Word: wolcott
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...efforts of several relief convoys to reach and extricate the trapped Task Force Rangers and -- above all, the capture, beating and humiliation of helicopter pilot Michael Durant. One part of the story has gone largely unreported, however: the 15-hour pitched battle that took place around the wreckage of Wolcott's chopper, an extraordinary display of valor by 99 men under calamitous circumstances. TIME has been told that two of those men who gave their life to protect Durant -- Sergeant First Class Randall Shugart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon -- have been recommended to receive the nation's highest award...
Karl Maier, 37, was at the controls of an unarmed MH-6 Little Bird helicopter when he spotted Wolcott's Black Hawk heeling over nose first. The stricken craft smashed into an alley about 500 yds. northeast of the target site the Rangers had first assaulted, its rotors chewing off the corner of a one-story building. Maier's decision was instantaneous. "I'm going in," he announced into his headset, and swung his aircraft toward the street corner. The space was so narrow that his blades barely cleared the houses on both sides as he set his bird...
...intersection was already filled with Somali fighters bombarding Wolcott's wreckage with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. Facing directly into the enfilade, Maier's only defense was a light submachine gun, which he fired from the cockpit with his right hand. That left the pilot only his left hand to steady the chopper, while copilot Keith Jones struggled to load two injured Rangers aboard, then yelled at Maier to take off. Left behind were a handful of wounded Rangers, plus the bodies of Wolcott and his copilot, Donovan Briley, 33, of Little Rock, Arkansas...
...from the wreckage of Wolcott's chopper, pilot Dan Jollota was struggling to hold his aircraft steady while 15 Rangers "fast-roped" to the ground by sliding down a 40-ft. line at a rate only slightly more controlled than a free fall. In the cockpit, Jollota could hear the thunk-thunk-thunk of his rotors punctuated by the deadly whoosh of rocket-propelled grenades. With two Rangers still on the ropes, the chopper took a direct hit that chewed holes in a main rotor blade. The steel-nerved pilot bit off the impulse to flee. "It was remarkable," said...
...ground, the Rangers saw that Wolcott could not have crashed in a worse position. Smashed like a broken eggshell, the cockpit had hopelessly entangled the body of the pilot. To make matters worse, the craft had come to rest on a slight rise in the street, exposing anyone near it to the Somalis' devastating cross fire. "Dust got in my eyes from so many bullets popping off the walls," recalled Specialist John Waddell...