Act 5 Summary
This is by far one of the most important chapters of the book. This section has so many things happening, it's hard to explain them all. There have been never-ending firefights, gun wars, Durant has been captured and videotaped, and it has been total chaos. It's hard to say what these men were feeling because I have never been in their situation and I doubt I will ever be. But I know if one of my men had been taken I would fight for his life, and try my hardest to get him back.
Mike Durant is a 32-year-old man and pilot of Super 64, which was one of the Black hawks used to get Rangers to the target house. Durant's unit, the ''Nightstalkers,'' is considered the finest helicopter aviation unit in the Army. Durant's helicopter was shot down during the battle, and he ended up being captured, videotaped, and then given back to the Americans. He was one of the more experienced pilots and was in control of a lot of things. He was well liked and had a lot of friends.
You would think that these Somali's would beat him for information or torture him of some sort, but they didn't. In fact the Somali's were told that if they hurt him that the same would happen to them. They were actually nice to Durant for a while. They really were smart about it also. They made a trade with the Americans and they accepted it and got Durant back. It was a great moment.
There were constant gunfights in this scene. It wasn't like the other scene's either, these lasted over and over. There were a lot more Americans getting injured, all the injured people went to this big arena and it was full, that's how bad it all was. Some more Americans even died, Cavaco, Pilla, Griz Martin, Kowalewski, Joyce, Smith, Adalberto Rodriguez, Lorenzo Ruiz, had a lot of impact on people and they way they were performing now that they had died. Most were filled with anxiety to go back out and kill every Somali that they saw and other even broke down and cried because some of them lost their best friends.
In this chapter they talked about Durant and the ways he was being treated while he was in captive. Durant explained that he had not been hurt and had some medical attention and was doing fine. He got to write a letter to his family telling them he was fine and then wrote one to his boys and told them he was fine and "Not to touch his jack Daniels." We also find out what the meaning of N.S.D.Q is, which is "Night Stalkers Don't Quit." It is a pretty powerful meaning and meant a lot to the story line. During the next few chapters they talked about how much the Rangers wanted to go back out to war because of all the pain they felt from losing their other men. The Rangers were furious with hearing about Durant being taking hostage and they would fly overhead and say on a loud speaker "Mike we are still here, we will not leave you Mike." He said those words meant the world to him and gave him hope that they would come and get him.
They released Mike Durant without a 'ceremony". He was back at the Ranger base October 15. From then it was said that every soldier that survived would be going back home in a month or so. It relieved me to hear that they were going home because I would see no point in going back out to fight when they had already lost so many men and they couldn't afford for anyone else to die, it was too painful. The men were happy and delighted to go home, even though I am sure some were filled with regret of not getting to kill every last Somali, I am sure their hearts felt different when they returned home to the ones that love them. |
