AT JUST BEFORE 5 P.M., just yards away from the Six-One crash site, a Ranger element came under a hail of Somali fire hitting three soldiers inside a minute. Corporal Jamie Smith got the worst of it. A bullet pierced his thigh, traveled up his leg, and hit a femoral artery. Delta medic Kurt Schmid got to Smith almost immediately. In the hot-wash, Schmid said Smith was bleeding buckets. The medic had to tear open the entrance wound in Smith’s leg, insert his hand, and feel his way up into Smith’s pelvis to try and manually pinch off the bleeding. Every time Schmid tried it, Smith screamed in pain. But the Ranger had lost so much blood that Schmid couldn’t risk giving him morphine. The drop in blood pressure might kill him.
Smith’s chalk leader, Lieutenant Larry Perino, called for a medevac. Mike Steele relayed the request to Tom Matthews in the command-and-control bird. But the area was too hot to send in a helo.
At about 7 p.m., we sent a Black Hawk in to re-supply the troops pinned down around the Six-One crash site. They were running low on water and ammo, and it was going to take awhile to get the 10th Mountain Division ground convoy in to evacuate them. As soon as the Black Hawk roared in and took up a hover just south of the crash site, Somali gunfire exploded from every direction. Muzzle flash and RPG trails erupted all over the screens in the JOC. Dozens of rounds pierced the Black Hawk’s skin, rotors, and gearbox as two Delta operators kicked out water, ammo, and IV bags, which fell to the ground below. The pilots held the bird steady until the re-supply was complete. Then, shot full of holes and leaking fluid, they were able to return to base. But that helo would not fly again.
About an hour after he left the base, Craig Nixon called me. Because of roadblocks and burning tires, he had to keep changing routes and hadn’t been able to reach Durant’s crash site. He eventually ran head-on into Danny McKnight’s shot-up convoy and needed to help them get back. I agreed, and told Craig to bring them in. In half an hour, both elements limped back through the gates of the airfield. Craig refueled and rearmed and headed out again for a second attempt to get to the second crash site. This time, John Macejunas joined him, determined to get to Shughart, Gordon, and the Six-Four crew before the Somalis did.
Jamie Smith’s condition was deteriorating.
Gary called me in the JOC: “We’ve got two critically wounded who are going to die if we don’t get them out.”
“I don’t think we can get a medevac in there without losing another helo and more people,” I said.
Then Scotty Miller called me directly, an urgent pleading in his voice: “I’ve got to have a medevac in here. We’ve got a man who’s going to die.”
If I sent the medevac, there was a very high risk of getting everybody on that helicopter killed, plus the added risk of creating another rescue scenario when we already had two helos down and the rest shot to pieces. If I didn’t send the medevac, Jamie Smith would almost certainly die.
It was the most agonizing decision I have ever had to make. When I keyed my mike, my heart felt like a stone.
“Scotty, we can’t send another helo in there and get it shot down.”
At about 8 p.m., I heard Steele come up on the command net. Jamie Smith was dead.