A special episode today featuring a new conversation on Mark Bowden's 1999 bestseller, "Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War", thanks to it being the subject of the new Netflix documentary "Surviving Black Hawk Down." First, hear Michael's conversation with Bowden to hear his take on the new docuseries, from March 14, 2024. Then, in the second part of this episode, Michael and Bowden's conversation from October 2023, which marked 30 years since the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily-armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded.
Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden’s minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever writtena riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.