Never panic.
The Battle of Mogadishu was epic. A Ranger company with Delta put a hurting on the Somalis who attacked them. Around 1000 killed.
‘What to remember in a firefight’ according to ‘Hoot’ the legendary Delta Force operator
If there’s one thing to remember in combat it’s this: Whatever you do, don’t panic.
Norm Hooten knows this better than most.
Nearly 27 years ago, Hooten and other Delta Force soldiers, as well as U.S. Army Rangers, were fighting for survival during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia. Cut off, outnumbered, and surrounded, the situation might have seemed hopeless for the American troops on the ground.
“It’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems, but keep your head and there’s always a way out,” said Hooten, who was portrayed by actor Eric Bana in Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott’s 2001 military drama about the battle.
“That’s the most important thing: Keep your head, don’t panic. Never ever panic, it’s the worst thing you can do.”
(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Aug. 13, 2020.)
In the summer of 1993, a contingent of U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers were dispatched to Mogadishu as part of a task force to capture or kill Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a Somali warlord responsible for numerous civilian deaths and human rights violations.
On Oct. 3 of that year, the task force had its chance to deal a decisive blow. Though Aidid was believed to be out of the country, his top lieutenants were going to be meeting in person, and so Operation Gothic Serpent was launched. The mission was to assault the building where Aidid’s men were meeting, seize them, load them into trucks, and then get the hell out before anyone was the wiser.
If everything went according to plan, it would’ve been all over within an hour. However, after a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, it led to a chain reaction of events that transformed the operation into a running battle through enemy-occupied streets that stretched between two days, leaving 18 Americans dead, dozens wounded, and hundreds of Somali militants killed.