AK-47 - A Russian-designed assault rifle, used by the Somalis throughout the fight.
APC - Armored personnel carrier, a tanklike vehicle that carries troops.
Blackhawk - A Sikorsky-made UH-60 helicopter used primarily as a troop transport. It has a pilot and co-pilot and two crew chiefs who each man miniguns, extremely rapid-fire machine guns that fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute.
CAR-15 - Colt Automatic Rifle 15, an automatic weapon more compact and lightweight than an M-16 that fires a high velocity 5.56mm round.
Chalk - A squad of soldiers, usually about a dozen, assigned to a helicopter.
Command Copter - Also called the "C-2 Bird" (for command and control), this is a Blackhawk circling high above the city with air commander Lt. Col. Tom Matthews and ground force commander Lt. Col. Gary Harrell helping to direct the action.
Command Net - The radio frequency linking the various unit commanders and primary communications network for the mission. There were other, separate frequencies assigned to the Rangers (Company Net), Delta (Assault Net) and the helicopters (Air Net).
Delta Force - The US Army's elite counter-terrorism unit, made up of three 150-man squadrons of specially trained professional soldiers, most of them in their late 20s or early 30s, products of a tortuously rigid selection process. The Army does not officially acknowledge that the unit exists. The Rangers called them "the D-boys."
Fast rope - The technique used by assault troops who slide down thick nylon ropes from helicopter, or the rope used in this maneuver.
Flash-bang - A harmless grenade that gives off smoke and makes noise.
.50-gunner - The man behind a .50-cal. machine gun, usually mounted on a humvee
.50-cal. - A Browning .50-cal. machine gun, mounted usually on a humvee, which can continuously fire a belt of ammunition. A .50-cal. round can poke a grapefruit-sized hole in a cinderblock wall.
Five-ton - A five-ton capacity truck with a flat bed in back used as a transport.
Habr Gidr - A powerful Somalia subclan, part of the Hawaye, one of the five principle clans in that desert nation. During Task Force Ranger, this clan was led by Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
Hawlwadig Road - The wide, paved north/south road that ran in front of the target house and Olympic Hotel.
Humvees - The wide-bodied Army vehicles that replaced the jeep as the all-purpose military ground transport. There are cargo humvees with sloping hatch-backs, and attack humvees with a gun turret on top, outfitted with either a .50-cal. machine gun or a Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher. Humvee comes from HMMWV, the military acronym for high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle.
JOC - The Joint Operations Center, a dilapidated building at Task Force Ranger's beachfront base where commanders of the various units, Army, Navy and Air Force monitored the fight on TV screens and radio.
K-4 traffic circle - One of the major traffic roundabouts in southern Mogadishu.
Kevlar - Protective material capable of stopping small caliber bullets and shrapnel. Kevlar panels lined the floors of the Blackhawks, and Rangers wore newly-issued Kevlar vests with a ceramic front plate capable of stopping larger caliber rifle rounds. Military-issue helmets are also lined with Kevlar.
LAW - A light antitank weapon. The disposable plastic launcher weighs only three pounds.
Little Birds - The fast, tiny and highly-manueverable bubble-front AH-6 (Attack Helicopter-6) and MH-6 (Military Helicopter-6) helicopters. The AHs are attack helicopters, armed with miniguns and rockets. The MHs deliver Delta soldiers to their target, carrying them on benches mounted on the outside.
Lost Convoy - The original ground convoy of nine humvees and three five-ton trucks commanded by Lt. Col. Danny McKnight. The convoy's mission was to drive Somali prisoners and the assault force back to base. They were whittled down to six humvees and two trucks. Carrying 24 prisoners, they got lost trying to find their way to the two Blackhawk crash sites.
Target Building - The three-story house on Hawlwadig Road one block north of the Olympic Hotel where a group of Aidid clansmen were meeting the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1993. It was stormed by Delta commandos and 24 Somalis were taken prisoner.
Task Force Ranger - The 450-man force deployed to Mogadishu in late August 1993, commanded by Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison and made up primarily of Delta Force Squadron C from Fort Bragg, N.C., Bravo Company of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Fort Benning, Ga., and the helicopter unit called "Nightstalkers," the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment from Fort Campbell, Ky.
Uniform 64 - The radio call sign for the ground convoy commanded by Lt. Col. Danny McKnight. His is the voice heard speaking for the convoy. His call sign is abbreviated as U64 in the radio transcripts.