re: Watched Blackhawk Down again the other night

Ace:
I'm going from past memory here, and I'm certainly not trying to challenge your bonafides, but were there even any AC-130s in Somalia at the time of the "Blackhawk Down" raid?

It's been a while, but I seem to recall reading that there had been gunships there prior to this particular raid, but they had rotated out some months earlier and not replaced. It might have had something to do with a TOW missile attack on a house that Aidid was supposed to have been in that killed a bunch of civilians. (From helicopter(s), not AC-130s, but politically motivated.)

I'm pretty sure that Garrison had requested armor and add'l air support but was overruled by the Pentagon or White House. IIRC, there was a previous helicopter shootdown that killed 3 or 4 U.S. crew before the two depicted in the movie. I know there was also an earlier incident where a UN ground force was attacked and ~20 Indian (or Pakastani or Bangdelis) troops were killed.