News : Public safety personnel hear from \'Black Hawk Down\' commander

VSHS Asst. Principal Ryan Davis greets Col. Danny McKnight after his speech.

Col. McKnight speaks to members of the Vinton Police Department.

Col. McKnight and several Vinton police officers.

Colonel Danny McKnight started his most recent memorial journey in Texas, in October of 2008.

He stopped at the grave of Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz, who was buried there 15 years earlier.

It was just the beginning of McKnight's thousand-mile journey to honor the fallen soldiers who had fought for him -- and with him.

Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz was a Ranger, a member of the Third Battalion, which McKnight commanded that fateful day. He died Oct. 3, 1993, in Mogadishu, one of five Rangers and 19 U.S. personnel who died in Somalia in October 1993.

From Texas, McKnight traveled to Georgia, to Fort Benning, and to Arlington National Cemetery, and to New Jersey, where two of his Rangers lived. Along the way his visited gravesites, spoke to survivors, and even joined a run that memorializes the Mogadishu heroes.

During that week, he saw their names engraved in stone, and remembered their faces: Along with Sgt. Ruiz, the fallen Rangers in McKnight's command include Cpl. Jamie Smith, PFC Richard "Alphabet" Kowalewski, James Cavaco, James Joyce and Sgt. Dominic Pilla. He also visits the grave of Delta Force member Tim "Griz" Martin. Griz, said Col. McKnight, is buried at Arlington, between two Rangers, an appropriate location considering the way he served and the way he died.

McKnight shared that journey with his audience in Vinton on Monday afternoon. He spent the day speaking about the qualities of leadership during an event hosted by the Vinton Police Department. Approximately 160 law enforcement officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel listened to McKnight speak about leadership in roles of public service and protection. Vinton Police Officer Eric Dickinson organizes these events. Police Chief Jeff Tilson says he tries to schedule one or two per year; the challenge is finding a speaker who can come on a day when the high school auditorium and cafeteria available.

McKnight told the audience what he thought good leadership means. And, of course, he talked about Somalia. Especially Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 3-4, 1993.

McKnight retired from the U.S. Army at the end of 2000, just a few days before "Black Hawk Down" opened in theaters. He saw the movie. He read the book that inspired it. He called them both "phenomenal," although he did say both included some historical inaccuracies. He called the book by Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer 80-85 percent accurate and said the movie was about 70 percent accurate. Yet he gives Bowden much credit for the hard work he did in finding and interviewing the participants. The result of Bowden's efforts, said McKnight, was the the public had a chance to learn about the important event that politicians "tried to sweep under the rug of the Oval Office."

McKnight's first civilian job after retiring from the Army was as an emergency management director. He then became a college teacher, which led to his public speaking invitations. He speaks approximately 80 times per year. He also became an author. He has recently finished a book that will be titled, "Streets of Mogadishu: Leadership at its best; political correctness at its worst." See Col. McKnight's book page on his web site HERE.

'Will never forgive or forget'

McKnight is angry about the political decisions that he believes led directly to the deaths of his men that day.

He is angry because former U.N Secretary Boutros-Boutros Ghali chose to capture, not kill, Mohammad Farrah Aidid, who declared himself the President of Somalia. McKnight believes Ghali did this because he was a long-time arch-enemy of Aidid and wanted to humiliate him. The Rangers captured most of Aidid's top lieutenants; he wanted to stay and capture Aidid. But after the events of Black Hawk Down, the troops were ordered to stay in their headquarters; the Americans soon left Somalia. Aidid died in 1996 after a battle between warring factions of Somalians.

But McKnight is most angry at the Americans politicians of the Clinton Administration, particularly for two decisions. First, they decided to limit the number of troops to 450; McKnight told his commanders before they left, and after they arrived in Somalia that he needed more. Those troops and their helicopters would have been available to help after two helicopters went down.

The second decision -- the one that McKnight says he can never forgive or forget because it led to the deaths of his men -- was the decision not to use an A-130 gunship to provide air support. That gunship, said McKnight, would have provided a 400-yard diameter circle around the downed helicopters, and kept the soldiers who survived the crash from being killed by Somalian fighters.

"I have five friends who should be here sitting with me today, but they are not, because of that decision," he said.