Watched BHD yet again. The music at the end was both beautiful, yet haunting. Also, the death letter was quite beautiful. While the death letter was being read, the film lists 19 American deaths. BHD websites have the death toll of Americans at 18. Anyone know why?

Was that in the book?

Ok, thanks.

If I could ask one question:

What happened to the newbie kid that fell out of the Blackhawk in the first 5 minutes of the raid?

His name, which I don't recall, was not on the list of 19 dead listed at the end of the movie.

Thanks,

Merlin

TOdd Blackburn spent two years in the hospital, learned to walk again, and got a medical discharge.      He is fully recovered from his wounds and is now a police officer in his hometown.

shooter220

God bless him! Good man!

OK, I have to ask this:

Is there any validity to the "rumor" that went around hollyweird and my production house that one of the BHD casualties in the movie was in reality alive and after being discharged was convicted of rape? The rumor mill went along the lines that the screenwriters did not want to "make a hero" out of a convicted rapist so they just "killed him off".

Was this true or just more hollywood BS flowing through the trenches?

The truth is, the character in the movie who was the clerk that made good coffee was based on a real individual who was later convicted of rape.  They changed his name for that reason but they did not have him killed off, he survived in the movie as he did in real life.

The letter is Gary Gordon's letter to his wife.

-SARguy

That was a real letter???!!! I thought it was just some Hollywood script. Jeez, I wonder what it felt like to write a letter like that? What do you say if you think this is the last time out?

Does anyone have the text to the letter? I don't have the DVD yet.

This is the part of the letter read in BHD:

[i]"My love, You are strong and will do well in life. I love you and my children deeply. Today and tomorrow let each day grow and grow, keep smiling and never give up even when things get you down. So in closing my love, tonight tuck my children in bed warmly, tell them I love them, then hug them for me and give them both a kiss goodnite from daddy."[/i]

-SARguy

John,

Gary's wife wrote an article about what happened.  I still get emotional every time I read this.

-SARguy

[i]
From USN&WR August 1, 1994..

RESPONSIBILITY

In 1993, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon was killed trying to rescue a fellow soldier in Mogadishu, Somalia. His widow, Carment, and their two children, Ian, 6, and Brittany, 3, live in Southern Pines, N.C.

My dearest Ian and Brittany, I hope that in the final moments of your father's life, his last thoughts were not of us. As he lay dying, I wanted him to think only of the mission to which he pledged himself. As you grow older, if I can show you the love and responsibility he felt for his family, you will understand my feelings. I did not want him to think of me, or of you, because I did not want his heart to break.

Children were meant to have someone responsible for them. No father ever took that more seriously than your dad. Responsibility was a natural part of him, an easy path to follow. Each day after work his truck pulled into our driveway. I watched the two of you run to him, feet pounding across the painted boards of our porch, yelling, "Daddy!" Every day, I saw his face when he saw you. You were the center of his life.

Ian, when you turned 1 year old, your father was beside himself with excitement, baking you a cake in the shape of a train. On your last birthday, Brittany, he sent you a handmade birthday card from Somalia. But your father had two families. One was us, and the other was his comrades. He was true to both.

He loved his job. Quiet and serious adventure filled some part of him I could never fully know. After his death, one of his comrades told me that on a foreign mission, your dad led his men across a snow-covered ridge that began to collapse. Racing across a yawning crevasse to safety, he grinned wildly and yelled, "Wasn't that great?"

You will hear many times about how your father died. You will read what the president of the United States said when he awarded the Medal of Honor: "Gary Gordon ... died in the most courageous and selfless way any human being can act." But you may still ask why. You may ask how he could have been devoted to two families so equally, dying for one but leaving the other.

For your father, there were no hard choices in life. Once he committed to something, the way was clear. He chose to be a husband and father, and never wavered in those roles. He chose the military, and "I shall not fail those with whom I serve" became his simple religion. When his other family needed him, he did not hesitate, as he would not have hesitated for us. It may not have been the best thing for us, but it was the right thing for your dad.
[/i]

continued...

...continued...

[i]There are times now when that image of him coming home comes back to me. I see him scoop you up, Ian, and see you, Brittany, bury your head in his chest. I dread the day when you stop talking and asking about him, when he seems so long ago. So now I must take responsibility for keeping his life entwined with yours. It is a responsibility I never wanted.

But I know what your father would say. "Nothing you can do about it, Carmen. Just keep going." Those times when the crying came, as I stood at the kitchen counter, were never long enough. You came in the front door, Brittany, saying, "Mommy, you sad? You miss Daddy?" You reminded me I had to keep going.

The ceremonies honoring your dad were hard. When they put his photo in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon, I thought, can this be all that is left, a picture? Then General Sullivan read from the letter General Sherman wrote to General Grant after the Civil War, words so tender that we all broke down. "Throughout the war, you were always in my mind. I always knew if I were in trouble and you were still alive you would come to my assistance."

One night before either of you were born, your dad and I had a funny little talk about dying. I teased that I would not know where to bury him. Very quietly, he said, "Up home. In my uniform." Your dad never liked to wear a uniform. And "up home," Maine, was so far away from us.

Only after he was laid to rest in a tiny flag-filled graveyard in Lincoln, Maine, did I understand. His parents, burying their only son, could come tomorrow and the day after that. You and I would not have to pass his grave on the way to the grocery store, to Little League games, to ballet recitals. Our lives would go on. And to the men he loved and died for, the uniform was a silent salute, a final repeat of his vows. Once again, he had taken care of all of us.

On a spring afternoon, a soldier from your dad's unit brought me the things from his military locker. At the bottom of a cardboard box, beneath his boots, I found a letter. Written on a small, ruled tablet, it was his voice, quiet but confident in the words he wanted us to have if something should happen to him. I'll save it for you, but so much of him is already inside you both. Let it grow with you. Choose your own responsibilities in life but always, always follow your heart. Your dad will be watching over you, just as he always did.

Love,

Mom
[/i]

[:(]




[marines]

SARguy,

That was real deep. Thank you for posting that.

Actor Nikolai Coster Waldau read the letter on the set in case they could include it in the movie, luckily it made it to the finished movie.

Another question:

WHY do the two snipers that drop down to protect the 2nd Heli have 1911s?  Is there a good reason why they don't have M9s, or was it just a trick of  the eye?

That's been bothering me.

Delta carries 1911s, not M9s...that's why.

Re: The letter posted by SARGuy:

Geez. Really makes all the petty bullshit we put up with in regular life seem pretty insignificant, don't it?

That lady is going to be a swell mom. God will see to that...

[USA]