01x02 - A Wall of Lead

[bunniefuu]

[somber music playing]

[wind rustles]

[birds chirping]

[woman in Somali] Early morning
that day was peaceful.

Soon after, I felt some slight labor pain.

-[somber music playing]
-[indistinct chatter]

[women murmuring]

[woman strains]

[baby crying]

[woman] I was blessed with baby Amina.

She was a beautiful baby girl,

thanks to God.

[baby crying]

I was expecting
my relatives to visit and bring gifts,

but then the sh**ting began.

[g*ns firing rapidly]

[indistinct clamoring]

[Saido] Helicopters were hovering above.

There was chaos all over the city.

Then one helicopter was shot down.

[helicopter crashing]

It crashed right outside our house…

and I passed out.

We thought it was all over.

[ominous music playing]

[indistinct shouting]

[helicopter whirring]

[g*ns firing rapidly]

I just couldn't believe
what was happening.

[g*n firing]

[David] Holy sh*t.

A black hawk crashed in front of me.

[crashing]

[soldier] Down! We got a black hawk down!

It was hectic, man.

I knew, I… I mean, I knew we were f*cked.

[g*ns firing rapidly]

I'd never trained to have
a helicopter shot down.

-[tense music plays]
-[g*nshots continue]

This is new territory.

[Tom] I'm listening to my team leader.

He's listening higher,
and that guy's listening to everybody.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

[Tom] It's like, okay, what do we do now?

[man on radio] We got
a black hawk crash in the city.

It's 6-1.

I'd been a platoon leader
for 3rd Ranger Battalion

for all of ten months.

To say I was scared, yeah, I… I was.

But the one thing
I can do as a leader is stay calm.

It would be so much
worse if they saw me lose my sh*t.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[g*ns firing]

[Larry] We were at the target building,

I'm monitoring the radios,
trying to get a sense of the situation.

[soldier] On your left!

The mission had been getting two
of Aidid's key lieutenants

that were having a meeting

in this area called the Bakara Market.

We had done our mission.

The prisoners had been captured.

-[tense music plays]
-[indistinct chatter over radio]

[Larry] Black hawk goes down,

two, two and a half blocks
away from our location.

Our mission's just changed.

It was no longer a raid.

It was now going
to become a rescue mission.

[indistinct chatter]

[Larry] Dead and alive,
we need to get to them.

And if there's any survivors,

we need to get them
and get them out of here quickly.

[man on radio] We got a bird down.

I need you to move on out
to secure that location.

It was decided we would all link up
at the crash site, everybody.

The Rangers and Delta,
we're all kind of together.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[g*n fires]

All of a sudden,
it was like, "We gotta go."

[soldier] Move, move.

[Tom] We had to move to the crash site.

You're like, "Okay,
everything's changing now."

[Randy] At the downed aircraft,
I had no idea who made it, who didn't.

Frankly, I was scared
that if we didn't get to that crash site,

we knew what the Somalis
would do to those that survived.

So that's when the race started.

-[tense music plays]
-[vehicle engine roaring]

[in Somali] There was a plan
presented to us by General Aidid.

If you get the chance,
capture the US soldiers alive,

if not, k*ll them.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[ominous music playing]

Somalis were yelling
at each other to come out and fight.

[tense music continues]

[Yasin in Somali] This is our land.

If you touch a man's ba*ls,

he will fight you off
with his hands and legs.

[Tom] It was like hundreds
of hundreds of people paralleling us

towards the crash site,
trying to beat us to it.

-[tense music plays]
-[g*ns firing]

[indistinct chatter]

God, I kept seeing them coming.

[in Somali] Even if 1,000 people died,
it doesn't matter.

It's no problem.

Our objective was the freedom of Somalia.

b*ll*ts are flying and you're like,
"Where is it coming from?"

Out of an alleyway, behind a gate.

But I'm Delta Force.

All the training kicks in.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[g*nshots continue]

I think I'm robotic.

It's happening without
me even thinking about it.

It's, "You're a threat. I'll k*ll you."

-[tense music playing]
-[crowd screaming]

[ominous music plays]

[Ahmed] When I reached
that area of Bakara Market,

I reached the front line.

I took out my camera

to record what's going on.

I saw Somalis running.

I can't see Americans.

If you see, you will die.

[helicopter whirring]

I was shocked.

That area where I'm filming,

it's full of civilian houses.

Residents!

But now, it's a battleground.

[children screaming]

[Ahmed] And in that b*ttlefield,

I was horrified to see a school.

[tense music playing]

[loud thudding]

[Halima in Somali] When
we were in the school,

I had never heard a*tillery
or anything as loud as this before.

[g*ns firing in distance]

The teacher stood up
and told the prefects to lock the doors.

We didn't know what was going on outside.

[Ahmed] I saw there
was a teacher outside of the… the…

the school and…
lifeless lying on the… the ground.

-[people crying]
-[helicopter whirring]

And then I recorded one boy

come out the school
with blood on his clothes.

[g*ns firing in distance]

I'm afraid. The remaining students…

what is their situation?

[in Somali] Around 20 children
were huddled on top of me.

Some were vomiting and others passed out.

I told myself, this is where I will die.

I'll never see my parents again.

I'm terrified. You know,

you can k*ll a lot of children.

When the children are there,

why are you firing?

[mimics g*nf*re]

I was thinking…

do they want everybody to die?

[somber music plays]

[tense music playing]

We were moving closer to the crash site.

When we turned left
to go down that extra block…

it was like, I swear, a wall of lead.

-[g*ns firing]
-[indistinct clamoring]

It was like gnats or just bees
snapping along the street.

[soldier] Get down!

[in Somali] In combat, the layout
of Mogadishu is to our advantage.

We use the backstreets
so they can't see you.

That's when we really
started taking lots of casualties.

[g*ns firing]

[shouting]

[Randy] All of a sudden,
I saw this guy being shot in the face.

It was the most
violent thing I've ever witnessed.

[g*ns firing]

[Randy] I actually got scared.

Then I realized he was in Delta Force.

[soldier shouting]

[Randy] Those guys do everything right.

And if they're doing everything right,

and they're still getting k*lled,

what does that mean for us?

[g*ns firing rapidly]

[in Somali] These men they brought here
had never been in a single battle.

They were schoolboys.

I was a fighter
with 30 or 40 battles under my belt,

and for four months,

we have been defending
our territory in Mogadishu.

[tense music playing]

[exhales]

[helicopter whirring]

[Larry] Around me,
we've taken so many wounded.

I'd heard over the radio that the convoy,

they're separating a couple vehicles
to pick up some of these casualties

and take them back to base.

[g*n firing rapidly]

[Brad] The vehicle convoy,
they divided it two ways.

One section would head for the crash site,

but my part of the convoy

was told to evacuate some
of the casualties back to the hangar.

[engine roaring]

-[soldier speaks indistinctly]
-[Brad] I'm in the backseat of the Humvee.

I'm trying to stay alive,

you know, engage and sh**t at bad guys,
you know, mass chaos.

[g*ns firing]

[Brad] We had injured Rangers loaded into
the back of one of our Ranger Humvees.

-[soldier 1 shouting] Now!
-[soldier 2] Move out!

I don't know if they're k*lled,
if they're just injured.

A wake-up call to,

"All right, this could be
any one of us at this point."

-Go! Let's go!
-[soldier] Let's go!

[Brad] We're going to return to base.

Maybe two miles.

You would think
it would be very easy to get there.

But in a matter of minutes,

we encountered a real
kind of set-up ambush.

All hell breaks loose.

-[g*ns firing]
-[indistinct chatter]

[Brad] Imagine doing a nine-point turn

in the middle of a skinny little street,

in the middle of a f*cking gunfight.

Let's go!

And then to try and go back

the way you just came from,

where they're sh**ting at us.

[g*n firing]

We just encountered
one roadblock after another.

There's militia men amongst
the civilian population,

and they're sh**ting at us,
around women and kids.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[women screaming]

I remember seeing a group of women,

and they were pointing at our location.

Is this okay, to engage these people?
Is it not okay?

[Nuur in Somali] Everyone
was volunteering themselves.

The women who should have been scared,

they were actually pointing out
the soldiers, "Over there! Over there!"

I didn't. I didn't engage them,

because I didn't know
whether it was the right thing.

Just… you know, an insane amount
of confusion and ambiguity.

We're just driving kind
of around in circles, being shot at.

[fire crackling]

[expl*si*n booms]

-[indistinct clamoring]
-[g*ns firing]

As we were moving closer
and closer to the crash site,

we're all blended together at this point.

Both Rangers and Delta.

And we were almost there.

[soldier] f*ck!

The amount of g*nf*re taking place

down at the crash site was incredible.

[soldier screams]

As we approached the crash site,
it was relentless.

You feel like, whoa,
knocked back on your heels.

I knew we weren't gonna
get to that crash site

without taking a lot
of casualties, so we had to stop.

[indistinct clamoring]

And once we stopped

is when we start getting surrounded.

[muffled g*nshots]

I'm looking down, and I'm seeing rounds
go straight between my legs,

but one of them hits Corporal Jamie Smith.

[Jamie screams]

-[Larry] It was bloody and gruesome.
-[soldier] Get him out of here, now!

All I really wanted to do
was get him anywhere but there.

[soldiers clamoring]

If we stayed out here long enough,

they were going
to pick off every one of us.

Gotta get off the street, right now.

And we were just picking
a house that we wouldn't plan on.

We don't know who's in it.

-So, we go in fast. Boom! What's in here?
-[woman screams]

[ominous music playing]

[Saido in Somali] When the helicopter
crashed, I had passed out.

I woke up, disoriented from the shock.

[muffled shouting]

[Saido] There were Americans
standing over me.

[soldier] Everybody on the ground!

[Saido in Somali] I was getting
more and more scared.

One of them approached us.

He was angry and shouting.

[soldier] Everybody down, now! Move!

[Saido] I was worried about my baby girl.

[baby crying]

We said, "We have no weapons."

"Please spare us."

[Tom] I go left, somebody goes right,
search the house,

made sure those people
didn't stand up and do anything weird.

And then the man,
he's the only one I'm worried about.

[in Somali] They said, "Get down
on the floor! Hands behind your back!"

-And they cuffed me with a cable tie.
-[baby crying]

I was terrified.

I thought he would be shot.

I'm thinking, "f*ck 'em.
f*ck those people."

You know, "f*ck 'em."

"It's your fault I'm here."

-[indistinct chatter]
-[baby crying]

-[Tom] I don't care about them.
-[soldier] Down! Down!

We'll post up. Let's pull security,
find out where everything's at.

Now make it our home.

[Larry] My guys, we burst into
a little building with a courtyard.

Jamie Smith, he was in some pain.

[Jamie groaning]

It's very clear he is seriously wounded.

But at least we're off the street.

[Randy] We're moving
from the street into houses.

So that force,
which was one unified force,

was now split up between multiple houses
with multiple casualty collection points.

[Tom] I looked out the window. Like,

"There's the crash site literally
across the street. Literally right there."

And I saw, you know, a helicopter
upside down, just destroyed.

[helicopter whirring]

[indistinct chatter over radio]

[Larry] I'm hearing on my radio
that some of the crew had gotten out

but that two of the pilots were dead.

They were trying to get the dead pilot out

while they were taking
massive fire from either side.

What the hell can I do at this point?
Really?

With so many casualties,

the only thing I can do
is protect our position.

[soldier] Stick with us.

-[Randy] The situation looks grim.
-[groans]

[Randy] We're confined to a house.

The odor in the room was metallic.

And at that point
I looked down and I realized

I was sitting in a pool of blood.

But I was so…

tired.

And I was so trying to collect myself
that I didn't even move.

I just sat there.

[Jamie screaming in agony]

[Larry] Doc Schmidt was working on Jamie.

He's got a leg wound.
It's too high for a tourniquet.

He goes, "Only thing I can do is hold it,
direct pressure against his bone,

his femoral artery."

We held it for Doc Schmidt
while he was continuing to treat Jamie.

I knew him from the day
I set foot in 3rd Ranger Battalion.

I always liked him.

We were very similar in age.

You know, I knew he was engaged.

[Randy] Part of our creed is to never let

any of our comrades
fall into the hands of the enemy.

So we simply weren't going
to run out of the city without them.

The question is, how are we going
to get everybody out of the city?

[g*ns firing in distance]

[Larry] There's no way
we can get out on our own.

Because there's no way
we're going to carry any casualties out.

[Larry exhales]

We went from a raid force

to a rescue force.

And now, we needed to be rescued.

-[vehicle engine roaring]
-[indistinct chatter]

[David] I was in the convoy.

We know we gotta get to this crash site.

We wanna get 'em out of there.
That's our main goal now.

[soldier] Eyes up.

[indistinct chatter]

[David] But it's bad right away.

They knew we were coming,
tires in the street,

blocking the street, all this sh*t.

They just were hammering
the hell out of us.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[g*ns firing rapidly]

People act differently in combat.

Some guys just freeze up,

and some get very excited,
and some get very calm.

And I got calm.

[g*ns firing]

I fell into a nice state of calmness.

But it allowed me to think
and to, you know, do my job.

[g*n firing]

But every corner we would turn

and there was just a whole slew
of people sh**ting at us.

[b*llet ricochets]

It was a beehive.

And we whacked it.

[chuckles]

[shouting in distance]

[David] I think without the helicopters,
we'd have a real problem on our hands.

Those helicopters provided
a lot of support for us, thank God.

[inhales]

Great pilots.

Um… I mean, great pilots.

[somber music playing]

[man] I was a flight lead.

I'd been in combat
in four different places at this point.

I'm not sure
I could have been better prepared

in terms of my ability
to fly this aircraft.

I don't think you can do what we did
without a certain level of confidence.

And I certainly had it.

-[tense music playing]
-[helicopter whirring]

[Mike] So I'm flying the aircraft
in a holding pattern north of the city.

I get the call from the commander.

We're going to go in
and replace that first bird

to provide aerial fire support
for the troops that are on the ground.

We make our way into the target area

and join Super 6-2,
which is the other black hawk,

immediately over the target.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

[man] From the bird,
what I would see is ground troops

over here making their way
down one side of the street.

And then I'd look over here
and I'd see another element,

and I couldn't tell
whose element was what.

I knew that this is chaos.

My job, along with the other sn*pers,

was suppressing their ability
to fire on our troops.

And there was
other sn*pers sat next to me.

Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon.

[soldier] Incoming, incoming!

[b*ll*ts ricocheting]

[Halling] We were taking fire.

And so we're starting to
pick up our pace in the helicopter.

We needed to in order to
not be the next helicopter shot down.

That day, the sn*per teams
and all of the helicopters were busy.

[woman in Somali] We lived
in Bakara Market.

My children were wonderful, and so young.

They had a happy life,

and their father provided all they needed.

That day, I had taken
my mother to her brother's house.

He was living in
the General Daud neighborhood.

I was told the Americans attacked
Bakara and there is constant g*nf*re.

I screamed, "Wow, that's my neighborhood!"

"That is where my children are!"
And I ran.

[young Binti panting]

[Binti] I ran and ran and ran.

A man said, "What are you looking for?"

"My children!" I said.

[Biniti mimics g*nf*re]

The helicopters!
[mimics helicopter whirring] Ah!

[children screaming]

We were running away from the g*nf*re.

It was spraying everywhere.

I saw a fat Somali woman
walking in the road.

The helicopter came close to her

and shot her in the head.

She fell and died instantly. She died.

I screamed, "Oh my God!
She died! She died! She died!"

People dragged her under a tree

where there were children
who had also been shot.

I was certain that
my children must be there,

so I was checking all the faces,

but I couldn't find them.

-[tense music playing]
-[vehicle engine roaring]

[Brad] We were trying to get these
injured Rangers back to the hangar.

The g*nf*re was so intense.

-[soldier] Are you f*cking kidding me!
-[g*ns firing]

[Brad] I can see
the vehicle in front of me.

The gunner that's in the back,

I can see him get hit.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[vehicle engine roaring]

[b*llet piercing]

[Brad] He was k*lled.

I'm thinking, "Who was that?"

[b*ll*ts ricocheting]

[Brad] And I could hear over the radio,

"It's Dom Pilla."

I'm thinking,
"Man, that's my best friend."

Like…

You know, Dom and I were really close.

With Dom, I got to hear about

his dad's Harley-Davidson
and how it was going to become his,

you know, at some point.

And then, what dinners
were like on Sundays in New Jersey and…

You know, you learn
these details about people.

And now he's gone.

After Dom was k*lled, the gloves were off.

-[g*ns firing rapidly]
-[soldier] f*ck!

The thing that happened
inside of me was rage.

That's it.

-[g*ns firing]
-[soldier] Incoming!

[Brad] Yeah, I went from seeing
these women pointing out our position

and being very,
you know, "Do the right thing."

The switch just got flipped.

And it was the most maniacal, barbaric,

"k*ll everybody that I could see

that was hostile
or acting hostile in any way."

I don't think my finger

came off the trigger for very long at all.

[in Somali] The Americans
were k*lling everyone in sight.

Dead bodies were scattered
like b*llet casings in the street.

[indistinct chatter]

Everybody is scared.

Destruction everywhere.

Dead bodies everywhere.

How many can die?

Hundred? I believe.

Thousand?

I believe.

[soldier] Where are we going?

[g*ns firing]

[David] We quickly realized
it wasn't gonna be easy

to get to this crash site.

But all I was thinking about was

the… the targets in front of me.

[g*n firing]

I know I had engaged
a lot of people in crowds.

And I don't have any problem saying it

because there were people
sh**ting at us from those crowds.

And I just can't sit there and just

try to figure out
who the f*ck's sh**ting at me.

So, if you're out there on October 3rd,
you're up to no good.

So, I…

You know, I… I… I would sh**t you.

-[people shouting]
-[g*ns firing rapidly]

But we're just getting f*cking smoked,

getting hammered 'cause we don't know
where the f*ck we're going.

[g*n firing]

The driver is taking
commands from the radio up above.

[soldier] Left, left!

And this officer up in the helicopter

is radioing down to whoever
is driving to take a left or a right.

[officer over radio] Take the next right,
the next right.

But we're already by it.

We've already passed it.

-[officer 1] Just missed the turn.
-[officer 2] Roger.

[soldier] We're going in circles.

So it was, you know, it was a sh*t show.

Like, we just did a big square.

And I was like,
"What the f*ck are we doing here?"

And we just kept
going through that same intersection.

[soldier] We're getting smoked.

[indistinct chatter]

[Larry] Doc Schmidt,
he was continuing to treat Jamie.

I'm going to myself, "Where's the convoy?"

[chuckles]

You know, "Where is the convoy?"

[David] Eventually, we could not sustain
any more hits on our jeep.

[soldier] Let's get out of here.

I don't know who makes
the final decision that we said,

"f*ck it, we're not going
to the crash site. We gotta get out now."

"Abandon our mission."

"Get us back to the hangar."

[g*n firing]

Not much I can do,
just sh**t our way out of there.

[Randy] They can't get the convoy to us.

That's when you realize
you're on your own.

For a US soldier,
that's a sobering feeling.

All of our preparation,

all of our training
never prepared us to be on a defensive.

We were always on the offensive.

We are the tip of the spear
for the world's most powerful military.

And that day, the script flipped.

[indistinct chatter]

[Nuur in Somali] General Aidid
came to us that afternoon.

He was dressed in traditional
Somali attire, and armed with an AK-47,

he gave us clear instructions.

"Keep fighting. Keep fighting.
Victory is imminent."

So we pressed on.

[indistinct chatter]

[Tom] The g*nf*re got more and more,
and people kept coming in heavier waves.

At first I thought, "Man, they're stupid."

And I thought, "They're doing
all right for stupid people."

Like, I felt what it was like
to be on the other side of us.

[in Somali] We were firing at each other


[g*ns firing]

[baby crying]

[soldier] You got RPGs
coming on your left!

[in Somali] My comrades
fired an RPG towards them.

[Tom] I screamed, "RPG!"

[expl*si*n booms]

expl*si*n, smoke and dust. What the hell?

-[soldiers screaming]
-[baby crying]

[in Somali] We were engulfed
in smoke and dust.

Even the soldiers
were scared and screaming.

[solider groans]

[Tom] There was a Ranger in front of me.

A piece of shrapnel
went through his buttocks

and came through his scrotum.

And another guy
had his whole heel blown off.

-[soldier screams]
-[Tom] Then it turned to fear.

[soldier groans in agony]

[Tom] "Just let us go."

"I don't wanna be here. Let me go home."

You know? Kinda like,
"Can I just go home?"

Then you realize, they're not gonna
let you go home, man.

You know? They don't want you to go home.

-[indistinct clamoring]
-[g*nshots continue]

[man speaking indistinctly]

[in Somali] We were told that there
is a family trapped in the house.

[baby crying]

The Americans were holding them,
as a human shield,

to save their own lives.

[Saido in Somali] We could hear them.

They were arguing,
"Should we k*ll them all, or spare them?"

One group wanted to spare us

and another group wanted
to k*ll us along with the Americans.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[baby crying]

[Nuur in Somali] I was
against the shelling,

but some people, who were very angry,

said that we should attack them
with more RPGs

so the Americans don't escape.

[in Somali] We thought, "It's over."

We will be k*lled together
with the American soldiers.

[g*n firing]

If they got hurt, then so would we.

[baby crying]

[Saido] It was in our interest
for them to survive.

I felt bad for them. You know,
like, "Sorry. Sorry we're here, man."

"Sorry that they're sh**ting
at us and it's destroying your house."

[in Somali] We were told to stay seated.

"Don't worry, we won't harm you."

"Don't be scared.
If you need anything, just ask."

I was surprised for sure.

But then all people, regardless of whether

they are white people or Muslims,

have kindness in their hearts.

[Tom] I'm looking at faces
and start wondering,

"What do you do here? What's your job?"
I mean, "You go to school?"

And I'm wondering, like,
"What's life like here?"

[inhales]

Little spikes of humanity

in the center
of k*lling people over and over again.

Your little spike of humanity.
You're like…

You're like,
"Damn, I don't wanna look at this."

"Let me go back
to the window and sh**t people."

"This is harder than sh**ting people." Um…

[somber music playing]

[tuts]

To try to put humanity in a w*r,

it's not good.

[vehicle engine roaring]

[Brad] We got back to the hangar

and they unloaded wounded
and people that were k*lled.

Like, "What the hell just happened?"

I completely lost my sh*t.

-[soldier 1] Woah, woah, woah!
-[Brad] Swearing up and down.

People that weren't out on the operation

came over and they're, like,
trying to calm me down.

I'm like, "Get the f*ck off me."

"You have no f*cking idea
what I just lived through."

[soldier 2] What's going on?

[Brad] I walked over
to the vehicle where Dom was.

He got shot right
in the bridge of his nose.

And it just…
it doesn't even look like Dom.

Um…

Then I hear that Casey Joyce

is one of the other people
that's k*lled in action.

Man, that's my two best friends.

Like, there's four of us
at the beach this morning,

and two of us aren't here anymore.

The fact that it was both of them,

there was just
a totality in that, you know.

-[soldier 1] Hold on! Come on.
-[helicopter whirring]

[soldier 1] I'm in charge.

So then I hear there was a plan
to go back out into the city.

To go out and find,

you know, extricate the last
of the guys that had been trapped

near the crash site.

[soldier 2] Come on, let's go!

And I'm like,
"You gotta be f*cking kidding me."

We're all getting signed up to go do…

this suicide mission.

I don't know if I can go do this.

It's not a question of
it's not worth trying.

It's there's got to be
a smarter way to do this.

[helicopter whirring]

[indistinct chatter over radio]

We're definitely at risk here.

-[indistinct chatter over radio]
-[helicopter whirring]

Had everyone had time to just
hit a pause button and say,

"All right, hold on now.
Let's just think about this."

"This is too high-risk.
We're gonna lose more aircraft."

But in the… in the moment,

there isn't that opportunity
to call a timeout.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

We're right over the target area,
the battle raging.

It certainly caused me to feel
this increased level of adrenaline.

[loud banging]

All of a sudden,
it feels like we got hit by something.

Looking down,
the instruments all look good.

Everything looks fine.

[man] Six-Four, are you okay?

[in Somali] Passing a nearby road,

we saw a helicopter hit by an RPG.

The helicopter began to emit huge smoke.

[alarm beeping]

The aircraft starts
to spin violently out of control.

We're spinning so fast,

the blood was actually
being forced to the front of my eyeballs.

I made a radio call.
"Super 6-4 is going in hard."

[Mike over radio] We're going in hard.

Going down.

We hit the ground hard.

[helicopter crashing]

[Mike] I guess I know
what it's like to die.

[Nuur in Somali] We celebrated,
praising God.

"God is great. Thanks be to God!"

[Yasin in Somali] It went down about


and we ran to it.

[indistinct crowd chatter]

I wanted to be the first
to get to the crash site.

[soldier] Things are getting
bad down there.

[officer] Bird down.

[Halling] Once Super 6-4 went down,

we were the last bird flying.

[officer over radio] Roger,
we just lost another black hawk.

[Halling] We could see,

because of that separation
between crash sites,

it would have been very, very difficult
for the ground force to get to that bird.

I think the other sn*pers in the aircraft,

Randy and Gary,
processed that immediately.

We were the only option
to go in and get 'em.

But we didn't have a lot of time

before the enemy combatants
could make their way to the crash site.

[indistinct chatter]

[g*n firing]

And so we asked for approval
to put Randy and Gary in on the ground.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

But Command decided
that we couldn't go in.

[officer over radio] We're taking
a lot of RPG fire.

They thought it was
a very difficult target.

Anybody going down
would have no ground support.

They'd be on their own down there.

[helicopter whirring]

-[young Binti panting]
-[somber music playing]

[in Somali] We were running towards home,

and then I reached the house.

My son Abdirahman said,
"Mom, I am here with the kids."

Ah.

My husband was holding the Qur'an.

Tears were flowing down his cheeks.

I told him to stop reading the Qur'an.

Escape with the children.

He said "God is everywhere
and there is nowhere to run."

"Let's just stay."

[helicopter whirring]

[b*ll*ts whistling]

I was shot here.

I thought I'd lost my hand.
It twisted around.

-[g*ns firing]
-The room was filled with b*ll*ts.

[mimics g*nf*re]

I was crying, "My children!
My children! My children!"

"Are they dead or alive?"

[in Somali] The battle raged
on all around us.

We said, "Let's fight until we die."

We made that decision.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

[soldier] We've got a situation here.

[Larry] I was continuing to
report about Corporal Jamie Smith.

"He's wounded. He's critical."

"If we do not get him out now,
he will not make it."

-[soldier groaning]
-[indistinct chatter]

It was a small group
of Americans fighting a city.

They had overwhelming numbers.

[man speaking Somali]

-[soldier] Hold now.
-[Tom] We're trapped.

They were creeping up
right across the street,

around the corners.

How do you defend yourself
against so many?

-[soldier 1] Move!
-[soldier 2] Man down!

[in Somali] The g*nf*re intensified.

[g*nf*re continues]

We assumed we would die.

We wouldn't make it out.

[teacher speaking Somali]

[Halima] The teacher
said it's time to leave.

I approached the school door.

I decided to try and run home.

[teacher murmuring]

I left the school.

And I was barefoot.

It was dark and I was alone.

I was really scared.

I was so scared.

[Halling] We had made
several different requests

to put Randy and Gary
in at the second crash site.

And it wasn't until
probably 15, 20 minutes into it,

finally Command
gave approval and set up for

Gary and Randy to go
to Super 6-4 on the ground.

[indistinct chatter]

[Halling] I looked at them
with this acknowledgment that,

"Okay, go get this done."

And I will forever remember
them getting out of the aircraft.

And, uh, that was it.

They were… they were on their own.

[soldier] Go, go, go!

Move out!

[Halling] They and that crew
were beyond reach.

We had no way of knowing
what situation they were in.

[dramatic music builds, fades]

[tense music playing]

[Ahmed] I was in my office.

Somebody came to me.

He told me they have got an American.

"Can you come and record?"

[indistinct chatter]

[tense music playing]