Black Hawk Down -- An American War Story -- Besieged Column Rolls Out

THE MISSION - a daylight raid to capture a Somali warlord's top assistants - should have been simple. But by the next morning, 18 U.S. soldiers and nearly 500 Somalis were dead. This series - running daily in The Seattle Times - is the first detailed public account of the disastrous Oct. 3, 1993, Battle of Mogadishu. What happened that day has had a profound effect on American foreign policy since. -------------------------------------------

Private Clay Othic shot a chicken. In the melee that began as soon as the nine-vehicle ground convoy turned the corner at the Olympic Hotel, Othic had seen people running, men with AK-47s firing wildly, and chickens flying. He had opened up from the turret of his Humvee (a wide-bodied jeep-like transport vehicle) with the powerful Browning .50-caliber machine gun, and one of the rounds turned a chicken into a puff of feathers.

Everything was getting blown apart in this battle - brick walls, houses, cars, cows, men, women, children. Othic felt besieged and disoriented. Anything seemed possible. He had already torn a man apart with the .50-cal, and he'd mowed down a crowd of men and women who had opened fire on the convoy.

Othic's Humvee was the last vehicle in the column. With all the gunfire and chaos around them, it was impossible for the Rangers in the vehicles to tell what was going on. But they all understood that this quick mission into Mogadishu was developing into the gunfight of their lives.

The convoy's original mission had been to load up 24 Somali prisoners seized in the raid and haul them back to the airport base, along with Delta commandos and Ranger teams around the target house. The plan changed dramatically when Cliff Wolcott's Black Hawk went down four blocks east of the target house.

Most of the men fighting in the vehicles didn't know it, but they had just been given new orders. Gary Harrell, a Delta Force colonel in the command helicopter, instructed the convoy to load up the prisoners, as planned. But instead of returning to base they were to wend their way through Mogadishu's narrow streets and rescue Wolcott and his crew. All this while guarding two dozen prisoners and taking fire that was getting more intense by the minute.

Lost and wandering in Mogadishu's confusing alleyways, they badly needed guidance. They were directed by officers watching from above on video screens, Col. Harrell in the command bird at 3,000 feet, and U.S. Navy pilots in a P-3 Orion spy plane about 1,000 feet higher than Harrell's helicopter.

Before they could carry out their revised orders, Mike Durant's Black Hawk was shot down about a mile south of the convoy. The orders changed again. Now they were told to continue as planned to the Wolcott crash site. But after that they were to load up the soldiers who had rushed to Wolcott's aid, and then fight their way to the Durant site a mile away.

Convoy needed help But the convoy itself needed help. To an extent the commanders didn't realize from watching on their screens above, the men in the vehicles were getting hammered.

Othic had been one of the first men hit. It happened just after he had seen an RPG (a rocket-propelled grenade) launched from a crowd of Somalis. He watched the grenade explode on one of the five-ton trucks, disabling it and mangling the legs of Staff Sgt. Dave Wilson, who had been standing alongside.

Othic had just turned to fire on the crowd when he heard a loud crack. It felt as if a baseball bat had whacked his right arm. A round had splintered the forearm. In a few blinding moments of pain he just went "cyclic" on the big gun, firing it on automatic, sweeping the street behind the convoy until Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz stepped up to take the gun.

Othic wasn't the only casualty. Sgt. Bob Gallagher had been shot in the arm. Sgt. Bill Powell had been shot in the meaty part of his calf. In the back of one truck, Wilson held his weapon on the prisoners and propped up his mangled legs.

There weren't enough vehicles to carry all four Chalk teams (12-Ranger squads who had roped in from helicopters) and the Delta Force guys from the target house. Three vehicles had been dispatched earlier to return an injured Ranger to the main base. Some of the soldiers were able now to jump on the remaining vehicles, but the others had to move out on foot.

A different route The trucks had big, fluorescent-orange panels on top to help the surveillance birds keep an eye on them. The helicopters were the troops' eyes in the sky, guiding them through the maze. If everything went well - the 20-man convoy and ground units linking up at the Wolcott crash site with all the Rangers and Delta teams already there - there would be nearly 120 men to rescue the two downed crews and then fight their way out of the hornet's nest.

Othic stretched out on his belly in back of the second-to-last Humvee, which had its hatch open so he and the others crammed in there could shoot out the back. He had a field dressing on his right arm, and he was using his left arm to shoot his M-16. He was a crack shot. An avid hunter from Holt, Mo., Othic had grown up with guns. The Rangers had nicknamed him "Little Hunter," for he was the smallest man in the unit.

Next to Othic, Sgt. Ruiz was working the .50-cal steadily. The big gun's recoil gently rocked the wide vehicle, which was comforting.

They started off following the soldiers who were on foot, but the helicopters steered them along a different route. A few turns later they found themselves right back where they had been minutes earlier. And that spot was just a few blocks north of the target house, where they had loaded up their prisoners as the mission began an hour earlier.

There they came upon Sgt. Matt Eversmann, whose Chalk Four had been pinned down since the mission began. When a Ranger captain had ordered Eversmann to move his chalk to Wolcott's crash site on foot, the sergeant had said, "Roger," but to himself had said facetiously, Right. His men were badly shot up. He had only about four or five still able to fight out of the original chalk of about a dozen soldiers.

Eversmann was relieved to see the convoy approach. He spotted his buddy Sgt. Mike Pringle, a tiny guy, so low in the turret of the lead Humvee that he was actually peering out from underneath the 50-cal. It brought a smile to Eversmann's face despite his ordeal.

Eversmann loaded his bloodied men on the crowded vehicles, piling them on top of other guys. As he stood there taking a final mental count of his men, the column started moving. Eversmann had to make a running leap on the back of a Humvee. He landed on top of somebody and found himself flat on his back, looking up at the sky, realizing what a terrific target he was and that he couldn't even return fire. As helpless as he felt, he was relieved to be back with the others, and moving. If they were together and rolling, it meant the end was near. Wolcott's crash site was just blocks away.

Woman with baby is shot

Up ahead, in the second truck, Othic's buddy, Spec. Eric Spalding, was firing away steadily with his M-16. He was amazed at the ferocity of the Somali attacks. There were people with guns in alleyways, at windows, on rooftops. Each time his M-16 magazine was used up, Spalding shot with his 9-mm Berretta pistol while he replaced the rifle magazine with his free hand.

As they crossed one alley, a woman in a flowing purple robe darted past on the driver's side of the truck. The driver had his pistol resting on his left arm, and he was shooting at whatever moved.

"Don't shoot," Spalding shouted at him. "She's got a kid!"

At that moment the woman turned. Holding a baby on one arm, she raised a pistol with her free hand. Spalding shot her where she stood.

He hoped he hadn't hit the baby. They were moving fast, and he didn't get to see. He thought he probably had. She had been carrying the infant on her arm, right in front. Why would a mother do something like that with a kid on her arm? What was she thinking?

Tomorrow: The convoy lurches toward disaster.