Black Hawk shares some similarities with compared to Michael
R. Gordon’s “American Soldier Killed Freeing Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq” as well
as Kate Kelly’s “War Communication Before Modern Technology.” Gordon’s article
links some similarities in technology used during the Civil War, still seen in
today’s modern equipment, while Kelly’s proves that information concerning any
deaths or fatal results can still be withheld from the public without much
intel being released, which causes questions to arise from the public on
whether or not the US military and government make the right decisions.
Compared Black Hawk Down, Kate Kelly’s article, “War
Communication Before Modern Technology” has a big gap between today’s
technology and the those used during the Civil War, yet shares some
similarities. The balloons that were used for communication via scouting the
battlefield and sending the observations through a telegraph are strikingly similar
to Black Hawks. Black Hawks, despite the technological advancement, are still
used as a form of communication from the sky, and are used to throughout
missions. Whilst Signal Corps used flags as a system to carry out messages to
their troops, sometimes encrypted with a secret code, this concept is still
applied in our modern communication today. Troops now communicate via headsets
in order to stay in touch with others throughout missions. These are essential particularly
if they get separated during heavy fire or combat. Sometimes code words are
used in order to signal or carry out a specific action. Despite the
technological advancements, today’s technology still has hiccups, much like
what Signal Corps faced. They had the issue of capturing one’s attention when
trying to send a signal to them, and risked being shot. With Black Hawk Down,
misdirection or one wrong word resulted in hazardous results, injuries, and
even deaths.
Michael R. Gordon’s “American Soldier Killed Freeing
Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq”, has a situation similar to Black Hawk Down. After
the devastating mission in Black Hawk Down, there was an attempted scramble to
try to hide certain evidence from the public, much like the American military
officials did so concerning the mission’s outcome as well as the American soldier’s
death Gordon’s article. Like all missions, most people can expect a death or
two, but in Kelly’s article, no one expected an American Soldier to die during
this mission’s objective, which was to release the prisoners who were being
held by ISIS in Iraq. Black Hawk Down is similar in the case that during the
core mission, most of the troops thought the mission was to last one hour, when
it spanned into twenty four hours, and resulted in the unnecessary loss of many
soldiers.
Looking back, there is a definite improvement in today’s way
of communication, although there are still many cases in which with the modern
era’s advancements, is still prone to miscommunication. When faced with
critical results from missions, military officials and the government still attempt
to cover up the vital information from the public. These articles are a
reflection of Black Hawk Down’s content in some sort of fashion.
