JockularFiasco
02-03-2003, 10:06 AM
Hood I'm happy :D to share a story or 2 about the conflict in Mogadishu in 1993. The first night Echo 3/11 spent in Somalia was Dec 30th 1992(my birthday) @ the airstrip of Mogadishu. Kinda different environment from Saudi & Okinawa, just odd. We trained a bit over the next 2weeks before we were sent in the heart of the city and be the divider the 2 warlords territory. We took over a huge corner building with feces 2" deep throughout. A dead body on the 3rd floor, we later found out was a rapist. The locals explained through a translator that he did not deserve a burial and was to rot there. we eventually had to remove the carcus to a hummer which transferred to God knows where.
I drew firewatch the first day after clean up. And a frikkin bullet shot above my head, hitting the already bullet-pocked building. That was a welcoming of sorts. We fenced off the perimeter as the curious locals looked on. Most were young chldren 2-12 years old. Never seeing a white man before, I thought these kids had saw a demi-god. They would smile, their teeth so white from the sugarcane branches they would use to brush. One of the older locals(in his 20's) w/ a few friends came near and all the kids ran. This was obviously some members of Aidids gang. We had invaded their space, with no provoking movements they looked insulted that I was even in their country.
Later that week, we escorted a line of food trucks near the food center on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Driving up a hill in 2 1/2 & 5 ton trucks, a trolley carrying 60 or so people came flying around the turn. The driver tried to avoid us and did but tipped the trolley on its side. People were hanging from the sides & on the roof of the bus, protecting their 50 lb.rice bags. They were thrown in to the sticker bushes, some were caught underneath the vehicle. It was mayhem. We scurried to the site where there were several people laid out across the dirt road, in the bushes...dead. The ones that were still alive we moved them from the site. A fellow Marine we nicknamed Popeye & I pulled this one guy out of the bushes, you could hear his flesh tearing from his skin. We just looked @ each other and knew he was all but dead. It was hours before it was all cleaned up. Man what a horrific site that was.
I will scan some pictures of when we were in somalia soon.
I drew firewatch the first day after clean up. And a frikkin bullet shot above my head, hitting the already bullet-pocked building. That was a welcoming of sorts. We fenced off the perimeter as the curious locals looked on. Most were young chldren 2-12 years old. Never seeing a white man before, I thought these kids had saw a demi-god. They would smile, their teeth so white from the sugarcane branches they would use to brush. One of the older locals(in his 20's) w/ a few friends came near and all the kids ran. This was obviously some members of Aidids gang. We had invaded their space, with no provoking movements they looked insulted that I was even in their country.
Later that week, we escorted a line of food trucks near the food center on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Driving up a hill in 2 1/2 & 5 ton trucks, a trolley carrying 60 or so people came flying around the turn. The driver tried to avoid us and did but tipped the trolley on its side. People were hanging from the sides & on the roof of the bus, protecting their 50 lb.rice bags. They were thrown in to the sticker bushes, some were caught underneath the vehicle. It was mayhem. We scurried to the site where there were several people laid out across the dirt road, in the bushes...dead. The ones that were still alive we moved them from the site. A fellow Marine we nicknamed Popeye & I pulled this one guy out of the bushes, you could hear his flesh tearing from his skin. We just looked @ each other and knew he was all but dead. It was hours before it was all cleaned up. Man what a horrific site that was.
I will scan some pictures of when we were in somalia soon.