Michael Durant: In the Company of Heroes

[hood]

On Saturday, May 10 at 5:00 pm and Sunday, May 11 at 1:15 am and at 9:25 am

Description: Book TV will be LIVE Saturday, May 10 at 5 p.m. ET for a discussion by Michael Durant, retired Blackhawk helicopter pilot on his memoir titled, "In the Company of Heroes." The book recounts his experience of being shot down and captured as prisoner of war in Somalia on October 3, 1993, during the failed attempt by the U.S. military to arrest a Somali warlord. The event will take place at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

[Beowulf]

May 11 at 1:15 am and at 9:25 am

Thanks Hood!
are you sure it's AM? seems an odd time. Also, is that eastern time?
don't wanna miss it.

[DanHS]

the mission succeeded, they got top figures from Aidid's militia. They needed them to get to Aidid, which they didn't get a chance to do.
I've never heard of book tv, I'll have to see if I get that, what television service has that?

[hood]

Ah, forgot to mention that. Book TV is the name of a program on CSPAN-2 which most cable companies carry. Yep, that's AM Beowulf. This whole weekend is back to back book coverage so they're fitting them in where possible. :) You can watch live cspan tv for all their networks over at cspan.com if you don't get it on tv.

[hood]

In case anyone's interested, you can now watch this here:

http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/0503/btv051003_4.ram

[JohnJohn]

during the failed attempt by the U.S. military to arrest a Somali warlord.

when will these people learn. The operation was not a failure. Kept casualties low and captured objectives. Stupid left-wing media has distorted what occured and swayed public opinion to instill the idea that this operation was the failure which it most obviously was not :fork:

[Gordon]

It was undoubtadely a military success and a grand example of what to do when the **** hits the fan.

It was, unfortunately, a political failure due to the casualty rate which was very low for what could have happened but politicians are weak and generally don't stick to their guns in this kind of situation.

[hood]

What was interesting, is that Durant says in the above show, that by the time he was released, the US had all the firepower that they had originally requested, in place. They could have pounded it into oblivion and taken out Aidid at will. But they didn't. Clinton may have had a case of the "Escalation Willies". On one side, pull out and suffer political arrows. On the other, escalate and risk another Vietnam/quagmire. Not to say that it would have necessarily happened that way, but by that time they had lost the appreciation of the Somali people. It would have been uphill all the way.

[JohnJohn]

another Vietnam? in Somalia?!?! rofl

Glad I did not vote for Clinton. Weak president, sold out our great country and military, turned a blind eye to terrorism for 8 years. Now the guy says he did all he could to prevent these Al Qaeda types and that he was obsessed with stopping them. Liar. Worthless.

[hood]

His $300 hair-do could deflect any terrorist attack. :)

[JiJoMacLE45]

Ole' Billy C stole some of the USSS 100mph hair gel.

I just finished reading the book for a second time. Durant's a hell of a guy. Great read.

[JohnJohn]

His $300 hair-do could deflect any terrorist attack. :)

neither did his $58MILLION taxpayer-funded safari ;)

[Chops]

Hey JiJo

Any chance of a mini review? I've ordered from US Amazon and am still awaiting copy...

rgds

Chops

[hood]

Since it's relavent, I'll post this here. It's about the 3 disk deluxe version of the black hawk down dvd set. On the 3rd disk, it includes a bunch of the documentaries that came out around the time. The Frontline one was by far the best as it had huge amounts of interviews with the Rangers who were there.


http://dvd.ign.com/articles/388/388656p1.html

[JiJoMacLE45]

Hey Chops, reviewer JiJo here with the lastest on Mike Durant and Steven Hartov's 'In the Company of Heroes'. Book goes back and forth, starting with the October 3rd raid and alternates between the time he spent in captivity and his military career from his days as a medevac pilot near the DMZ, his days with the 101st, joining the 160th, Panama, Iraq, and his post-Somalia military career. Durant and his co-author spend a good deal of time dealing with the comaraderie formed with his fellow Night Stalkers teammates. Enjoy.

[seventy6er]

can i save a quicktime-video to my hdd? i know i can do with mediaplayer-mpegs, but *.rqm-files??!??

[Gordon]

just right click then save target as.

[seventy6er]

that doesn't work for me. just makes a link to the file on my hdd...

[front]

And another thing about Somalia came up lately... here is a thing... a former workmate of mine in Michigan was a member of the 82nd, and served in Somalia.

We were talking one Friday lunchtime about his mission there and I mentioned the facts about Aidid's son.

He did not belive me. I persisted. "Surely you have read about..." and " Did no-one tell you about this?"

He did not know. He told me about rotating onto the mini-guns on the Blackhawk, part and parcel of the commitment, and that he frequently delivered the rounds around the place.

An article here that puts the point across:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5220/aydiidyounger.nyt.html

It is worth a read... really worth a read. Read it and then go on down to my workmates response...







So...

My workmate was not too pleased with that article... not the way is was written nor it's agenda, but because it was the truth. Not too pleased at all. His email back to me, and I quote with permission was:

"Too bad one of my stray bullets didn't kill his ass. ****in' skinny
traitor. I hope I killed his best friend and his dog with my mini-gun."

Aidid's son was still around. Pic of that former US Marine here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1072611.stm

(Low down, last pic on the page... guy in the suit, white shirt and tie.)

cheers

front

[JohnJohn]

Yeah real sad, known that for years but still makes you angry doesn't it? :fork:

[front]

"Yeah real sad, known that for years but still makes you angry doesn't it?"

Ouch...

:Yeah real sad, known that for years"

I might have... but my workmate who was there did not. Not that he cared until I pointed it out... :-)

"but still makes you angry doesn't it?"

Makes me angry? No... it might make me wonder why the USMC did not have an Intelligence section up to speed on why they deployed the son of their enemy into the combat zone... but you are able to dimiss it.

It made my workmate angry, who was there, and I'll hazard that you were not. His life was on the line... was yours? He was very upset because he had never read, nor heard, or realised that such a thing could happen.

Your comment is a simple one. You waste bandwidth. Your post can be summed up in a single word:

"Whatever."

Delighted to meet you, (via comments) young man. Delighted you decided to post such a succint comment, and delighted that you cared to post. :-)

<filter>

cheers

front

[JohnJohn]

what the hell just happened? I made a comment and it seems Front just reprimanded me for responding to one of his posts in relation to the whole Black Hawk Down situation. It is the way I feel, I was not there front, but I would not be so quick to assume anything else ;) Either way, I'm lost, what just happened here rofl

Nice to make your acquaintance as well woot

[front]

Private message on the way to JohnJohn... :-)

Everyone just move along... no need to get involved.

cheers

front

[Duke]

Front,
The USMC sent, the naturalized American, Cpl Hussein Aidid to Somalia because he was born and raised in Somalia. As someone who understands the culture, he represented (as the Marines saw) a vast source information, not typically found in an agent or a Marine.

So I must ask Front, what did Cpl Aidid do or say to alert CI? Was it because his dad is Mohammed Aidid? Okay then, let me say this. We in American tend to be suspicious of rank, wealth or prestige acquired through bloodlines; conversely, we are extremely supportive of individuals, like Cpl Aidid (he did not have to enlist), who are either self made or do not use their bloodlines or "connections" for gain. America is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, so we donot have this bloodline mentality. Thus, we cringe at nepotism and vendettas. My point is, here in America we have a tendency to judge an individual on personal merits and on the contents of his/her character, not on what their father or grandmother did many years ago. So, again, what did Cpl Aidid do for S-2 to come down?

Your argument makes as much sense as the rabid racists and paranoid malcontents during the aftermath of Pearl Harbor who jailed the Nisei and their parents for the crimes of being either born American to Japanese parents or Japanese immigrants.

The Battle for Mogudishu and its preceeding events will always be a tragedy, and it's lalso tragic to question the Marine Corps or a Marine when no such suspicion is warranted.