MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Army Cpl. Steven Moen came here in December 1992, when U.S. troops believed they were rescuing a nation from hunger.
Three months later he went back to Fort Drum, N.Y., proud of what he had done. But everything changed when Moen returned last October, just after horrific photos of a soldier's corpse being dragged through the streets soured public support for his mission.
Thursday, as Moen played solitaire on a wooden bench inside a steamy airport hangar while waiting for a flight to Dover Air Force Base, Del., he felt only bitterness.
"I didn't need to be here," says Moen, a military intelligence specialist from Anoka, Minn. "They wouldn't let us do our job."
As U.S. presence here wanes - all the remaining 2,729 U.S. troops on the ground will be gone by March 25 - few soldiers feel their tenure here will prevent Somalia from plunging back into anarchy.
"Six months from now," says Moen, "there's going to be a civil war and people will be starving again."
Much of the frustration of departing troops is borne of the defensive stance they've taken since Oct. 3, the day U.S. troops captured 24 Somalis, including key aides of militia leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
But a U.S. helicopter was shot down, and the rescue turned into disaster. During an ensuing 15-hour firefight, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed and 84 wounded. Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant was taken hostage; he was later released.
President Clinton set a March 31 withdrawal deadline and sent in nearly 10,000 troops and heavy armor.
He said the troops would "keep open and secure the key roads . . . so starvation and anarchy do not return." Instead, they holed up in secure camps.
There were no intimidating street patrols of U.S. tanks. U.S. forces built a new road so convoys wouldn't have to travel sniper-riddled city.
In reply, Somalian clans took weapons out of hiding.
The U.S. military's mission eroded into retreat, says Pfc. Robert Feldman of Riverside, N.J. "We should have taken the weapons off the streets," says the infantryman from Fort Drum, here for five months. "We should have gotten even."
As he prepared for the flight home, he tried to erase thoughts of Somalia. Instead, he focused on the Christmas presents he'll finally open and the baby his wife, Gillian, is expecting June 19.
Not everyone believes their stay here was pointless.
"I think it was productive," says Army Staff Sgt. Charles Bailey of Flint, Mich., a communications specialist from Fort Bragg, N.C., who's been here since October.
"We got good medical care to the people," he says. "Politically? Well, no comment. But we did good by being here."
Army Capt. Donna Shaw of Attleboro, Mass., agrees. "We made a decision to come here, so you can't look back," says the logistics specialist from Fort Drum. "If our being here has helped the Somali people in any way, it's worth it. If it takes six months for something good to come of it, it's still worth it."
More common are attitudes like that of Army Spec. Scott Ferguson of Gainesville, Ga. "We were ready to kick ass and we didn't do it," he says. "We could have gone full-scale and fixed this country, but it would have taken years and a lot of people would have died."
Many U.S. troops expect clan feuds to ignite civil war soon. Ferguson, who came here with Fort Drum's armored headquarters company, doesn't care. "I won't even think about it twice."
Bailey believes civil war "would devastate" Somalia. "It saddens me to think of what would happen to the children."
He worries especially about a 16-year-old Somali named Hassan, who swept the floor in his office and became his friend. "It was hard to say goodbye," says Bailey. "I'll always worry about him."
Somalia handed one final frustration for the troops.
After they were handed blue-covered booklets with tips for dealing with their homecomings, after they filed into a giant C-5 cargo plane, carrying souvenir wood walking sticks and clutching bottles of water, after they paused at the top of the stairs for one last glance at the arid landscape, they sat in the plane for an hour.
Then they climbed off: The plane had engine trouble. These soldiers will try today to put Somalia behind them.
