General William Garrison "Good luck, boys! Be careful. No one gets left behind."
2nd most-quoted character in Black Hawk Down (2001): in 12 of its 75 quotes
Most scenes with: Harrell (3), Lieutenant Colonel Danny McKnight (2), Matthews (2)
"Make no mistake: once you're in Bakara Market you're in an entirely hostile district. Don't underestimate their capabilities. We'll be going through friendly districts before hitting the market, so remember the rules of engagement: nobody fires unless fired upon. Now, Let's go get this thing done. Good luck, gentlemen."
More lines from General William Garrison
5 quotes General William Garrison General William Garrison "We just lost the initiative."
General William Garrison "Look, we have stirred up a hornet's nest here. We're fighting the entire city. I want every vehicle possible that's got four wheels and armor. Get it — get everything."
General William Garrison "Well, you tell the general this: I understand, but it is my duty to remind him that my men are surrounded by thousands of armed Somali militia. It is imperative that we move them out of the hostile area and into the safe zone. I need his help now."
General William Garrison "Ground personnel will have to mark target positions with infrared strobes. Get Little Birds on strafing runs and keep 'em going all night long. If we don't hold back this city... we're gonna have a hundred caskets to fill by morning."
Scenes with General William Garrison
6 scenes
Mr. Atto I see not catching Aidid is becoming routine.
General Garrison [...]
We're not leaving Somalia until we find him. And we will find him.
Mr.Atto Don't make the mistake of thinking because I grew up without running water I am simple General. I do know something about history. See all this? It's simply shaping tomorrow. A tomorrow without a lot of Arkansas white-boys' ideas in it.
Gen. Garrison
Well, I wouldn't know about that. I'm from Texas.
Mr. Atto Mr. Garrison, I think you should not have come here. This is civil war. This is our war, not yours.
Garrison Three hundred thousand dead and counting. That's not a war, Mr. Atto. That's genocide.
General Garrison Same mission template as before. At 1545 Assault Force Delta will infiltrate the target building and seize all suspects within. Security force, Rangers. Four Ranger chalks under command of Captain Steele will rope in at 1546 and hold a four-corner perimeter around the target building. No one gets in or out. Extraction force, Lieutenant Colonel McKnight's humvee column, will drive in at 1547 on Hawlwadig Road and hold just short of the Olympic Hotel, here, and wait for the green light. Now, once Delta gives the word, McKnight's column will move to the target building and load the prisoners on flatbed trucks. Immediately after the trucks are loaded the four Ranger chalks will collapse back to the target building, load up on humvees, and the entire ground force will exfil the three miles back to base. Mission time from incursion to extraction, no longer than thirty minutes.
[...] [Cut to Matthews, McKnight and Harrell having a conversation on Garrison's briefing]
What's the matter, Danny? Something you don't like?
Lt.Col. McKnight
No Spectre gunships, daylight instead of night, mid-afternoon when they're all **** up on khat, only part of the city where Aidid can mount a serious counterattack on short notice... what's not to like?
Life's imperfect.
Yeah, for you two, circling above it at five hundred feet, it's imperfect. Down in the street... it's unforgiving.
CWO Wolcott (Super Six One, Wolcott's Black Hawk helicopter, has taken an RPG hit; radio exchange follows.)
This is Super Six One, I'm hit. I'm hit. Bull, you wanna pull those PCL's off-line, or what?
CWO "Bull" Briley Right, babe.
CWO Wolcott Six-one going down, Six-one going down. Hold on! Ah... (he breaks off on impact with the ground)
We got a Black Hawk down. We got a Black Hawk down.
Super 6-1 is down. We got a bird down in the city.
Unidentified Voice
Super 6-1 is on the deck now.
Gen. Garrison
Get an MH-6 on site, check for survivors. Send in the S.A.R. bird. I want ground forces to move and secure a new perimeter around that crash site. Can you guide the convoy in there?
Roger that.
Garrison Well, move quick. The whole damn city will be coming down on top of them. (Off radio, to executive officer) We just lost the initiative.
This is Super Six-Four. We're good.
You sure? You look like you got clipped pretty good.
Instrument panels are okay. No, we're good. Got a slight vibration in the pedals, but we're good.
All right, put her down on the airfield, Super Six-Four. Have it checked out just to be safe.
Roger. (To copilot) Ray, I'm getting a lot of movement in these pedals. Check the systems again.
(En route to the airfield, tail rotor assembly disintegrates.)
We lost the tail rotor, it's gone. Six-four is going down! Six-four is going in hard! Six-four is going down! We're going down! RAY!
Gen. Garrison
[...]
Get Struecker's column back out there. They need to get to Durant's crash site fast. I want 'em out of there. All of them.
CWO Goffena (Goffena is still over the second crash; ground support keeps getting delayed.)
There's a large crowd advancing six, seven blocks from the crash. Shughart and Gordon again request permission to secure until convoy arrives. Over.
General, the crowd's in the hundreds now. From where they are they can see things clearer than any of us. They know what they're asking.
Gen. Garrison
Let me talk to them. this is Garrison. I want to make sure y'all know what you're asking for, so say it out loud and clear.
MSG. Gordon We're asking to go in and set up a perimeter until ground support arrives.
Garrison And you realize I cannot tell you when that will be? It could take quite a while.
SFC. Shughart Roger that.
Garrison You still want to go in there?
Gordon Yes, sir.
Garrison Colonel Harrell, it's your call.
Roger that. Goffena, put them in.
(McKnight halts his shot-up convoy at the original start point; his driver, Maddox, has a face full of shrapnel.)
Okay, Danny, I need a no-B.S. assessment here. Can you get to the crash site?
Pvt. Maddox Colonel? I can't see shit.
Lt.Col. McKnight
Negative. With the amount of wounded we have, we'd do more harm than good. We need to come back to base, rearm and regroup, and then we can go back out.
Roger.
Gen. Garrison
C-2, bring them back. Get them out of there.
Roger. Return to base.
We're going home!
