Personal pilot account of the movie "BlackHawk Down".

-----Original Message-----

Subject: Nightstalker Pilot's Account of 03/04 Oct 1993

During the last few days many pilots have come up to me and asked me  if I
had seen the movie "Blackhawk Down."  I don't mind talking about the movie,
and I welcome the opportunity to talk about the heroism and valor of  my
friends. I just wanted to post some comments here about the movie and my
impressions. Also I wanted to try to answer some frequently asked
questions. 

First of all, I and many of my friends that also flew on the mission thought
that the movie was excellent! It is technically accurate and it is
dramatically correct. In other words, the equipment, lingo and dialogue are
all right on. By dramatically correct, I mean that it very effectively
captured the emotions and tension that we all felt during the mission.  It
did this without being a cartoon, (like TOP GUN) or being over the top,
(like FIREBIRDS). It's true that the screenwriters had to consolidate two or
three people into one, but this was necessary because otherwise there would
have been too many principal characters to keep track of.  Also in the
actual mission we had nearly 20 aircraft in the air that day.  In the movie
they had 4 Blackhawks and 4 "Little Birds." The unit could not afford to
commit the actual number to the filming of the movie. However, through the
magic of the cinema, they were able to give the  impression of the real
number.

Our force mixture was as follows:
    Super 61 - Lead Blackhawk
    Star 41-44 Little Bird Assault
    Super 62 - Trail Blackhawk
These aircraft made up the assault force. Their mission was to go into the
buildings and capture the individuals who were the target of the day.

Super 61 was shot down, killing both pilots. They were CW4 Cliff Wolcott and
CW3   Donovan Briley. The three of us shared a room at the airfield.  Star
41 landed at the crash site and the pilot, CW4 Keith Jones, ran over and
dragged two survivors to his aircraft and took off for the hospital.  Keith
re-enacted his actions in the movie. Super 62 was the Blackhawk that put in
the two Delta snipers, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master
Sergeant Gary Gordon.  They were inserted at crash site #2.

Shortly after Gary and Randy were put in, Super 62 was struck in the
fuselage by an antitank rocket.  The whole right side of the aircraft was
opened up and the sniper manning the right door gun had his leg blown off.
The aircraft was able to make it out of the battle area to the port area
where they made a controlled crash landing.  (This is not depicted in the
movie.)

Next was the Ranger Blocking Force.  This consisted of 4 Blackhawks:
    Super 64 (CW3 Mike Durant and CW4 Ray Frank)
    Super 65 (Me and Cpt Richard Williams)
    Super 66 (CW3 Stan Wood and CW4 Gary Fuller)
    Super 67 (CW3 Jeff Niklaus and CW2 Sam Shamp)
The mission of the blocking force was to be inserted at the four corners of
the objective building and to prevent any Somali reinforcements from
getting through.  In the movie there is a brief overhead shot of the
assault.  My aircraft is depicted in the lower left hand corner of the
screen.  This is the only part of the film where I come close to being
mentioned.

As the assault is completed, you hear the Blackhawks calling out of the
objective area.  When you hear, "...Super 65 is out, going to holding..."
that's my big movie moment.  There is also a quick shot of an RPG being shot
at a hovering Blackhawk.  I did have one maybe two fired at me, but I did
not see them or the gunner.  I only heard the explosions. We were not able
to return fire, although some of the other aircraft did.

Make no mistake. I am fully aware of my role in this mission.  My job was
the same as the landing boat drivers in "Saving Private Ryan."  Get the
troops in the right place in one piece.  I am very proud of the fact that my
crew and I were able to do that. After having done this in Grenada, Panama
and Somalia, I can identify with the bombardiers of World War Two.  You have
to ignore all of the chaos that is going on around and completely
concentrate on the tasks at hand. That is holding the aircraft as steady as
possible so the Rangers can slide down the ropes as quickly and safely as
possible.  Okay, Okay, enough about me.

Super 64 was shot down also with an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade).  They
tried to make it back to the airfield, but their tail rotor gave way about a
mile out of the objective area.  They went down in the worst part of bad guy
territory.  The dialogue for the movie appears to have been taken from the
mission tapes as it is exactly as I remember it.  (This was the hardest part
of the movie for me to watch). The actions on the ground are as described by
Mike Durant, as he was the only one from the crew to survive the crash and
the gun battle. It was here the Gary and Randy won their Posthumous Medals
of Honor.

Super 66 was called in at about 2000 hours to resupply the Rangers at the
objective area.  Some of the Rangers were completely out of ammunition and
were fighting hand to hand with the Somali militia men. (Also not depicted
in the movie).  Stan and Gary brought their aircraft in so that they were
hovering over the top of the Olympic Hotel with the cargo doors hanging out
over the front door.  In this way they were able to drop the ammo, water and
medical supplies to the men inside.  Stan's left gunner fired 1600 rounds of
minigun ammo in 30 seconds.  He probably killed between 8 to 12 Somali
militia men.

As Stan pulled out of the objective area, he headed to  the airfield because
his right gunner had been wounded, as had the two Rangers in the back who
were throwing out the supplies. Once he landed, he discovered that he'd been
hit by about 40-50 rounds and his transmission leaking oil like a sieve.
Super 66 was done for the night.

The final group of aircraft were the 4 MH6 gunships, and the command and
control Blackhawk and the Search and Rescue ³Hawk.² They were Barber 51-54
MH6's Super 63 C&C Super 68 SAR.  In the movie, the gunships are shown
making only one attack.  In fact, they were constantly engaged all night
long. Each aircraft reloaded six times.  It is estimated that they fired
between 70 and 80,000 rounds of minigun ammo and fired a total 90 to 100
aerial rockets. They were the only thing that kept the Somalis from
overrunning the objective area.  All eight  gunship pilots were awarded the
Silver Star. Every one of them deserved it!

Next is Super 68. The actions of this crew were very accurately portrayed.
The only difference was that they were actually hit in the rotor blades by
an RPG. This blew a semicircle out of the main rotor spar, but the blade
held together long enough for them to finish putting in the medics and
Rangers at the first crashsite.  It was then that they headed to the
airfield.  What they did not know was that their main transmission and
engine oil cooler had been destroyed by the blast. As they headed to the
airfield all 7 gallons of oil from the main rotor gearbox, and all 7 quarts
from each engine was pouring out. They got the aircraft on the ground just
as all oil pressures went to zero. They then shutdown, ran to the spare
aircraft and took off to rejoin the battle.

They were in the air just in time to affect the MEDEVAC of Super 62, which
had landed at the seaport.  The pilots of this aircraft were CW3 Dan
Jollota, and MAJ Herb Rodriguez.  Both men were later awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross.  Major  Rodriguez is retired from the Army now
and he teaches middle school with my wife in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Finally there is the Command and Controll Blackhawk, Super 63.  In the back
of this aircraft was my battalion commander, LTC Matthews, and the overall
ground commander, LTC Harrell.  In the movie, there is a scene where the men
on the ground were begging for MEDEVAC.  By this point in the battle we had
5 Blackhawks out of action, either shot down or shot up so much they
couldn't fly anymore.  Of the two assault force and four blocking force
³hawks,² only myself and Super 67 were left.  I fully expected LTC Harrell
to send us in to try to get those men out.  I jacked a round into the
chamber of my pistol and my M16.  I knew that the only way to do was to
hover with one wheel balanced on the roof  of the building.  Then the
Rangers would be able to throw the wounded in.  I knew that we were going to
take a lot of fire and I was trying to mentally prepare myself to do this
while the  aircraft was getting hit.  My friends had all gone in and taken
their licks and now I figured it was our turn. (Peer pressure is such a
powerful tool if used properly.) Quite frankly, I really thought that we
were at best going to get shot down, at worst I figured we were going to be
killed. The way I saw it we had already lost 5 aircraft, what was 2 more?  I
had accepted this because at least when this was all over General Garrison
would be able to tell the families that we had tried everything to get their
sons,fathers or husbands out.  We were even willing to send in our last two
helicopters.

Fortunately for me LTC Harrell realized that the time for helicopters had
passed.  The decision was made to get the tanks and armored personnel
carriers to punch through to the objective area. Once again, the dialogue in
the movie is verbatum.  What you don't hear is me breathing a sigh of
relief!  I remembered thinking that maybe I was going to see the sunrise
after all.

I guess I got a little carried away.  I really didn't mean to write this
much. People ask me if this movie has given me 'flashbacks'.  I don't think
you can call them flashbacks; that day has never been out of my mind.  I
hope that when you do see the movie it will fill you with pride and awe for
the Rangers that fought their hearts out that day.  Believe me, they are
made of the same stuff as those kids at Normandy Beach.  When 1LT Tom
DiTomasso, the Ranger platoon leader on my aircraft, told me that we did a
fantastic job, I couldn't imagine ever receiving higher praise than that.  I
love my wife and children, but the greatest thing I've ever done is to be a
Nightstalker Pilot with Task Force Ranger on 3-4 Oct 1993.

Thank you for reading this. I look forward to answering any and all
questions anyone may have about the movie or the actual battle.  I just
thought that this might fill in some of the blanks.  Thank you again.

    Capt. Gerry Izzo(Super65) "NSDQ" (Nightstalkers Don't Quit)