The Battle of Mogadishu

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What started out as a well planned kidnapping, the Battle of Mogadishu turned into a battle for the lives of many American Special forces. Most are more familiar with this battle from the book “Black Hawk Down” by Mark Bowden and the motion picture that followed with the same title. Let’s put the lack of operational, intelligence and command preparedness for conducting the actual mission aside for a minute and focus on the recovery of the American Aircrew and Special Forces members stranded in the middle of the city. Could the command have prevented the actions that followed the shoot down of Super 64? Were the soldiers properly trained for the sequence of events to follow? To determine this, I will first discuss the history and evolution of Personnel Recovery (PR). Secondly, I will outline the efforts to recover the crewmembers of the fallen UH-60’s and the confusion that ensued with the recovery team. Lastly, I will point out the lessons learned from the battle and how it has influenced PR into today’s military operations.

History
The sum of military, diplomatic and civil efforts to affect the recovery and reintegration of isolated personnel (IP), or PR as defined in JP 3-50, has evolved over centuries of military and civil conflicts. It is important to look back and highlight historical developments that have shaped PR to fully understand its current state.
Before World War II the attempt to recover IP was almost unheard of. Due to the lack of technology, communications where limited to visual or audio signals. Command and control was exercised by these forms of communication restricting the size of the battlefield and thus the size of the battling force. With these restrictions an isolated person was a very rare event an...

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...o that others may live to return with honor.”

Works Cited

HansenIbid, Darren T., COMBAT SEARCH AND RESCUE: SHOULD IT BE A JOINT REQUIREMENT? (Naval War College, Newport, R.I., May 2001)

Leahy, Timothy J., The Future of USAF Combat Search and Rescue (Unpublished Research Paper, U.S. Air University, School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell AFB, AL, 1998)

Militaryfactor.com, Despite the humanitarian-minded end-goal, the American involvement in Somalia proved a nightmare all around, shaping US foreign policy for the next several decades

Mullarky, J.W., Combat Search and Rescue-The CINC's Dilemma (Alexandria, VA: Defense Logistics Agency. Defense Technical Information Center, 1990)

Naskrent, Dieter, Personnel Recovery- A Primer (Joint Air Power Competence Centre, 2011)

Rucci, Gregory, Do We Still Need Navy CSAR? (U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, July 2000)

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