All audio clips listed on this page are part of the official record of the Task Force Ranger mission in Somalia, Oct. 3, 1993. They were taken directly from the tapes of the radio net communications and have not been edited.

Because of the quality of the transmissions and the military jargon used, transcripts are listed below each clip. Where possible, omissions and garbled speech have been noted.

The clips are presented in RealAudio format. To download a RealAudio player, head to http://www.real.com/products/player.

Clips related to Chapter 3: Super 61 goes down.

Blackhawk Down (5 seconds; 8K)

WE GOT A BLACKHAWK GOING DOWN WE GOT A BLACKHAWK GOING DOWN

WE GOT A BLACKHAWK CRASHED IN THE CITY

61

61 DOWN

Chapter 7: Another grenade, another chopper hit

Second Blackhawk down (42 seconds; 43K)

64 ARE YOU OK?

ROGER

GOING IN HARD, GOING DOWN... RAY!

64 IS GOING DOWN. 64 IS DOWN.

A64, R64, OVER.

ROGER HE HAS JUST... NORTHWEST, 200 METERS OF THE RPG.

ROGER, WE JUST LOST ANOTHER BLACKHAWK, WE ARE TAKING A LOT OF RPG FIRE, WE LOST IT SOUTH OF THE OLYMPIC HOTEL SOUTH OF NATIONAL, WE GOT ANOTHER HAWK OVER HEAD. WE NEED TO ASK THE KILO IF THEY CAN RESPOND AND GIVE THEM SOME HELP.

Uniform to the crash site (35 seconds; 34K)

UNIFORM IS MOVING TO THE CRASH SITE AT THIS TIME. WE WERE GOING TO CONSOLIDATE AT THE NORTHERN CRASH SITE. WE HAD ANOTHER HAWK GO DOWN SOUTH OF THE OLYMPIC HOTEL, WE ARE GETTING A LOT OF RPG FIRE.

THERE'S A LOT OF FIRE.

WE ARE GOING TO TRY TO GET EVERYONE CONSOLIDATED AT THE NORTHERN SITE AND THEN MOVE TO THE SOUTHERN SITE. WE CAN USE MORE GROUND TRANSPORTATION IF YOU CAN GET IT OUT HERE.

Chapter 14: The convoy disintegrates

Directions to first Blackhawk crash site 1 (30 seconds; 30K)

(R64) DANNY ARE YOU MOVING TO THE CRASH SITE RIGHT NOW.

(U64) GETTING READY TO MOVE OUT OF THE AO NOW MAKE A LEFT TOWARDS THE EAST AND THEN HEAD NORTH TOWARDS THE SMOKE I THINK I HAVE ID'D THE SMOKE OVER.

(R64) ROGER TRY TO CONSOLIDATE THERE FROM THERE WE WILL TRY TO GET YOU OUT. A64 HAS SENT ANOTHER ELEMENT TO THE SECOND CRASH SITE.

(U64) ROGER I DO HAVE CASUALTIES AAHHH AT THIS LOCATION OVER.

(R64) ROGER.

Approaching crash site (1 minute; 60K)

(R64) DANNY THINK YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR WEST TRYING TO LOOK AT SECOND CRASH YOU SEEM TO HAVE GONE ABOUT 4 BLOCKS WEST AND 5 BLOCKS SOUTH OVER

BARBER 53 AND 54 GET YOURSELF NORTH OF 21 OCTOBER

WE ARE NORTH AND WATCHING THE CONVOY PROCEEDING EAST.

K55, ROGER WE GOT VECTOR FOR THE GROUND ELEMENT

R64 THIS IS U64 GIVE ME A RIGHT TURN CONVOY RIGHT TURN RIGHT TURN

(R64) DANNY YOU NEED TO GO SOUTH ABOUT 5 BLOCKS OVER

THERE YOU GO STRAIGHT AHEAD

ROGER YOU ARE ABOUT A CLICK OUT

ROGER WE ARE ON AIRFIELD PERIMETER ROAD RIGHT NOW OVER

Stop giving directions (10 seconds; 11K)

K55 STOP GIVING DIRECTIONS THERE FOR A SECOND I THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO THE WRONG CONVOY

Under heavy fire (1 minute, 20 seconds; 80K)

CONTINUE TAKE THE NEXT RIGHT, TURN SOUTH BOUND

U64 THIS IS R64

ROGER NEXT RIGHT NEXT RIGHT ALLEYWAY ALLEYWAY

KING ELEMENT THEY JUST MISSED THEIR TURN

TAKE NEXT AVAILABLE RIGHT UNIFORM

U64 THIS IS R64

BE ADVISED THEY'RE COMING UNDER HEAVY FIRE

U64 THIS IS R64

GOD DAMN IT STOP, GOD DAMN IT STOP

K64 THIS IS R64

67 ARRIVAL MODE FOR GAS

CALL ME WHEN UNIFORM LINKS UP WE'RE STILL TRYING TO GET THEM IN TO YOU GONNA NEED TO CONTINUOUSLY MARK WITH SMOKE HOPEFULLY WE'LL GET THEM CLOSE ENOUGH TO YOU WHERE YOU CAN LINK UP.

RIGHT TURN RIGHT TURN YOU'RE TAKING FIRE HURRY UP

Casualty report (15 seconds; 15K)

I'VE GOT A LOT OF VEHICLES THAT WILL BE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE QUITE A FEW CASUALTIES GETTING TO THE CRASH SITE IS GONNA BE AWFUL TOUGH, ARE PINNED DOWN

Getting casualties out (30 seconds; 30K)

DANNY I REALLY NEED TO GET YOU BACK TO THAT CRASH SITE. I KNOW YOU TURNED WEST ON ARMED FORCES [Boulevard], WHAT'S YOUR STATUS

THIS IS U64 I HAVE NUMEROUS CASUALTIES, VEHICLES THAT ARE HALFWAY RUNNING, GOTTA GET THESE CASUALTIES OUT OF HERE ASAP HEADING BACK TO VIA LENON. NEED A ... TOWARDS K4

Chapter 22: A Ranger's plea for help as the body count climbs

Juliet needs to extract (30 seconds, 30K)

R64 THIS IS J64 WE'RE TAKING HEAVY SMALL ARMS FIRE WE NEED RELIEF NOW AND START EXTRACTING

THIS IS R64 UNDERSTAND YOU NEED TO BE EXTRACTED I'VE DONE EVERYTHING I CAN TO GET THOSE VEHICLES TO YOU OVER

(J64) ROGER UNDERSTAND BE ADVISED COMMAND ELEMENT WAS JUST HIT HAVE MORE CASUALTIES OVER

(R64) ROGER