Retired Army Ranger Discusses Leadership, Battle of Mogadishu

WINTERVILLE�If anyone should know a thing or two about leading under the most difficult of circumstances, it�s retired U.S. Army Col. Danny McKnight.

As an Army Ranger in October 1993, McKnight led a convoy of U.S. military vehicles through the enemy-filled streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, on a mission to capture a Somali warlord responsible for massacring 24 United Nations troops. The intense firefight that took place that day is the subject of a book written by Mark Bowden titled, �Black Hawk Down,� and a movie by the same name released in 2001.

On Monday, McKnight�now a motivational speaker�spoke to local law enforcement officers in Pitt Community College�s Craig F. Goess Student Center about �Leadership in Difficult Conditions.� The Georgia native who now lives in Rockledge, Florida, touched on the qualities good leaders possess while also setting the record straight about what took place in Mogadishu, when 18 American soldiers were killed as part of the effort to arrest Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Col. McKnight, who will soon release his own book about the mission to bring in Aidid, said leadership is comprised of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. He said simply that there are two types of leaders: good and bad.

Good leaders, McKnight said, are the most professional people in their given professions. They lead by example, are accountable to their subordinates, accept blame when things go wrong, and give the individuals they lead credit for successes.

According to McKnight, good leaders set an example for others to follow by getting in the trenches with them and putting themselves in their shoes. �I demanded of (my soldiers) what I demanded of myself,� he said.

During his more than 28 years of Army service, McKnight required his platoon sergeants to know the first, last and middle names of their platoon members. If a soldier was married, the sergeants had to know the spouse�s name and their children�s names, if they had any. If a soldier was not married, they had to know the names of each soldier�s parents and their hometowns.

McKnight explained that learning those details made the sergeants completely aware of their accountability to the soldiers under their command. He added that soldiers preparing for battle had to trust that their leaders would always act in their best interests and never leave them behind.

Much of the 58-year-old McKnight�s presentation focused on the decisions made in the months leading up to the Battle of Mogadishu. He provided, in the words of the late Paul Harvey, �the rest of the story� while interjecting leadership principles throughout his remarks.

According to McKnight, several factors combined to produce the results of the Somalia battle with political correctness taking the lion�s share of responsibility.

After initially approving the mission to capture Aidid, U.S. government officials called off the mission just days before Army Rangers and Delta Force personnel were to leave for Somalia. They then reversed that decision a short time later but not before tacking on several restrictions in the name of political correctness that ultimately cost lives, McKnight said.

The colonel noted that when the mission to capture Aidid received the final go-ahead, many of the operation�s top secret plans had already been leaked to the media, the number of soldiers taking part in the mission had been capped at 450 (down from the original 550), and AC-130 gunships had been prohibited from participating. What that meant, he explained, was that U.S. forces would be facing an enemy that knew they were in Somalia, had virtually no reinforcements to call upon in the event something went wrong, and did not have support from a critical piece of aircraft that could have kept enemy combatants at bay for as long as needed.

With AC-130s ruled out, Black Hawk helicopters were called upon to provide an aerial view of the enemy, McKnight said. When one of them was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, Rangers secured the crash site. But when an RPG knocked a second Black Hawk from the sky about a mile away from the first crash, McKnight said the limitations politicians placed on the mission created major problems.

In addition to the 18 killed, another 106 U.S. soldiers were wounded during the Battle of Mogadishu. McKnight said an estimated 364 Somalis died and another 754 were wounded.

But, McKnight said, the repercussions of the Mogadishu firefight and the images of dead U.S. soldiers being dragged through the city�s streets are still being felt today. He contends that the battle shaped U.S policy in terms of how and when to call upon the military during crises, emboldened those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and led to advances in the development of improvised explosive devices.

McKnight said he and his fellow soldiers �were the testing ground� for what is being seen now in Iraq and Afghanistan with regard to IEDs.

Many of the Somalis who battled American soldiers in Mogadishu trained in terror camps run by Osama bin Laden. When the United States and U.N. left Somalia after the battle but without Aidid, McKnight said bin Laden was bolstered by what he viewed as American weakness in the face of conflict.

And while Aidid was never captured by American forces before he died of a gunshot wound in 1996, many of his top aides were taken into custody. However, those individuals were later released and McKnight said many of them are esponsible for the piracy now taking place off the African coast.

McKnight, whose awards and decorations include the Bronze Star with Valor Device and a Purple Heart for a neck wound he received in Somalia, said he hopes to release his book on Oct. 3, the 16th anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu. He already has a DVD (�Leading on the Tough Days") for sale that contains a condensed version of his normal speaking presentation.

06/03/2009