Black Hawk Down

The town of Lincoln, Maine is teaming with the Special Forces Charitable Trust to build a memorial dedicated to the men who died in Somalia in 1993. Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart were forever immortalized when they made the fateful decision to stay and fight, defending the injured soldiers at […]

No one wants to be preached at, unless they’re in a church or gathering to listen to a politician spew out his or her alleged values. This is the reason many people roll their eyes when you utter the word “themes” in regards to a story. They think of the childish “moral of the story,” […]

Music drives films of any kind to the next level. An actor with a sub-par performance can be elevated (to a point) with correctly utilized music to back him up. A scene with zero tension can be ratcheted up a thousand times with just a few strings and distant wind chimes. Just as important as […]

One of my favorite aspects of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down was the departure from unrealistically long machine gun bursts and grenades erupting into ridiculous fireballs, and a distinct lack of overly-dramatic crying and shaking of fists to the sky.  It has a visceral, primal tone to it as the quiet protagonists are firing single […]

Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, has a long history stained with blood and conflict.  It’s the country’s largest city, and it seems that any headlines regarding the place always include some kind of gruesome bloodshed.  It’s like the city has never found a moment of peace to catch its breath.  Reports have just come in of […]

You’re 16, at the movies with your friends, and the main character swings around a corner wielding a pistol held waist-high.  He fires a couple of shots with his other hand sticking out awkwardly like he’s balancing on a tightrope, and yet every shot lands either directly in the center of the forehead or straight […]

Leave no  man behind.  The phrase rings through the minds of the armed forces, as one man stuck behind enemy lines seems to warrant the entire might and wrath of the United States military. It almost seems like too a high a risk–to potentially lose multiple lives just to save one, and that’s assuming the […]

Today we remember the men of Operation Gothic Serpent who fought and died on the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia in what later became popularly known from the title of a book and film as “Black Hawk Down” The operation was run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and was commanded by General William […]

The US Army plans to keep the famed MH-6 ‘Little Bird’ helicopter in service until “Future Vertical Lift aircraft” become available.  The light helicopters are used for special operations in the US Army and rose to fame in the movie Blackhawk down where it was used to support operators who were trapped in the city […]

A recognized hero, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Wayne Bray, 49, a Randolph County, N.C. native, died Oct. 24 at Columbus Regional Healthcare. You might not know his name, but his actions in Somalia in 1993 earned him a Silver Star —and those actions were later portrayed in the movie, “Black Hawk Down.” Bray was born in […]

Delta Force underwent a transformation of sorts, Sacolick said, all aimed at preventing another “Black Hawk Down.”

The Battle of Mogadishu, “revolutionized how we did business,” he said.

Sam’s best Robert DiNiro impression was the worst ever. It didn’t sound any different than his normal voice, but he was entertained by it, and I admit I was modestly beguiled.