Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Book Project Critical Review James Egues Black Hawk Down, written by Mark Bowden, a journalist, tells a story about a group of American Soldiers that were sent into Somalia on a humanitarian mission authorized by George Bush in 1992. Several of the helicopters, Black Hawks, that they brought with them into the mission were shot down and the crews were mutilated by a local militia. Every time a Black Hawk crashed, a brutal firefight broke out, resulting in deaths and injuries of American soldiers. The rescue team could not land to get the group because of local Somalis. The mission was overall a failure, the mission’s death toll was one thousand of Somalis and nineteen American Soldiers. and at the end of the book, soldiers are celebrating the return of Michael Durant, who was the pilot for the Super Six One Black Hawk. Michael Durant was the only survivor from the Super Six One group. Bowden’s work was an overall success because of his journalist writing style, point of view of the events, and organization of the story line. As I was reading, I fell into the book and could not stop reading. It felt as if I was really there in the setting of the book. The style Mark Bowden used to write the book made me fall in love with the story. The writing brings out great visualization for the reader, making them feel like they are in the book with. Journalistic writing has a more exciting feel to it rather than classic novelistic writing. I feel as if classic novels are more creative and have more visualization rather than journalistic writing, and I love how Black Hawk Down has that journalistic feel to it. Journalistic writing is usually more putting words on paper for the reader to be able to easily read and understand what is going on. I enjoy this because it is straightforward and can have good visualization and novelistic writing is more creative and the author has more time to write their book. They can easily put together a picture with words for the reader. The style of writing made me pay more attention to the book and I felt very interested in what was going on. I could not stop myself from reading and every chance I got, I would read the book. When reading a classic novelistic book, I feel like I am reading the book for class, however when I read a journalistic book, I feel free and enjoy reading the book. I enjoyed the different points of views Mark Bowden used throughout the book. Every other chapter or so, The point of view would change from the view of the soldiers to the view of local Somalis. It portrayed the difference between the two sides. It showed how an event could have a completely different effect on one side than the other. It helped me understand the different opinions and struggles between the two angles. It added some knowledge to the book and taught me somethings about the struggles the two groups faced. Everything the soldiers did had an impact on the Somalis, and everything the Somalis did had an impact on the soldiers. When a fight broke out it spanned across multiple chapters of the book and then switched to another perspective and continued onto some more chapters under that perspective. I thought this was helpful and very interesting. The organization of the story line was neat and looked clean. The book was split into a couple different sections, The Assault, and Black Hawk Down and more. The book starts with The Assault and follows with Black Hawk Down and continues with a couple more. I thought this was cool and organized. Chapters were short and chronological. Because the chapters were so short, there were tons of chapters. I did not like that feature, but other than the length of the chapters, everything was fine. Each chapter was tightly packed with dialogue and action. There were very few chapters that were not containing action and or dialogue between characters. I thought this was fun to read and helped me stay interested in the book. All in all, I loved the book Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden. I thought it was the perfect mixture of action and a sad story. Bowden’s work was an overall success because of his journalist writing style, point of view of the events, and organization of the story line. I loved the journalistic writing feel to the book. I enjoyed reading this book overall because I could not stop reading. I was attached to the book because of its writing style and the action. The different points of view from the soldiers and the Somalis surprised me and was very interesting. I thought the organization of the storyline was very neat and clean. I especially liked how the book was split into two parts. I would love to recommend Black Hawk Down to anyone who loves an action packed, war themed, sad story.

you could identify with the people and events…having come from a military family and marrying military…it puts you beside the characters.

With so much action going on and so many perspectives to tell the story from, "Black Hawk Down" give a truly in-depth look at what happened over the course of less than a day, but just like the fog of war confuses those within it, the mashing of multiple story lines challenges the reader to do lots of work on keeping up with who is where and doing what. This gets easier as the book moves along because the names and locations become more familiar, but to truly understand the first half of the book, one must read it again with the accumulated knowledge of having read the entire book. Other than that, it was written so that the non-military mind can understand the various situations with limited knowledge of tactical jargon and that's a good thing for those of us who do not have a military background but enjoy reading books about the history of our military to get a better appreciation at what they do to provide security for Americans and allies alike.

Tremendous story of courage and hope and what it means to dig deep and fight for the man next to you when everything has gone to hell.

What a story, very detailed and captivating so hold on!

I realize I’m late to the party as this book has been published many years ago, but I had to stop and write my review. I read about 100 books a year most of them non-fiction. I don’t read a lot of war books but this one kept getting my attention so I decide to pick it up, even though the length was daunting. This was probably one of the best books I’ve ever read, it read like a novel and yes, it “dazzled “me. the stories of soldiers and the human perspective in this book make it different than any other military book you will read. I recommend this book highly- now I’m searching other books by this author. I love his writing style. I love how he makes the emotions come to life. This book touched me in ways that I never thought it would -when I had to put it down I was thinking about it and couldn’t wait to get back to it. Thank you to the author who painstakingly put this together it really is a masterpiece.

Apparently this riveting, exhausting, highly detailed account of the incredible battle between 90 or so Rangers, Delta Force, SEALS & others and thousands of well-armed Somalis in Mogadishu IS required reading in many military circles and schools. It should be given to every Congressman and White House aid & staffer and consultant as well, before they cavalierly send troops into the 3rd World or elsewhere without really thinking-through what they want them to do when they get there, and what the ultimate cost of such actions becomes. I doubt that I am alone in my ignorance of what an incredible firefight went down in Mog back then. I saw the ghastly images repeatedly shown of dead Americans being dragged and abused through the streets, but I had no idea of the numbers of troops and enemy engaged and the hellish fight that took place and the terrible toll taken in total dead and wounded on both sides. Mark Bowden brings it incredibly alive in his minute by minute chronological retelling of what developed into an Alamo-like stand in the dust and heat of a large African city. He captures the intensity and confusion of combat, the constant shift between fear, panic, heroism, paralysis and back again in the ever deepening mess of the operation. Through extensive research and interviewing of the combatants he brings it all up close and in your face. And, he had the good graces to go back to Mogadishu and interview the Somalis for their point of view. He presents a stirring tribute to the men who did the fighting. He justly brings to our attention the courage and sacrifice, as well as the screw-ups, of the men on the ground in the thick of it. He has no axe to grind and his effort is true reporting, presenting the facts vividly and as accurately as possible. In the Epilogue and Afterword, Bowden gives some opinions about the lessons to be learned from this disaster. I pretty much agree with them, and applaud his avoidance of tarring the leadership or anyone else with a broad brush of blame and bad motives. On the contrary, he sees that in the effort in Somalia, everyone was basically trying to do the right thing, but things went terribly wrong anyway. The short lesson from this venture is an old adage we should try to remember in the future "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". These boys knew they were part of the most awsome military might ever created....but they and we learn in this account that even that great power has its limits. Pray we remember this.

And so ends this excellent book that was clearly written against all odds to tell this horrible story as seen through the eyes of the soldiers. This book will make you angry and sad and will make you cry without a doubt. It is an emotional roller coaster that I couldn't recommend higher. I would strongly encourage you to start by reading the closing epilogue. Bowden explains his amazement that the story had not been appropriately documented and how he was able to meet many combatants at a memorial dedication that opened the doors for him to write this incredible book. I would also strongly encourage you to read the book prior to the movie. While I enjoyed the movie, the written words of the book more accurately record how deadly this attack was and the terror involved. This is not meant as a negative review on the movie, just the power of this book. I must admit, I only vaguely remembered this event. And that is a sad statement that these men could die in the duty of their country without the nation remembering them. The Somalia mission was to provide food for the starving. But in a country dominated by civil war, the top warlord, Adid, quickly steals the food giving the UN Peace force a reason to expand the mission to controlling Adid. On this day, the Rangers and Delta force storm a meeting to capture two top ranking Adid officials when eventually two Black Hawks are shut down. Immediately surrounded by a frenzied crowd, the Rangers and Delta force must fight to save fellow soldiers overcoming fear and injuries to stay alive. It's absolutely amazing more were not killed, as they had to spend the night in this hostile environment. Areas the book covered well not particularly well covered in the movie include some of the following. The difference in Rangers and Delta Force. I was not aware of the power of the Delta Force and how they trained differently. This may have contributed to the problems of the mission. Lack of water and night vision on the mission. Since they thought this was a one-hour mission beginning at 3:00 in the afternoon, no one thought to bring water. What a terrible mistake in this hot environment under extreme physical duress. In addition, the terror of the "Lost Convoy" could not accurately be reflected in the movie. The book describes how the convoy would stop at each crossroad giving the terrorists time to run one block over and be waiting at every crossroad with a hail of bullets. Basically, every street was a reign of bullets and RPG. No wonder they eventually had to head to the base with over 50% casualties. Also, the plight of Mike Durant, the captured pilot was not covered thoroughly enough in the movie in my opinion. As amazing as this story is, the fact the fighting crew had to run out with the armor support eventually moving ahead of them is even more astounding. I strongly recommend this book to learn more about the brave men who fight for their country.

BHDファンで、日本語訳された本を読みましたが、一部満足できず原作を購入しました。大満足です。

This is a review for the paperback edition and not the book itself. Very good quality paperback and print. Crisp pages.

Delivered on time, product as described. A really good read

Uma coisa é assistir ao filme, outra é ler e conhecer os detalhes do batalha. It's one thing to watch the film, it's another to read and learn the details of the battle.

Bon produit