“... was involved in numerous high-profile missions, including the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt, the 1992 hunt for Pablo Escobar in Colombia, and the Black Hawk Down incident in Mogadishu, Somalia. “
I don’t see anything there to brag about.
I don’t see anything there to brag about.I don't either including this:
William G. "Jerry" Boykin (born April 19, 1948) was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush
Iran was a Carter operation
Mogadishu was a Clinton operation
You should carefully research each, before placing blame.
Boykin has been on the front lines of the battle against radical Muslims for a quarter of a century, ever since Islamic revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took Americans hostage. He was one of the Delta Force commandos who went in to rescue them. The mission ended in failure on a remote desert airstrip when a helicopter ran into a transport plane full of soldiers.
"It was a huge ball of fire. They could not survive," recalls Boykin.
It was a disaster military, but in Boykin's telling, it was also a miracle: "That aircraft was going to explode any moment. But as I prayed in the name of Jesus, the door of that aircraft opened and through those flames came 45 men running just as hard as they could."
That's not just a war story that gets better with each retelling. It's exactly what happened. Logan Fitch was one of soldiers trapped in the back of the plane.
"I could see the flames and the fire and the sparks advancing from the front to the back of the aircraft, inside the aircraft," says Fitch.
Does Fitch view that as a miracle, that everyone got out of there without any burns?
"These are some amazing guys," says Fitch. "If I had to attribute it to anything, I would attribute it to the self -- the training and the self confidence and the cool actions of all of us."
Boykin says that when he saw the helicopter go into the plane and saw the fire start, he looked up and said, "In the name of Jesus, spare these men." He believes that his prayer was answered.
"Well, it was," says Fitch. "Whether it's directly attributable to that prayer, I don't know."
Boykin's message, repeated again and again, is that prayer saves American lives. For example, some of his men walked away from a horrific helicopter crash that was captured on home video during the invasion of Grenada in 1983.
But then came the 1993 firefight in Mogadishu, made famous by the film "Black Hawk Down." At that time, Boykin was the commander of Delta Force. He lost 16 of his men; many more were wounded.
"We brought a truck outta that city and brought it back home to that air field. A 5-ton truck, and we had it stacked with bodies, dead and wounded," said Boykin in a speech. "My soldiers. And we dropped the tail on that truck and the blood poured out the back of it, like water."
The next day, Boykin survived a mortar round, which killed one of his men and left another bleeding to death. Boykin prayed over the dying soldier. "There was no pulse. There was no pressure. But I prayed to almighty God, spare him," said Boykin in his speech. "Today, he practices medicine in the Shenandoah Valley with four children."
That dying soldier was Rob Marsh, who served as Delta's battle surgeon. "I required 17 units of blood and it's, normally there are 15 units in a body," recalls Marsh. "If things hadn't happened the right way, I shouldn't be here right now. I think the skill of the surgeon, the blood, you know, and God's will, I'm here."