On this day in 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu started. Also known as the Day of the Rangers, the day and a half gun battle started out as an operation to snatch Mohammed Farah Aidid’s foreign minister, Omar Salad Elmim and his top political advisor, Mohamed Hassan Awale.
The mission plan was a simple one, yet doomed from the start.
The 1st SFOD-D elements of Taskforce Ranger was to insert via MH-6 Little Birds and secure the targets inside the building. Four chalks of Rangers would fast-rope from UH-60 Blackhawks and create a 4 corner defensive perimeter around the target building. A 12 vehicle Ranger convoy was then to make its way to the target building and exfiltrate the entire team.
The mission kicked off around 1400 local time, with the first Little Birds hitting the target building at 1542. The Blackhawks carrying the Ranger chalks arrived shortly after and the first of the many instances of bad luck struck. Ranger PFC Todd Blackburn fell nearly 70 feet while fast-roping from Super six-seven. Blackburn’s injuries required him to be evacuated immediately, and a three vehicle convoy commanded by SGT Jeff Streucker was tasked. It was during that evac the first casualty occurred. SGT Dominick Pilla, assigned to Streucker’s HMMWV, was struck in the head by a bullet.
Things only got worse from there. At 1620 Blackhawk Super six-one was shot down by a somali RPG. CW3 Cliff “Elvis” Wolcott and CW3 Donovan “Bull” Briley were killed in the crash. Two of the crew chiefs, Staff Sgt. Ray Dowdy and Staff Sgt. Charlie Warren, were severely wounded. Staff Sergeant Daniel Busch and Sergeant Jim Smith, both Delta snipers, survived the crash and began defending the site. An MH-6, Star 41, piloted by CW3 Karl Maier and CW5 Keith Jones, landed nearby. Jones and Maier evacuated Busch and Smith. Busch later died of his injuries, having been shot four times while defending the crash site.
Twenty minutes later a second Blackhawk, Super six-four was shot down by an rpg. Co-pilot CW04 Raymond “Ironman” Alex Frank and crew chiefs SSG William “Wild Bill” David Cleveland, Jr. and SSG Thomas “Tommie” J. Field were killed in the crash. Pilot CW03 Michael Durant survived the crash, but was badly injured. Delta snipers SFC Randy Shugart and MSG Gary Gordon, aboard Blackhawk Super six-two, requested permission to secure the site. They were finally granted permission after their third request. Despite the overwhelming odds, the pair managed to hold off the somalis for about an hour. After Gordon was killed, Shugart collected his weapon and gave it to Durant, saying simply, Gordon is gone. Shugart held off the somalis for another 10 minutes before he was killed. The somalis overran the crash site. They beat Durant nearly to death before taking him captive. Shugart and Gordon were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions that day.
I am going to digress for a paragraph or two here before we continue the story. The mission did not have to go the way it did. Why do I say that? The snatch kicked off in the middle of the afternoon. That was a poor choice for a couple of reasons.
There is a reason the 160th SOAR are called the Nightstalkers. The combat arms branches of the US military do a lot, and I mean a lot, of night time training. They do it for a reason. So we can own the night. Had the raid gone off in the middle of the night, much of what happpened wouldn’t have, couldn’t have happened.
There was/is also a little thing called khat. I don’t have the time or inclination to explain exactly what it is, but a quick google search will give you all the info you need and more. Suffice to say it is a narcotic plant that grows wild in the area and was/is in common use in Mogadishu. Mid to late afternoon is the peak of the Khat cycle. So in otherwords, the mission kicked off just when the militiamen were high as kites.
Now back to our story. . .
While all this was going on, an international relief column was being organized. It wouldn’t roll until nearly 0100 on the 4th, as the on scene commanders wanted to move out into the city in force. The relief force consisted of 2 companies of 10th mountain division infantry, Malaysian Condor APCs, Pakistani M-48 tanks and other vehicles.
The convoy arrived at the first crash site at 0200 and the evac began. It wouldn’t be complete until 0630.
Before we end this story, I have to tell you about the “Mogadishu Mile”. It did not happen as it was portrayed in the movie. The troops involved, Delta, Rangers and 10th Mountain, did not run all the way to the stadium but instead moved in tactical formation to a rally point about a mile from the crash site. What is true is that the vehicles were supposed to provide cover for the troops but instead sped away.
The immediate aftermath of the battle was horrific. Images of the bodies of US servicemen being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu and the videos of Michael Durant while in captivity were all over the news. It took 11 days to get Durant released and several more days to get the bodies of the fallen US troops back. All of the bodies had been defiled in some way, and one came back without a head, which has never been recovered.
Below is a list of those killed during the battle, or of wounds sustained during the battle.
| Name | Age | Action | Medal(s) Awarded (Posthumously) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operators of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta | |||
| MSG Gary Ivan Gordon | 33 | Killed defending Super Six-Four‘s crew | Medal of Honor, Purple Heart[27] |
| SFC Randy Shughart | 35 | Killed defending Super Six-Four‘s crew | Medal of Honor, Purple Heart[27] |
| SSG Daniel Darrell Busch | 25 | Sniper on crashed UH-60 Helicopter Super Six-One, mortally wounded defending the downed crew | Silver Star, Purple Heart[61] |
| SFC Earl Robert Fillmore, Jr. | 28 | Killed moving to the first crash site | Silver Star, Purple Heart[64] |
| MSG Timothy Lynn Martin | 38 | Mortally wounded by an RPG on the Lost Convoy, died while en route to a field hospital in Germany | Silver Star, Purple Heart.[65] |
| SFC Matthew Loren Rierson | 33 | Killed by stray mortar shell that landed near him Oct. 6, 2 days after the initial raid | Silver Star, Bronze star, Purple Heart.[66] |
| Soldiers of the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment | |||
| CPL James “Jamie” E. Smith | 21 | Killed around crash site one | Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device and Oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart[67] |
| SPC James M. Cavaco | 26 | Killed on the Lost Convoy | Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart[68] |
| SGT James Casey Joyce | 24 | Killed on the Lost Convoy | Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart[68] |
| CPL Richard “Alphabet” W. Kowalewski, Jr. | 20 | Killed on the Lost Convoy by an RPG | Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart[69] |
| SGT Dominick M. Pilla | 21 | Killed on Struecker’s convoy | Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart[69] |
| SGT Lorenzo M. Ruiz | 27 | Mortally wounded on the Lost Convoy, died en route to a field hospital in Germany | Bronze Star with Valor Device, Purple Heart[69] |
| Pilots and Crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment | |||
| SSG William “Wild Bill” David Cleveland, Jr. | 34 | Crew chief on Super Six-Four, killed | Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart[70] |
| SSG Thomas “Tommie” J. Field | 25 | Crew chief on Super Six-Four, killed | Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart |
| CW4 Raymond “Ironman” Alex Frank | 45 | Super Six-Four‘s copilot, killed | Silver Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart[71] |
| CW3 Clifton “Elvis” P. Wolcott | 36 | Super Six-One‘s pilot, died in crash | Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart[70] |
| CW3 Donovan “Bull” Lee Briley | 33 | Super Six-One‘s copilot, died in crash | Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart[72] |
| Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division | |||
| SGT Cornell Lemont Houston, Sr. 1st Platoon, C Company, 41st Engr BN | 31 | Member of the “Lost Platoon”. Wounded by shrapnel from an RPG whilst recovering a severely wounded Malaysian soldier on the rescue convoy.[73] Also shot in the leg and chest.[74] Died of wounds at Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center.[75] | Bronze Star with Valor Device, de Fleury Medal, Purple Heart[76] |
| PFC James Henry Martin, Jr. | 23 | Member of 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Company A.[77] Killed on the rescue convoy by a bullet to the head.[74] | Purple Heart[78] |