So this is something I’ve been working on for the last few days after rewatching “Black Hawk Down” (great movie). This is Army MH-60L Black Hawk 89-26188, callsign “Super 64”, & nickname “Venom”. Crewed by CW3 Michael Durant, CW4 Raymond “Ironman” Frank, SSG William “Wild Bill” Cleveland Jr., and SSG Thomas “Tommie” Field, Super 64 was deployed with the 160th Special Operations Air Regiment as a part of Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu, Somalia; in the fall of 1993. On October 3, 1993 a straightforward raid to capture two of General Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s principal advisors, Omar Salad and Abdi Hassan Awale at a meeting at the Olympic Hotel in the Bakara Market. While the Bakara Market was largely the center for Aidids forces and enemy territory there was little concern about the op, and some considered it almost routine. Multiple similar raids had been done before, but this one was different. At 15:42 the first boots were on the ground and the raid was perfectly in motion, the targets being captured in about 10 minutes after the initial insertion. Part of the plan was for a convoy to arrive in front of the hotel to pick up the tsrgets as well as the operators that were inserted. Despite some small arms fire this initial stage if the plan went on almost without a hitch, however one Ranger, PFC Blackburn was wounded after falling from a Black Hawk while fast-roping. As the convoy returned to base with the injured Ranger, heavy small arms fire killed Sgt. Dominick Pilla was killed in one of the Humvees. The convoy would limp back to base. About 40 minutes after the assault began, things would turn for the worse. Super 61, a Black Hawk piloted by CW3 Cliff “Elvis” Wolcott was shot down by an RPG, crashing about 300 yards east of the tsrget building. Both the pilots were killed and two of the crew were wounded, while the two Delta Force snipers on board had managed to survive and began a defense of the chopper. Soon MH-6 Little Bird “Star 41” would land near the c