Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

archer2371 · 07-11-2004, 10:43 AM

I thought we were talking about Sudan here. Look, Zamunda's statement, is, I think so at least, spot on. Let me tell you a story about CW3 Michael Durant. No, it's not the story of his Super Six-Four Blackhawk, but it's about the situation in Somalia at the time. The shooting range for the Task Force Ranger guys was far enough away that they had to be ferried there by the Night Stalkers. While the Ranger boys were playing in the sand, the Night Stalkers would power down and wait until they were done. Of course, this attracted the attention of the locals, and being the good citizens they were, the pilots would sometimes hand out their MREs and/or bottles of water to the Somalis. However, this soon elevated, more and more Somalis came to the site where they knew that they could get some food. However, the Somalis started fighting amongst themselves for the food and water. It eventually escalated enough that Mike Durant's NVGs were stolen from his Blackhawk. Now, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Durant equated this situation to what they were trying to do in Somalia. The more they tried to help, the more the situation seemed to get worse, because everyone wanted what the U.N. had to offer, and they were willing to kill for it, and the warlords, especially Aideed, were more than willing to oblige. Very soon, the people began to resent Task Force Ranger because of the propaganda put out by Aideed and they soon targeted Task Force Ranger as the source of all their problems, and lead to the incident popularized by the book and movie Black Hawk Down. If we went into Sudan, I pretty much foresee the same thing happening, because the conditions are identical to those that were in Somalia.

07-11-2004, 10:43 AM	#47 (permalink)
archer2371 Sarge of Blood Gulch Red Outpost Number One Location: On the front lines against our very enemy	I thought we were talking about Sudan here. Look, Zamunda's statement, is, I think so at least, spot on. Let me tell you a story about CW3 Michael Durant. No, it's not the story of his Super Six-Four Blackhawk, but it's about the situation in Somalia at the time. The shooting range for the Task Force Ranger guys was far enough away that they had to be ferried there by the Night Stalkers. While the Ranger boys were playing in the sand, the Night Stalkers would power down and wait until they were done. Of course, this attracted the attention of the locals, and being the good citizens they were, the pilots would sometimes hand out their MREs and/or bottles of water to the Somalis. However, this soon elevated, more and more Somalis came to the site where they knew that they could get some food. However, the Somalis started fighting amongst themselves for the food and water. It eventually escalated enough that Mike Durant's NVGs were stolen from his Blackhawk. Now, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Durant equated this situation to what they were trying to do in Somalia. The more they tried to help, the more the situation seemed to get worse, because everyone wanted what the U.N. had to offer, and they were willing to kill for it, and the warlords, especially Aideed, were more than willing to oblige. Very soon, the people began to resent Task Force Ranger because of the propaganda put out by Aideed and they soon targeted Task Force Ranger as the source of all their problems, and lead to the incident popularized by the book and movie Black Hawk Down. If we went into Sudan, I pretty much foresee the same thing happening, because the conditions are identical to those that were in Somalia. __________________ "This ain't no Ice Cream Social!" "Hey Grif, Chupathingy...how bout that? I like it...got a ring to it." "I have no earthly idea what it is I just saw, or what this place is, or where in the hell O'Malley is! My only choice is to blame Grif for coming up with such a flawed plan. Stupid, stupid Grif."