All language subtitles for SURVIVING - 1 - Documentary (2025)

So Dave, October 3rd, 1993.

Long time ago.

Long time ago.

But there's not a day goes by I can't--
Something reminds me of Somalia.

Ambulance.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can visualize everything
over there that happened to me.

Barber 5-2,
there is a large group moving

towards them from the north-south road.

I can see myself shooting.

Certain smells, of course.

The smell of gunpowder.

Blood actually is a very distinct smell.

We're taking
heavy small arms fire.

We need relief now!

We're deep in the heart
of the bad guy territory.

The heat hits you, you’re sweating,
the sand sticks to everything.

You know, everybody’s against us.
My attitude was, "We’re the good guys."

"We’re America. We wouldn’t be doing it
if it wasn’t right."

You could tell that something
was noticeably different this day.

You could hear gunfire,
you could hear RPGs exploding.

And then, all hell breaks loose.

I could see
the rocket launcher being fired.

We got
a black hawk going down!

We got a black hawk
crash in the city. 6-1!

We were ecstatic!

Medic!

Humanitarian mission
to Somalia has turned violent and deadly.

Three US
helicopters were shot down.

Twelve Americans are dead, 78 wounded.

Everywhere I looked, there's bad guys.

It was just a madhouse. Pandemonium.

One of the worst
battlefield tragedies in years.

Somali casualties
were put at 312 killed and 814 wounded.

They bombed us
and killed my relatives.

We were very angry.

We only wanted a chance to get to them.

Bullet holes
everywhere, destruction everywhere.

They are cheering saying,
"We have defeated the Americans."

- Americans get out, move.
- Move!

It was a small group
of Americans fighting a city.

We're trapped.

I'm thinking, "This is it."

"There's no way
I'm gonna live through this."

Either we're gonna be overrun,

or we have to fight
our way out of this city.

We got the hawk down.
We got the black hawk down.

You know, the funny thing
when I look back is,

I was shot in combat
before I had my first legal beer.

Yes,
so tell me that story, then.

-Where does it begin?
-Ah.

Sunday, October 3rd.

It was a day off.

That day I'm playing Risk.

It is a board game
at a time of world domination.

Something that we played
when we had downtime.

And it's… it's a beautiful day.

Sunny, nice breeze coming off the ocean.

And then it occurs to me that,

at that point in my life,
I really didn't appreciate nice days.

And it kinda spooked me.

So I'm wondering,

"Why did you notice
what kind of day is it gonna be?"

All of a sudden gets yelled out,

"Hey, we've got a mission."

The mission that day was to get
a high-ranking lieutenant in the militia.

I was excited.

We load up. And birds take off.

And I'm sitting on the edge,

legs hanging over so I can actually
lean out and look in front of the bird.

They'll give us, "A minute out!"

One minute out!

"Thirty seconds out!"

And then, let's get it on.

Let's go! Come on!

The plan is, get down the rope,
go in and capture the targets.

We'll be back at base in time for dinner.

I was confident we were the most
proficient fighting force in the world.

I did think I was invincible.

But the reality was…

…we were just kids.

Yo.

I was a wild kid, man.

I always rode motorcycles,

driving cars.

Long hair, heavy metal T-shirts.

And I was always into war movies,

like Rambo, First Blood.

Rambo, one man
who's been pushed too far.

Jumps off a cliff,
cuts his arm, sews himself up.

That was what I wanted to be.

Were you like
a very serious, patriotic kid?

No. I was just kind of spinning my wheels.

Lots of beer, smoking pot.

Oh, God.

College was not my, uh…

Hell, high school
really wasn't for me either.

In school, I just could care less.

But Desert Storm kicked off.

You know, it just got everybody
"rah-rah-rah," and me included.

I wanted to do
something with my life,

and staying in the area where I grew up

didn't seem to be a part of that equation.

- Music wasn't working out.
- What was the band like?

- Were you good?
- Uh… no.

So I went to the recruiter.

He put a VHS tape into a player…

and there's guys
creeping around behind enemy lines,

sneaking around in the dark.

It was these
guys in this rubber boat

with machine guns,
and their faces were painted.

And I said to a recruiter,

"Who are those guys?"
He goes, "Oh, those are the Rangers."

And I was like, "All right, cool."

I had no idea
what I was getting myself into.

I had hair about down to here.

Go to the barber…

…zip it all off, and now I'm a soldier.

It was nonstop berating.

Yes, sir!

It's like a million degrees,
insane amount of humidity.

Five-mile runs,
12-mile road marches.

They're just breaking you down.

The Ranger Indoctrination Program
is exactly the correct phrase.

Fully knowing the hazards
of my profession…

The Ranger creed
is recited every morning.

"Recognizing that
I volunteered as a Ranger…"

"Fully knowing the hazards
of my chosen profession,

I will always endeavor…"

"To uphold the prestige
and honor of the Ranger Regiment."

I can't remember, but I think
they changed a couple of words.

"Energetically will I meet
the enemies of my country."

"I shall defeat them
on the field of battle."

"Surrender is not a Ranger word.
And I would never leave a…"

"Fallen comrade to fall into…"

"The hands of the enemy."

- Rangers!
- Rangers lead the way!

We were fanatical.

It was God, country, 75th Ranger Regiment.

We're the most elite
light infantry unit in the world.

I was always hoping for war.

I mean, you know, can't sugarcoat it.

When you go into a Ranger battalion,
you wanna get into combat.

You know, you really do.

What else are you doing there?

You know?

July 31st, it was my birthday,
and I turned 21 years old.

I'd been waiting
over two years for a deployment,

and our training comes to a halt.

The sergeant major
of the regiment turns up.

And I said, "Holy shit, boys,
this is something legit."

And that's when
they informed us that

there's a UN peacekeeping mission

that's run into trouble
and needs our help.

We were going to Somalia.

I was like, "What the fuck is Somalia?
Let me look that up."

Army assets
are being rushed to Somalia

in an effort to beef up
the US troops on the ground.

The country's still
wracked by anarchy and civil war.

President Clinton
authorized additional troops

following violent attacks
in the port city of Mogadishu.

I was nervous.

We had been told that we might have
to tactically move off of the plane,

that we might be
under gunfire or mortar fire.

It's my third time
into Mogadishu.

It's the shooting that I'm worried about.
I don't like getting shot at.

Keep in mind, this is
the first time we've ever been deployed

to an actual combat site.

We're going in with
the worst-case scenario in mind.

I didn't know what to expect.

First time I saw the hangar, I…

I thought,
"Are we really staying in that?"

Pigeon infested,
there were probably rats in there.

You know, we're crammed in cots,

one against the next, almost.

That first night,

sitting on the bunk,

and we hear this crack
out on the airfield.

And it takes me a moment
to realize what it is.

It's a mortar round.

And then
you look up at the hangar roof,

and it's just this shitty tin roof.

And I remember
laying there in my cot wondering,

is the mortar round
gonna come through the roof,

hit the cement floor and explode,

or is it gonna explode when it hits
the roof and then rain down on us?

That happened basically within a couple
of hours of us landing in Mogadishu.

And it was almost like,
"Hey, welcome to shit-ville."

And the next morning,
we got the situation update.

We've been providing aid through the UN.

And the aid is getting,
you know, stolen by these warlords.

Then they're making
money off of it on the black market.

The bad guy was identified
as Mohammed Farah Aidid.

He was in charge
of the most powerful clan.

We Somalis need to resolve our
own issues, without foreign involvement!

They told us that he was a warlord

and that he had killed
330,000 of his own people.

But he had a huge army
of fanatical supporters.

Yeah, bad guy.

The UN had
had issues dealing with him

and in fact, had taken
some severe casualties.

Aidid's forces were
responsible for the worst attack

on UN peacekeepers in three decades.

Clinton's administration
decided, well, that's it,

the mission's definitely changed.

It's not a humanitarian mission anymore.

They needed a more
definitive intervention and that was us.

For me, it was very exciting.

Our whole purpose
for being there was to get in a fight.

It was a young group
of guys there, all very, very motivated.

Confidence wasn't an issue.

The Rangers were the best of the best.

But we weren't even
the lead on the operation.

That would be another unit.

A unit that doesn't exist.

Some guys called them D-Boys.

We referred to them as the Varsity Team.

Go!

Their real name is Delta Force.

I was one of those cocky, you know,
"I can do anything" kind of kids,

and wanted to be in the best unit.

Nobody really references that
it's the Delta Force, to keep its secrecy.

Its legacy missions are hostage rescue

or capture or kill missions
for high-level leaders.

They dabble into everything,
things that we can't go into, really.

You get that rock star mentality,
"I'm in the Super Bowl every day."

We're the best, right? We're untouchable.

You are an ultimate warrior.

You know, I don't know
if you'd say you're in awe.

Oh, I was in awe.

But you're definitely,
uh, impressed by them.

The unit's main mission
was just kill or capture Aidid,

kill or capture as many
of his people as we could.

Our strategy was
to typically go in at night.

We had the technology
that they didn't have.

Night vision devices,
we call 'em NODs. We always carried those.

Then we had
the black hawks or little birds.

We used the helicopters
to look down on the whole battlefield,

to have the advantage above.

I thought, "This is gonna be easy."

"You guys aren't trained. You have old,
broken AK-47s, if you're lucky."

To have that advantage…

And I was itching,
itching and raring to go.

It was the unit's mission,
but we were there as their bodyguards.

We got intelligence as to
where Aidid might be hiding out.

It's like an apartment complex.

So, they load
us up in the helicopters.

Little birds, black hawks.

There's a different sheriff in town.

We were all
about speed and surprise.

In the vehicle package,
everyone was amped up,

you know, hearts racing, it's dark out.

We know we're gonna get into something.

We're hovering over the target.

Threw the fast rope, up in the air.

If you're not hooked to it,

it slows you down on the way to
the ground, where your hands catch fire.

Take off running, I'm looking for people,
the bad guys, you know.

The Ranger units
were protecting the exterior of a house

while the units went in
and cleared the house, looking for Aidid.

- Set up a perimeter.
- Copy.

Clear.

I hear this crack.

I'm thinking, "Okay, I heard that,
but I'm not quite sure what that is."

It's the second round that
flew by my head before I realized

they were actually shooting at me.

The Rangers light up,
they just start firing.

Fifty cals going off.

We made it quite clear
that if you shoot at any of us,

we're going to respond with
an overwhelming amount of firepower.

You know, you're only supposed
to do, like, six- to nine-round bursts.

I must have put,
like, 20 rounds into that guy, but,

you know, I was nervous.

First time.

It was terrifying as well as exciting.

We… we narrowly missed Aidid that night.

Well, I was just like, "Oof, okay."

There was so much metal
flying through the air.

We had lost antennas off of vehicles.

Uh, one guy got hit in his helmet.

This isn't maybe going to
be as easy as what we thought.

You know, bullets go two ways.

One guy with an AK-47
can fuck your day up.

That was the start of it.

We knew there was an element out there

that desperately
did not want us to be there.

All I could think of was, "Why?"

"What the hell would make
anyone try to take on America?"

Word spread around the city.

A helicopter
dropped soldiers over there.

And another one dropped more right here.

Everybody knows,

even the small children,

the American Rangers had come.

There were lots of Somalis

curious to see what is going on.

I'm one of them…

with the camera.

I was 19 years old
when I picked my first camera.

Now I'm an elder,
my hair is white, but before…

I'm very beautiful, wearing,
you know, very beautiful shoes,

tight shirts.

I used to film parties…

…celebrations,

weddings, all of this.

It was a great time.

But then everything changed.

Then the civil war started.

Then everybody had a gun…

even young children.

One side of Mogadishu is under Ali Mahdi,

and the other side of Mogadishu

was under General Aidid.

Because I am not a fighter,
I tried to avoid any danger.

But the situation needed to be recorded.

So I became a war cameraman.

The civil war led to a famine.

The whole country, there's no food to eat.

A whole generation was growing up
knowing nothing but war and hunger.

As a child,
I grew up in a poor family.

We didn't have three meals a day.

But I was happy and I was always playing.

I was the only girl in the team.

I liked to play just like the boys.

They would push me off the ball
and I would go after them and play rough,

and that would lead to a fight.

One day at around 11:00 a.m.,

some of the children who lived
in the neighborhood came to us.

The children were carrying
a lot of sweets and chocolates.

So, I asked them where they got them from.

They told me the people
they got them from were not Somalis.

They were white men in a vehicle.

I was not aware of the existence
of people called Americans.

1,800 US Marines
are poised to step in to try to help

the people who are starving
to death in Somalia.

They are going to lead
a United Nations effort.

They came from the port.

They are wearing, you know, sunglasses.

It looks like
they are carrying their whole life.

You know Americans
are heavyweight people.

People are waving the American flags.

We are happy.

I felt hope.

Maybe something
will change for the better.

But only a few months later,
the whole situation had changed.

As children, we were told

Americans are civilized
and advanced people.

When the UN came,

I got a good job
from them and made good money.

I was a driver of technical vehicles
and other luxury vehicles.

I was the breadwinner for 22 people.

I used to pay their bills
from that car during the famine.

But the work we were doing in
and around Mogadishu was very difficult.

There were people who wanted
to take our lives, wealth, and the car.

So, we had to carry guns
and protect ourselves.

One day, I went
to the airport with my brother.

The Americans stopped me on the road.

They searched the car.

They took our only gun
and asked, "What is this gun?"

We said this car is hired by an NGO.
We are security and protecting it.

He said, "You are part of Aidid's army."

"That's why you are carrying guns."

My brother tried
to raise his hand to them.

They kicked his hand and hit him
with the back of the gun.

Crunch, crunch!

He ran around to the window
next to me and opened it.

Then he slapped me hard
and threw me to the ground.

Another man also put my brother
on the ground in the same way.

My nose and mouth were swollen
from the slap. My nose was bleeding.

I had not hurt or harmed anyone.

I was treated badly,
harassed and humiliated.

The US are risking
everything in targeting General Aidid.

Going on
the offensive like this

is going to totally alienate
large groups of Somalis.

This is
international aggression.

This is a colonial occupation.

God is great!
God is great!

There's a lot of anger
even if they're not on Aidid's side.

Pressure is high.
Everybody is unhappy. "What's going on?"

The Americans had us by
the throat and they were strangling us.

Me, I feel something bad will happen next.

That day was business as usual,

charging batteries, developing photos.

Suddenly, I heard a commotion going on.

I come out and see
ten to fifteen helicopter gunships.

There's something serious going on.

So I went back to get my camera.

I go to where the shooting is going on.

I saw the house. It was a bombardment.

The helicopters
are passing and coming again,

bombing and shooting.

You know, it's a gunship.
It's…

My heart is pumping,
saying go away from this area.

Maybe I can die.

But camera says you have to stay here,

to do some documentation
of what is going on.

I saw people come out
of the house wounded.

People are trying to help,
but the helicopter started shooting,

and killing.

The bombardment finished.

I go inside and see what's going on.

A lot of bodies are around.

The people are trying to remove
the rubble from the injured and dying.

I saw in front of my eyes somebody dying.

I realize

they are elders!

Elders!

Not youth.

Not, you know, armed people.

Old men.

Old men, you know…

You saw no guns.

Meeting peacefully.

There's no reason
I can say why this happened.

There's no reason.

I become sick when I'm recording.

I always become sick
when I'm looking again.

You saw the whole area,
the people standing like this.

Young children…

their faces, they are not happy.

America came to help them,

but they are killing.

You can see.

Another UN attack
on a Somali warlord's command center.

UN gunships poured missiles
and cannon fire into the area.

Once again,
the target was Aidid,

and once again, he escaped.

In there,
they killed 73 Somali dignitaries.

We started this thing out
as a humanitarian effort in Somalia.

Something has gone tragically wrong.
What went wrong? What happened?

It was a precision-directed attack

designed to continue
the pressure on the Aidid faction.

I was there, watching.

That day I decided that as long as I live,

I won't rest.

I will fight America with all my might!

That day we went and joined up with Aidid.

United Nations
says it's still seeking Aidid's arrest.

Here,
on the streets of Mogadishu,

where General Aidid is still in control,

the United States is the villain
and the renegade warlord a hero.

As time went on
and the more missions went on,

it's fair to say there was frustration.

The soldiers conducted
six raids, three of which went wrong.

The wrong house, or that guy's not it, or,

you know, in between
we captured some bad guys.

Tensions seemed to be rising
every time we interacted with the Somalis.

We were using the black hawks
to come in and kind of dust off the crowd,

to help with crowd control.

Those pilots
don't care what's going on,

just there to terrorize the people.

On one occasion I remember
looking down and seeing a Somali woman

looking up at us.

I think what I saw in her eyes was hate.

We are not
afraid of Americans!

With this gun, I'm going
to bring down their helicopters.

Before, it was flag
to welcome, but now, shoos.

It's like at some point,
that match is gonna get lit,

and this thing is gonna explode.

America, America, no!

October 2nd,

they decide that they're going
to let us make phone calls home.

They divided it by alphabetical order,
and I was going on the first night.

And my buddy, Casey Joyce, had sort
of been having some issues at home.

And he said, you know,
"Hey, man, I really need to call home."

You know, "Is there
any way I can use your slot?"

And I said,
"Absolutely, you can take my slot."

He was just so happy.

"Hey, I got in touch with my wife,
and we worked everything out,

and smoothed everything over,
and thank you so much."

You know, "I can't thank you enough."

I felt pretty good.

I assumed that I'd get my phone call
the next night, on October 3rd.

Hey, bring some tea.

We were veterans
who participated in many battles.

We burned vehicles and killed people.

Back then my men and I had a place where
we used to drink tea and chewed khat.

We were hardened fighters for 20 years.

When we were bombarded
by helicopters, that enraged us.

We saw it as a sign of weakness.

A coward or weak person
will attack you from afar.

We wanted to fight them face-to-face.

We were saying, "How can we get to them?"

We wanted to teach them
what Mogadishu really is.

It's my home.

This is not New York here.

Ah.

October 3rd was a Sunday
and is a day off.

We played volleyball.
Guys could go to the beach.

That day I'm playing Risk,
and it's… it's a beautiful day.

Me and Casey Joyce and Don Pilla
took a trip over to the beach,

walking in the water and hanging out.

Out of nowhere, we've gotta get back.

Something's going on.

The mission that day
was to get a high-ranking lieutenant.

I was excited.

The task had gone
from capturing Aidid himself

to capturing his lieutenants.

They're in a meeting.
So we were going for one of those guys.

We were shown exactly
where we were supposed to land.

In the Bakara Market,
which is where they sell all the weapons.

Deep in the heart of bad guy territory,

the target building.

It was near the Olympic Hotel.

The unit was gonna be
fast-roping on top of the building.

The unit would have
some people going on the roof,

and some people come in from the ground,
then they collapse and clear it that way.

My team were not landing
on the target

but landing away from
the target and then walking in.

While they're simultaneously
going in the building,

we are setting up
blocking positions around it.

The Rangers were gonna
fast-rope into the intersections.

So nobody can come in
and nobody can go out.

We would have a perfect trap set up.

The vehicle convoy
would take the unit guys,

the Rangers,
and the prisoners back to base.

As usual, my mom headed
to the market to sell vegetables.

On our way to school, my brother
and I were joking and teasing each other.

I'd get frustrated
and fight him on the way.

I'm part of the vehicle convoy.

And we got the launch
call sign over the radio.

And everybody locks and loads.

Machine guns are ready,
guns are ready, we're ready to go.

We start rolling out.

So we load up.

We didn't bring water,
didn't bring extra ammo.

We didn't bring night vision.

It's a daytime mission.
I don't need night vision.

We'll be back hours before dark.

As usual there was a demonstration
for supporters of General Aidid.

So I'm recording.

Then I see people
are running towards Bakara.

So I go and see.

About seven black hawk helicopters
were going towards Bakara.

And they'll always give us,
"One minute out!"

I woke up late,
performed a prayer.

While I was sitting, I heard a scream
and loud noise and then I stepped out,

and I saw hovering helicopters.

I looped back to my house,
took my jacket, gun, and ran.

"Thirty seconds out!"

The teacher arrived
and the students were preparing

to read the assignment aloud.

It was a total sense of power.

I did think I was invincible.

My rifle
was already loaded with bullets.

And they said, "Let's get it on."

Victory or death.

The first of the helicopters
came in and browned it out.

The sand just came up
and blew up in the air.

The visibility was almost zero.

Then you start
hearing the cracking of the bullets.

And there's RPGs already flying.

"Whoa, okay, this is different."
There's already bullets and RPGs flying.

We come in on the target
in our helicopter.

We see these guys shooting at us.

Like, "Let's get
the fuck out of this bird."

"We're sitting ducks.
We wanna get out of this thing."

-There's ropes, so we throw the ropes.
-Let's go! Let's go! Go, go, go!

My friend started shooting
at the soldiers still on the rope.

I stood beside him
and started firing too.

I roped down.

I got down and I see this dude
on the ground in a heap of mess.

He's just a mess.

Man down! Medic!

He fucking missed the rope.

The poor guy, he had shit coming out of
his eyes, his ears, his nose, everything.

Man down! Man down!

Then I knew that
I had to cover down on him.

We were taking rounds from everywhere.

Felt like I got hit with a bat.

And I said,
"Oh fuck, man, I just got shot."

But it stuck right in my flag.

Really chaotic.

I was busy there.

It was loud
and dust was everywhere

and the noise from
the helicopter's rotor was everywhere.

We fast-roped down.
Helicopter takes off.

My team realized
we're not anywhere near the target.

We're outside
the perimeter of the Rangers.

We're all on our own out here.

It's like, what do we do now?

The firefight
was overwhelming!

There were bullets from the Somali side.

There were bullets from the helicopters.

And bullets from
the Americans on the ground.

The people
were streaming down the street.

Behind me, more fighters
were coming to reinforce us.

Once we assessed the situation…

…we kind of picked back up
and slowly moved toward the target area.

Move! Move!

I hope these Rangers see,
you know, American flags

versus guns and dark figures
moving towards them.

So we had to be cautious about that.

We didn't get shot, thank goodness.

Passed the Rangers' line
and then got into the target area,

and it was pretty much done.

So at this point in the mission,

the unit had cleared the target building,

and they had secured
the enemy combatants in the courtyard.

We were still waiting
on the convoy to show up.

We can hear why.

We had to fight our way
to the target building.

Drop that gun!

And everywhere
I looked around me is, you know,

people screaming to try and give commands.

Hold your fire!

But I couldn't hear anything.

It was just gunfire and RPG explosions,

one after the other.

It was nonstop.

The amount of enemy fire
on the convoy was ferocious.

But at that time,
the spirits were still pretty high.

We had the little birds
and two black hawks

providing cover from the air.

Keep it steady.

You know, we still felt
like we had the upper hand.

I was still cracking jokes.

"I wonder what they're having for dinner.
I'm gonna eat this and that, yeah."

As far as we knew, the mission
was still on as originally planned.

At some point, I looked behind me,

and I recognized
what is the Olympic Hotel.

Now I know that, okay,
we're in and around the target building.

And so we went in with all
the detainees and got them loaded up.

Roger, I want to get
everybody out of there ASAP.

And we're just waiting, and then…

And then it happened.

I… I remember hearing a sound.

And it was… it was right behind me.
It seemed like over my head.

And I remember looking up,

and there's still the black smoke
from the detonation of the RPG.

But I could see the smoke
that was coming out after it was fired.

I looked up and saw the helicopter
smoking a little bit. I was like, "Oh…"

"Hope that lands okay somewhere."

It started to tailspin.

Just slowly… just auto-rotate.

All of a sudden, I just see it.

It's so surreal.

It starts to spin more, and I go,

"Okay, they have to land
somewhere right now."

It starts its death spiral.

And I was able to watch

that bird spin over the horizon.

We got a bird down.
We got a black hawk shot down!

It sounded just a violent boom.

This thing came in hard, and it crashed
into a huge plume of smoke and dust.

That black hawk was down.

And, uh, that's when, um…
That's when everything changed, for sure.

The fall of the helicopter
was the happiest moment I ever had.

We got a bird down.
We got a black hawk shot down!

We got a black hawk crash, Super 6-1.

Hey!

"What now? Like, what happens now?"

We've got survivors
climbing out of the wreckage right now.

Now, it's a rescue mission,
and it's our people.

If they're dead, or if they're alive,
we wanna get them out of here.

This is our land.

If you touch a man's balls,

he will fight you off
with his hands and legs.

We were ready
to either kill them or be killed.

The survival of that crew

was depending on us getting
there before the Somalis got there.

This is going bad, quick.