Helicopters pickup
Helicopters flown by the church freely to pick up Willis and others and then all the way back. Why didn't they pick them up by the church itself? The place didn't look like it was impossible to land there.
shareAnd why the hell they did daylight pick up?
´´This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time´´
Well, if you want to explore logic, why send in a special warfare unit instead of a Marine platoon, given nothing in their briefing indicated they were making a hostage rescue? Even if they couldn't land in the immediate area, they could have fast-roped in troops to secure the mission compound, then escort everyone to an LZ. It's a fairly standard mission for Marines.
Also, why didn't they have a security team at the LZ? They had gunship support, but no one to secure the LZ for the extraction? Then, when the extraction doesn't achieve the objective, we are led to believe they wouldn't send in a second flight, complete with fighter escort? Yeah, they said they were taking fire, but it's Nigerian rebels vs US fighter planes. Nigeria has a pretty strong military force and modern equipment (for Africa); but, they don't have the same level of experience. It just ends up being a convenient plot point.
Historically, the Marines are tasked with evacuating US civilians from a hot zone, such as during the Liberian conflict a few years back. Special Operations is usually reserved for a hostage rescue or for capturing a high profile target (or assassination, as with Bin Laden).
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"