Special Ops: A Photo History

Dark Day
American special ops suffered a tragic blow in 1993, when an operation in Somalia to take out warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid went horribly awry. The disaster began when an Army Ranger attempting to rope down from one of the mission helicopters fell 70 feet and was severely injured. As military vehicles tried to reach him, Aidid's militia and armed civilians arrived on the scene and a fierce battle erupted. It ultimately took a massive convoy of 100 vehicles to rescue the embattled troops. When it was over, 18 U.S. servicemen had been killed. The photo above, taken in the days after the battle, shows one of the downed Black Hawks on the streets of Mogadishu.

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