Blackhawk Down Paper

Warrior Ethos Paper

Every soldier in the United States Army is taught the Warrior Ethos. It is a set of values that orients the soldiers moral compass in his decision making and actions during battle. The movie clip we watched in class of Blackhawk Down is based on a true story of a raid that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia during October of 1993. The clip showed prime examples of soldiers living by the Warrior Ethos and doing what they thought was right.

In the beginning of the clip one of the Blackhawk helicopters, which was providing air support for the soldiers below, was hit by an enemy RPG and crashed. Hostile Somalis swarmed the crash site, but there were no friendly soldiers available or close enough to provide aid. The chain of command back at base decided to regroup the convoy that had just returned to base and deploy them back into the field to secure the crash site. When the convoy, back at base, was given their orders to head out into the city, one of the soldiers protested saying "How do we know there is even anyone alive on that thing?" His superior officer responds almost stating one of the four tenants of the ethos. "No one gets left behind, you know that!" The officer lived by the ethos by knowing that not going to the crash site was not an option.

As the clip progresses, another Blackhawk circling above the city spots the crash site. The two snipers inside, MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart, request to be dropped off on the ground to secure a perimeter around the crash site. They deliberately requested to put themselves in harm's way to save the pilot of the down Blackhawk. They were first denied, but then given permission to carry out their plan. Each sniper and the pilot displayed the Warrior Ethos in its entirety. SFC Shughart continued to fight and did not accept defeat, even after his comrade MSG Gordon was killed, and he himself was hit multiple times. Though suffering from multiple bullet wounds, he continued to fire his...