Black Hawk Down Read Free Page B

between some of the smaller
     houses. The target building was across Hawlwadig from the hotel one block north. It was
     built in the same stacked-blocks style, L-shaped, with three stories to the rear and a
     flat roof over the two stories in front. It wrapped around a small southern courtyard
     toward the rear and was enclosed, as was the whole long block, by a high stone wall.
     Moving in front, on Hawlwadig, were cars and people and donkey carts. It was a normal
     Sunday afternoon. The target area was just blocks away from the center of the Bakara
     Market, the busiest in the city. Conditioned to the helicopters now, people moving below
     did not even look up as the first two Little Birds came sweeping into the frame from the
     top, from the north, and then banked sharply east and moved off the screen.
    Neither chopper fired a shot.
    “One minute,” the Super Six Seven pilot informed Eversmann.
    The Delta operators would go in first to storm the building. The Rangers would come in
     behind them, roping down from the Black Hawks to form a perimeter around the target block.
    Delta rode in on benches outside the bubble frames of the four MH-6 Little Birds, each
     chopper carrying a four-man team. They wore small black flak vests and plastic hockey
     helmets over a radio earplug and a wraparound microphone that kept them in constant voice
     contact with each other. They wore no insignias on their uniforms. Hanging out over the
     street on their low, fast approach, they scanned the people below, their upturned startled
     faces, their hands, and their demeanor, trying to read what would happen when they hit the
     street. As the Little Birds came in, the crowd spooked. People and cars began to scatter.
     Wind from the powerful rotors knocked some people down and tore~ the colorful robes off
     some of the women. A few of the Rangers, still high overhead, spotted people below
     gesturing up at them eagerly, as if inviting them to come down to the streets and fight.
    The first two Little Birds landed immediately south of the target building on the narrow
     rutted alley, blowing up thick clouds of dust. The brownout was so severe that the pilots
     and men on the side benches could see nothing looking down. One of the choppers found its
     original landing spot taken by the first chopper in, so it banked right, performed a quick
     circle to the west, and came down directly in front of the target.
    Sergeant First Class Norm Hooten, a team leader on the fourth Little Bird, felt the rotor
     blade on his chopper actually nick the side of the target building as it came to a hover.
     Figuring the bird had gone as low as it could, Hooten and his team kicked their fast rope
     and jumped for it, planning to slide down the rest of the way. It was the world's shortest
     fast rope. They were only a foot off the ground.
    They moved directly toward the house. Taking down a house like this was Delta's
     specialty. Speed was critical. When a crowded house was filled suddenly with explosions,
     smoke, and flashes of light, those inside were momentarily frightened and disoriented.
     Experience showed that most would drop down and move to the corners. So long as Delta
     caught them in this startled state, most would follow stern simple commands without
     question. The Rangers had watched the D-boys at work now on several missions, and the
     operators had moved in with such speed and authority it was hard to imagine anyone having
     the presence of mind to resist. But just a few seconds made a difference. The more time
     those inside had to sort out what was happening, the harder they would be to subdue.
    The lead assault team that landed on the southern alley, led by Sergeant First Class Matt
     Rierson, tossed harmless flashbang grenades into the courtyard and pushed open a metal
     gate leading inside. They raced up some back steps and directly into the house, shouting
     for those inside to get down. Hooten's