Book Excerpt


Assault on Richmond Hill Prison


O


n October 25, 1983, nine Black Hawk helicopters carrying U.S. special forces came under intense fire as they attempted to liberate prisoners being held


by the Marxist government including the governor general, Britain’s top oficial in Grenada. One of the aircraft was shot down:


At the crash site, the scene was grim. The door gunner’s foot hung precariously by a sliver of skin, severed by a round of artillery. Others writhed in agony, blinded by hydraulic fluid that sprayed from ruptured lines inside the chopper. Three of the survivors pooled their


with the president about his per- sonal grievances. The Secret Service whisked the president into an armored vehicle, where he spoke to Harris until the standoff ended peacefully. Then, two days before Reagan


gave the go-ahead for the Grenada invasion, terrorists drove a suicide truck bomb into the U.S. Marine bar- racks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 American service members. While the U.S. won the


Cold War, Bachman fears history is repeating itself today. This time the threat is from Nicaragua with its dictator Daniel Ortega and from the Chinese Commu- nist Party. “This is a more malig-


nant type of communism,” Bachman said. While the Soviets were


relying on influence as they were running out of money, he noted that Chinese communists are thriving. “What’s happening


now is a lot more danger- ous,” he said. “I hope this book serves as a remind- er that we can’t turn our backs to what’s happening in our own backyard.”


strength to lift the fuselage just high enough to free a trapped operator from the wreckage. Perched atop a plateau surrounded


by sheer cliffs cascading down to the island’s jagged coastline, the crash site offered no suitable terrain for another Army Black Hawk to safely land. Chief Warrant Oficer Scot Atkins and the flight crew aboard Chalk 9 were headed to the airport at Port Salinas to regroup after an assault on the island’s only radio tower. Atkins admitted that he had felt


“overwhelmed during the initial gunfight.” But his day was far from over.


“Point Salinas was not yet taken


as we circled back to land,” Atkins recalled. After just one hour of the battle,


Atkins was flying one of the two remaining TF-160 Black Hawks that were still able to fight in battle. The other one had been tasked with medevac’ing the wounded back to an offshore naval hospital. “I remember seeing a black smoke cloud on the hill and wondering who was shot down,” Atkins said. He would soon find out it was


coming from the wreckage of the Black Hawk that was piloted by his company commander Captain Lucas, and Chief Warrant Oficer Price. One of the commanding oficers


on the ground looked to Atkins and said, “Yours is the only aircraft we got. We need you to try and move down towards the beach and rescue the survivors.” They made their way to a small


inlet, just south of the crash site, coming under heavy anti-aircraft and small arms fire. Atkins’ Black Hawk, loaded with


Rangers, set down on a tiny rocky island just off the coast. They stayed there for a couple of minutes to assess the situation. They realized they would have to


insert the platoon of Rangers at the bottom of a cliff that was 20 feet high. It seemed like an impossible task, but the Rangers all agreed they were up for the challenge.


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