soul of love and brav'ry
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery"
Next, watch 13 HOURS. Another mostly true story. The participants still tour and describe their experience.
A great movie!
Please consider watching. We were soldiers with Mel Gibson, Platoon with Charlie Sheen, or casualties of a war with Michael j. Fox and Sean Penn
get ready to cry everyone 🥺😭
Wild that Ty Burrell is the medic that climbs into the first chopper to help stabilize the wounded crew chiefs.
I was fortunate enough to meet Mike Durant and shake his hand.
Very honorable! 🫡
Ridley Scott has his moments!
I hated his Napoleon movie! But this I would very much prefer!
Until now, I didn't realize that actor Tom Hardy played _"Twombly"_
Great reaction. I've mentioned this one before but for a film 'Based on a true story' consider the 1965 British film The Heroes of Telemark. Which without giving to much away is about the most heroic action of the Norwegian resistance in WW2. It is available free on RUclips if you search but errrrr Norwegian actors not given the lead roles. Further back and possibly difficult to find there is Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water a 1948 Norwegian-French film about the same true story, probably closer to said truth. Ten of the men who appear in the film were the actual resistance fighters involved. Its held to be the most effective resistance operation of WW2 and Norwegians did it.
Your comments about the military resonate with me. When Sept 11 happened I had just started classes to finish my last 6 credits towards my Criminal Justice Degree. I had to decide if I was going to stay and finish or enlist in the military. I decided to finiish my degree and put myself through the Police Academy and went on to have a family and Law Enforcement career. To this day I still look back at that decision and have regrets about not serving my country via the military but I know I served my community too.
Great reaction Centane like always! The Air Force Pararescueman Tim Wilkinson who is depicted stabilizing and treating the crew chiefs of the first downed Black Hawk in the helicopter because they couldn't be moved received the Air Force Cross (the Air Force's second highest decoration for valor) for his lifesaving efforts in the Battle of Mogadishu. At one point, he had to run back and forth under fire between buildings to treat wounded soldiers and miraculously wasn't hit once. One of the Rangers, who was amazed after seeing this, said "God must really love medics," and other joked that Wilkinson was such a slow runner that the Somalis were over estimating how much to lead their shots (you "lead," i.e. fire ahead of, a moving target so that your bullets and the target reach the same place at the same time).
Little known fact, the Somalis use of RPGs as anti-aircraft weapons was actually really creative. The RPG is not an anti-aircraft weapon. It's an anti-tank weapon. Pointed upward it only has a max range of 300 meters, and it leaves a smoke trail that can be easily tracked back to the person who fired it. Using an RPG to shoot down helicopters actually requires a high degree of skill and courage. Keep up the good work.
The Captain already knows that Delta knows his shit. However, Rangers on the other hand, unlike deltas, mostly excited young dudes in their 20s and they take Deltas as example to themselves, thinking how cool Deltas are.
When the captain warned the delta on safety of rifle, he already knows he better leave Delta alone, but he didn’t want his young rangers to show same sloppiness to feel as cool as delta meanwhile they are not on the par with delta skill set.
Captain simply wants his young and stupid rangers to stay alive, and definitely he doesn’t want them to harm themselves or their friends by their own stupidity.
These days a mission like this would be done at night with 5-10 navy seals or green berets. And as for finding the General, they’d send in intelligence units and track his whereabouts on the ground, then from a satellite, then take him out with a drone strike.
@@crispy_338 in Afghanistan, maybe. Not in a heavily populated urban center with a hostile force that can rapidly organize. They’d have the same make up, with probably another company on QRF, stykers and a gunship. You wouldn’t be able to kinetic strike a target with that much collateral.
@@TK-hw2ph The AGM-114R-9X can take out single targets with zero collateral. He can’t stay in a bunker forever.
@@crispy_338 it CAN but that’s still pretty conditional. I actually worked for the guy who did the first kinetic strike with a 9X. I didn’t get to see it unfortunately. You’d still be hard pressed to get approval to drop one inside the bakara market of Mogadishu. Either way, this raid wasn’t even targeting Aidid, it was targeting his lieutenants. Kinetic strikes don’t develop targets, so even today I doubt they’d use one. Now if they could PiD him, and had multiple different intel sources, it would certainly be preferable to drop a 9X, but that’s only if you could get him outside. Thats why ST6 had to go in for Bin Laden, he never exposed himself.
Believe or not, ST6 operators were involved in this mission, but they weren't the main course. ISA & SAC were actually involved in this mission too, they were the ones gathering intelligence on Aidid and his top associates and their whereabouts and disseminated them to Task Force Rangers. DC wanted this mission over very quickly despite only being a little over a month. Finding a very HVT takes time. This mission was just a buildup to collect more intel, unfortunately it went south. The setting and political situation of Somalia was just different.
This is an amazing war film, one of the most realistic ever especially for its sound effects (which I believe it won an Oscar). Many characters are real but few are fictionalized (still based on real soldiers). Evan McGregor's character was 1 of them. The real life soldier that the character is based off is John Stebbins, he was convicted by a military court and sentenced to years in prison for doing inappropriate stuff to his 6 yo daughter. So they decided to fictionalize him in the movie.
Though a lot of inaccuracies and miss-out, still got the overall story true. The reason why so many Somali civilians came out angrily into the streets during this Oct 3rd raid is due to a previous incident (more than 1 incident actually), Bloody Monday raid on 12th July (2 months before this BHD battle), where an American attack helicopter launched an airstrike and destroyed a house that was hosting a meeting attended by elders from various clans. They were trying to negotiate a peace deal, especially between Aidid and UNOSOM (the UN authority in Somalia).
Without a doubt, the Somali populace was beyond outrage by this act, leading to more hostile situations and culminating in a near daily hostile battle between UNOSOM troops and Aidid's militias (as well as some other rebel groups that were originally opposed to Aidid). This essentially turn Aidid's local enemies, as well as civilians, into his allies. This is why u see so many angry Somali mob in this battle. After the disastrous outcome of this battle, not only was this special operations Task Force pulled out, but the entire American contingent was withdrawn too. Indirectly, the US would suffer more repercussions as al-qaeda took advantage of this bad PR.
14:43 This group had done several missions in Somalia with no casualties. U.S. Special forces quite often perform missions where small teams kill 30+ enemy combatants and don't suffer a single casualty themselves. Training and much better equipment and air support.
They filmed this in Morocco
No wonder! 🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦
the half of the cast, including some somalis(mr. Atto for example), is british(McGregor, Bremner, Dancy, Gruffudd, Isaacs, Bloom, Hardy) . Also you have a serbian born american, an australien(Bana), a canadien and a dane(Coster-Waldau).
But there is also the son of a former us president. Steven Ford the son of Gerald
"DELTA" Is so bad ass" They did not even care if you were Army, Marine nor Navy"
"That's so scary, people are just shooting." Laughs in Albuquerque.
@Centane Knowing you had a desire to serve just makes me like you even more. Norway has been a solid ally throughout the War on Terror, and their special operators are high-tier. Remember this: You technically applied to join during peacetime. I suspect peacetime will not last much longer, one way or another, and when that time comes, the doors will open to you. Best thing you can do is make sure you are physically, mentally, and spiritually prepared for when that time comes. I do not wish for war just for the sake of it, but when it comes, its people like you that need to be there. I have some training knowledge, so if being prepared is something you are interested in, I and others like me are always happy to help. God Bless. Also, you need to watch 13 Hours and try listening to two songs: Act of Valor by March in Arms (its about Black Hawk Down) and Drawn in Blood by Guardians of Time (Norwegian band, video features images of Norwegian operators).
I wonder if any of the soldiers from this mission ever looked at the Scandinavian Nordbat 2, from 1993-1995 in Bosnia, and were envious.
Headline of an article that can be searched "Trigger-Happy, Autonomous, and Disobedient: Nordbat 2 and Mission Command in Bosnia"
Snippets from the article:
_"In late 1993, a reinforced Swedish-Danish-Norwegian mechanized battalion (Nordbat 2) deployed to Bosnia as part of an ongoing UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNPROFOR"_
_"The troops and officers from some of the least belligerent nations in the world turned out to be quite adept at both using force and playing the odds in a high-stakes political game."_
_"Nordbat 2 on multiple occasions utterly disregarded orders from its highest political authorities, to the frustration of the Swedish government."_
_"There was no priority higher than that of achieving the mission objectives at hand. Orders could be disobeyed, rules could be broken-as long as the mission was successful."_
(Keep in mind the mission objective was to protect civilians against the warring parties with Nordbat 2 standing in the middle - so the orders being disobeyed were those that kept them from protecting civilians when those civilians were in harms way).
More snippets from the article:
_"While several other countries preferred to send lightly armed vehicles to avoid provoking the parties to the conflict, Henricsson wanted the main infantry fighting vehicle of the Swedish Army at the time. This vehicle, known as the Pbv 302, featured a 20mm automatic cannon and fairly respectable armor for a vehicle of its type. In addition, Henricsson wanted a Danish tank company equipped with recently modernized Leopard main battle tanks."_
_"When asked by the media, Henricsson made it clear that his interpretation of the mission objectives (which he had developed himself on the basis of the original UN mandate, rather than taking clues from his political superiors) was that protection of the civilian population was the highest priority."_
_"Vastly outnumbered and outgunned, Captain Simson realized that it was unrealistic to expect that his unit would survive a full-out assault. Nevertheless, he was determined not to give in. The Croats started to fire mortar rounds, but the Swedes held their positions."_
_"In the morning, the Croats negotiated with the Swedes and eventually left, quietly dropping their ultimatums. Nordbat 2 had shown resolve even in the face of hopeless odds, achieving a strategically important victory as a result of a decision made by a platoon commander."_ (Captain Simson).
_"Colonel Henricsson made it clear that he would not respect rules and regulations that threatened to prevent him from achieving his mission objectives."_ (Protecting civilians).
More snippets from the article:
_"Once the Danes started to take fire, their response was furious."_ (Operation Bøllebank 'Operation Bully Bashing' - there was some controversy about who gave the orders and when, but the result speaks for itself. The Danish force were lead into an ambush and bit back hard "The mouse ate the cat").
Operation Bøllebank Danish Leopards in Bosnia [EN SUB]: ruclips.net/video/mzPs5BxzvK4/видео.html
_"Nordbat 2 had once again refused to let the parties to the conflict dictate the terms of its deployment. In several other incidents, Nordbat 2 personnel intervened to protect refugees and took action to prevent the cover-up of ethnic cleansing operations."_
_"On several occasions this took the form of forcing passage through roadblocks. During one such event, the battalion commander himself forced a sentry to remove the anti-tank mines used to block passage by threatening to blow the sentry's head off with a heavy machine gun."_
_"During two consecutive rotations, Nordbat 2 upheld its freedom of movement and initiative in an area of operations where many other UN outfits felt obliged to abide by the rules laid down by the parties to the conflict."_
_"Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders from both UN command and its own government, enabled it to achieve its mission objectives as defined by the first battalion commander: protect the civilians at all cost."_
@@mikeyb2932 None of the armed forces in the Scandinavian countries are very big, but the advantage is, you mess with one of them, you end up messing with all of them.
More snippets from the article:
_"Once the Danes started to take fire, their response was furious."_ (Operation Bøllebank 'Operation Bully Bashing' - there was some controversy about who gave the orders and when, but the result speaks for itself. The Danish force were lead into an ambush and bit back hard "The mouse ate the cat").
_"Nordbat 2 had once again refused to let the parties to the conflict dictate the terms of its deployment. In several other incidents, Nordbat 2 personnel intervened to protect refugees and took action to prevent the cover-up of ethnic cleansing operations."_
_"On several occasions this took the form of forcing passage through roadblocks. During one such event, the battalion commander himself forced a sentry to remove the anti-tank mines used to block passage by threatening to blow the sentry's head off with a heavy machine gun."_
_"During two consecutive rotations, Nordbat 2 upheld its freedom of movement and initiative in an area of operations where many other UN outfits felt obliged to abide by the rules laid down by the parties to the conflict."_
_"Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders from both UN command and its own government, enabled it to achieve its mission objectives as defined by the first battalion commander: protect the civilians at all cost."_
I added that last reply with more snippets yesterday already, but with a link (RUclips) so it does not seem to show up for others.
Therefore I now added it without the link.
If you wish to search for the video the title is "Operation Bøllebank Danish Leopards in Bosnia [EN SUB]"
I remember when these events happened. My friend's son had just started Ranger training. He was very concerned about his son serving under the Commander-in-chief, President Clinton, at the time. When leadership screws up, people die.
Friend thought right. Between this and Bengazi the clintons have a torrent of American military blood on their hands.
Clinton admin did screw up. More specifically it was SECDEF who screwed up. He was the one who denied the needed resources to successfully accomplish the progressively more difficult mission. When General Powell once wanted to brief him about the situation and assessment of Somalia, all the SECDEF wanted to do is enjoy his lunch. The SECDEF eventually resigned after the outcome of the raid.
My friend’s dad (Army Ranger) fought in this battle. He was just a young man then. He had to walk out of the theater when he saw this film.
This is the first war movie to make me cry 😢
🤠
Delta is the oldest of the highest tier US special operations units. Made even before JSOC (which all the top US military units fall under) was formed.
So Delta once promised its soldiers that it was the only Army unit where contact with the enemy was guaranteed in its members careers. While Mogadishu for instance was a known hot spot by the US military and by the US populace (because its troops were there), Delta was conducting operations in various places all over the world. For instance, they also helped train the people, and provided intel for the people (and if you believe the rumors are also the ones that shot Pablo through the ear) that hunted down Pablo Escobar (along with another unit that I'm surprised nobody ever makes movies of in the ISA).
So they were one of the few units in the US military whose members actually had years and years of real world missions and combat experience under their belts. It's true that there is always conflict, but there isn't always conventional conflict. So guys can do their three years of active time now (or in the 90s), and never have a deployment to a hostile country. Everybody likes to think it will be like it was for the GWOT where there was twenty years of getting deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, but that isn't the case. And wasn't in the late nineties especially, even if there were some spicy places to go in the early nineties.
So delta also just being one of the few who got to do their jobs all the time, also developed a cavalier attitude to the rest of the Army, it's been mentioned that Delta is the only unit in the Army that hates the Army, but they also just knew weaponcraft like few others did. They can custom build their issued weapon with different sights, triggers etc. The weapon isn't really unsafe here, it has a dead trigger, aside from loading a magazine and then chambering a round, the weapon cant go off, the Ranger Captain was just pointing out what he knew to be the Army way of being safe and the Delta guy was being a smartass. Because even if it didn't have a dead trigger, the gun itself isn't going to load itself and shoot somebody else.
Interestingly, the 75th would eventually become the main source of new recruits to Delta (it used to be the Special Forces groups), and the 75th would have a huge Glow Up thanks to the GWOT. 75th dropped more people in the GWOT than any other unit, and if you google image search them, it's hard to tell them apart from any of the other apex predators in JSOC these days.
Edit: Does it have an actual magazine in the movie? I can't tell in this vid if that is a mag or his wrinkled shirt. Even then you can still have a dead trigger and an inserted magazine, though that would raise some eye brows.
If you read my the book it mentions how they would sneak around high ranking militia members in donkey carts, and even suspected that Fadid could have escaped during this battle in that way so I think paid a little nod to that.
For all the lucky non-soldiers in the audience... "HUA" is an Army thing. It means "Heard. Understood. Acknowledged". Hua? Hua.
Grimes, typing and making coffee one minute, rolling deep with the D-Boys the next.
Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipients, and the best we ever had. R.I.P.
The US military tries hard to identify medical issues (physical and mental) before they put military trainees, who are little more than uniformed civilians at that point, through physically and mentally demanding initial training but they miss a few. Thereafter problems tend to show up at the worst possible time.
It’s is a hard watch but one of my favorite movies ever. Having been an army medic this operation did change army medical training significantly. Also in my own experience this movie is accurate to war in more obscure places
Lol, man, Blackburn trained his whole life JUST to fall out of a Black Hawk while trying to rappel at the very start of his first ever mission 😂
I need to clarify that scene where they were talking about how the Delta didn't have his weapon on safety.
It comes down to the fact that Rangers keep their weapons on safe when on the base, Delta keep their safeties off but do not have a round in the chamber so in order for them to start firing they have to charge the weapon to put a round in the chamber. Deltas won't have an accidental discharge as a result either. It was just different protocols and that Captain was an idiot.
I watched a podcast w a delta member on this mission named Tom Satterly he said a few days after the battle men came to the gates with trash bags full of dead body parts. He didn’t understand if it was to ease things off or to say “hey look what we did.” Either way one of the wives of the helicopter crew and delta snipers who was in those bags can’t use trash bags anymore
The young Lieutenant probably didn’t even know that he was epileptic, and what’s crazy is that all the intense Ranger training didn’t ever bring any symptoms to the surface. Perhaps it was the building stress of leading men into real action for the first time that caused the seizure?
I hope that you can react to the movie “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”. It’s definitely worth the watch.