Boykin and Black Hawk Down

Lt. Gen. William G.  "Jerry" Boykin

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, writing for Big Peace, have published an article about Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin.  The purpose of their piece was to counter some of the prevailing media bias against General Boykin because of his religious beliefs.  General Boykin is in the news because he has declined, under pressure from the controversial organization known as CAIR, or the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an invitation from West Point to speak at a prayer breakfast.

Ken Blackwell is a conservative writer.  Ken Klukowski is an attorney.  Neither man served in the military and their bios show nothing that would qualify either of them as military historians.

This is relevant because, in their Big Peace article, attempting to burnish the image of General Boykin, they write that Boykin was "the commanding officer of the mission in the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia forever memorialized in the movie Black Hawk Down."

Author Mark Bowden, author of the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, never mentions Boykin.  Neither does retired colonel David H. Hackworth in his book, Hazardous Duty.  Hackworth covered U.S. operations in Somalia during the time of the Black Hawk Down incident as a correspondent for Newsweek.  Both of these men name Major General William F. Garrison as the commanding officer during the Battle of Mogadishu. [1]