Grimes (MacGregor)

You must keep close track of this stuff. That's a very disturbing thing to hear. So was Stebbins a clerical soldier in the real incident? I like Mark Bowden as a writer, and I imagine his recounting of the story uses the actual names of the soldiers.

Funny story about the filming of one of "Grimes'" scenes. In the one where Grimes is running through the street and the wall is exploded beside him, the stunt for that scene was performed by original Ranger John Colette. Colette was known to be a bit of a nutbar in terms of his nature. He was one of the technical consultants along with Danny McKnight (played in the film by Tom Seizmore), Tom Matthews (air support command chopper played by Glen Moreshower in the film), and Matt Eversmann (played by Josh Hartnett in the film). Well the stunt team was rigging up the squib for the explosion and Colette asked if he could do it. Everyone agreed and when you see the explosion and the solider falling that is John Colette in for McGregor. Colette was one of the ones tied down at the first crash scene (Wolcott). Just a bit of trivia. As for the reason Stebbins was allowed in combat, he was a Ranger full stop. He was trained in combat. I believe that in the film was just an exposition scene where we learn or don't learn anything about the soldiers. Everyone of the Rangers was expected to leave the choppers because they were acting as police for the target building and street for when the Delta Boys (D-Boys) went into the target building. Same with Todd Blackburn (Orlando Bloom). The film was as realistic as you can get. I do suggest you getting the three disc bluray of the film. You'll have three documentaries on the raid featuring interviews with many of the men involved including Keni Thomas, John Colette, Tom Matthews, Matt Eversman, and Lee Van Arsdale. That is the third disk and includes a PBS documentary, a History Channel original documentary on the "Real Black Hawk Down", and one more. Can't remember the title at the moment. The second disc contains all behind the scenes stuff including the training the actors went through at Ranger School, and the training the D-Boys underwent, as well as interviews with Ron Eldard who played Durant. The documentary also features many of the real life people. It's really good. The first disk includes two versions of the film plus audio commentaries by Ridley Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Bowden, and Ken Nolan who wrote the screenplay. The other is one from Tom Matthews, Lee Van Arsdale, Matt Eversmann, and Danny McKnight who do an historical commentary. That one is my favourite. They share a lot of information about the raid and the part where Shughart and Gordon are shot is pretty visceral for the men.