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The account of fighting in Somalia brings one Riverview veteran a measure of peace.
By SUSAN THURSTON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 19, 2002
TAMPA -- Army veteran Ron Cugno really didn't want to see the movie Black Hawk Down. He figured the memories would be too painful.
A commander during the U.S. operation in Somalia, Cugno knew firsthand the danger and destruction of war. He carried the wounded to hospitals. He saw young men die, and killed young men who were the enemy.
His instinct was to decline an invitation to watch a preview of Ridley Scott's new movie, which opened in theaters nationwide on Friday.
"I had basically forgotten that part of my life," said Cugno, who retired in 1998 after 20 years of service and lives in Riverview.
But at the urging of his wife and military friends, Cugno mustered the strength to go. It was a last-minute decision, and one he doesn't regret.
"I feel better. Obviously, I remembered a lot of things," said Cugno, an assistant principal at Jefferson High School in Tampa. "But I think the movie validated us a little bit. When we came back, we kind of felt like losers."
Cugno, 51, served with the special operations aviation unit assigned to Mogadishu in 1993. Their mission: Rid the Somalian capital of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his cohorts.
Cugno led eight helicopters, known as "Little Birds," that delivered ground troops, escorted larger copters and destroyed enemy weapons. When needed, they transported the wounded and the dead.
His crew flew countless missions, landing on rooftops, city streets and wherever the small aircraft could fit. They never got Aidid, but they weakened his regime.
Then, in October, two months after they arrived, Somali forces shot two Black Hawks out of the sky. Cugno's helicopters rotated to retrieve the wounded and provide cover. The enemy covered the land like ants.
"The conditions for flying weren't the best," he said. "There were a lot of wires and dust. We couldn't see the ground."
Cugno said the movie gave a realistic account of what happened. Although he and his men were not mentioned by name, it portrayed their jobs accurately and gave insight to the operation's futility.
It hammered home the military ethos: Don't leave anyone behind.
Several Americans died during the operation, compared with about 1,000 Somalis. Every man, woman and child carried a weapon. Many were high on coca leaves, used to stave off hunger, he said.
"There were literally thousands of people who attacked us," he said. "They just kept coming."
Though painfully true to life, the film left out some details that haunt Cugno, but couldn't be expressed on camera. Noise from grenades and gunfire pierced eardrums. The smell of garbage, sewage and burnt tires -- a signal Americans were coming -- clogged the air.
Blood painted the streets.
"The movie had some gore in it, but it was one-hundredth of what went on."
Watching his past come alive on the screen stirred emotions he had long suppressed. For years afterward, he refused interviews, even to author Mark Bowden, whose book inspired the movie.
Cugno left Mogadishu about a month after the Black Hawks crashed. He was home for Thanksgiving, a fact his wife, Ellen, won't soon forget.
The Cugnos moved to Riverview in 1996 from Clarksville, Tenn. He was assigned to the MacDill Air Force Base and retired in 1998 as a lieutenant colonel. A former teacher, he joined Jefferson High in 1999.
Cugno says the film arrives at an appropriate time. Patriotism is high and Americans have a heightened awareness of military, police and fire personnel.
As in Somalia, military forces are in Afghanistan.
"It was time for the story to be told," he said.
- Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com.