Paul Howe

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For other persons of the same name, see Paul Howe (swimmer).

Master Sergeant (MSG) Paul Howe was an Army Delta operator who served in Somalia in 1993. William Fichtner's character "Jeff Sanderson" in the movie Black Hawk Down was modeled after him. He served with the United States Army for approximately twenty years, ten of which were spent within the special operations community. He entered training for Delta (which has also been called Combat Applications Group) in the mid-1980s and was a member of the Delta squadron that was deployed to Somalia as part of Task Force Ranger in August 1993.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Battle of Mogadishu

During the Battle of Mogadishu, Delta operators were divided into several smaller teams, most of which were carried on benches attached to SOAR MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, and landed either on top of or next to the target building. In order to clear the structure of all personnel whom they encountered, and to do so quickly and with overwhelming force, these teams were delivered in more than one area and entering the building at nearly the same time. One of these teams that captured Mohamed Farrah Aidid's lieutenants was led by Sergeant First Class Paul Howe, which landed on the top of the target building. From there, his team worked its way inside and linked up with the other teams like the one led by Sergeant First Class Norm "Hoot" Hooten (which landed next to the target building). In addition, his and other teams played a key role in defending the crash site of Super 61 (the SOAR MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter piloted by Cliff "Elvis" Wolcott).

Later in his career, he served as a sniper team member, as a sniper team leader, as a trainer for his unit and instructed numerous ROTC students.[1]

[edit] Retirement from active service

Since retiring from the Army as a Master Sergeant, he has gone on to open his own combat shooting school,[2] which trains Civilians, Military Groups, Government Security Personnel, and Law Enforcement Members in various tactical disciplines. He was made senior manager of Triple Canopy's Law Enforcement Training Division in 2005. As of January 2007, he has left Triple Canopy to pursue CSAT full-time.

Howe wrote Leadership and Training for the Fight, published in 2005. This manual includes chapters on the tactics used during Operation Gothic Serpent and the Battle of Mogadishu, and comments on leadership successes and failures during those operations.

[edit] Honors

During his service he received a Bronze Star with Valor Device.


[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Howe, Paul, Leadership and Training for the Fight
  2. ^ Combat Shooting & Tactics (CSAT) homepage. CSAT. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.

[edit] References

  • Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War. Penguin (reprint) (2000). ISBN 978-0140288506. 
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