An account of a humanitarian mission dissolved into combat: the Battle of Mogadishu took place on October 3, 1993, when attack helicopters dropped about 120 elite American soldiers into a busy neighborhood in the heart of Mogadishu. Their mission to abduct several top lieutenants of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Two high-tech UH-60 (Blackhawk) helicopters were shot down. By the following morning, 18 Americans were dead, 73 more wounded. Since that time, Somalia has had a profound cautionary influence on American foreign policy, when Washington policy-makers consider sending soldiers into foreign crisis zones.

Title from disc label. Based on 29-part series, "Blackhawk Down: An American War Story" by Mark Bowden, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer from November 16 to December 14, 1997.