The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Task Force Ranger: Mogadishu, Somalia - (10/3/1993) - Oct. 1st, 2004

Army Ranger.com ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

Task Force Ranger:
Mogadishu, Somalia

In 1993, the Rangers were once again called into harm's way in support of the United Nation's efforts to establish order in the African nation of Somalia. On 6 June, the U.N. Security Council...with U.S. sponsorship and approval...passed Resolution 837, calling for the apprehension "for prosecution, trial, and punishment" of those responsible for the ambush and death of twenty-four Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers and to use "all necessary measures" to install United Nations authority "throughout Somalia." It was determined that 'War Lord' Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his SNA were responsible for the ambush and a plan was developed to bring about his capture.

On June 17, an arrest order was issued by the United Nations and, as a result, Aidid went into hiding deep within Mogadishu. Efforts by U.N. units in country failed to capture him. U.N ambassador to Somalia, U.S. Admiral (Retired) Jonathan Howe, eventually requested 1st Special Operational Detachment-Delta...the premier three-squadron U.S. counter terrorism unit known as Delta Force to the public...to assist in Aidid's capture. President Clinton eventually approved the request to send in the specialized unit.

The U.S. deployed Task Force Ranger, a 450-man force composed of approximately sixty men from the one-hundred-and-fifty-man Squadron C of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta; B Company (Reinforced), 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment from; and support helicopters from the Army's 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)...the world's finest night fliers known as the "Night Stalkers."


Mohamed Farrah Aidid

Task Force Rangers' advance party arrived in Somalia on 26 August. The task force set up base on the shore of the Indian Ocean at the Mogadishu Airport on the far southern end of the city. The operation was to be conducted in three phases: Phase I, lasting until 30 August, was to get set up; Phase II, lasting until 7 September, would focus exclusively on locating and capturing Aidid; and Phase III...in the event Phase II failed, the focus would shift to Aidid's command structure with the intent of forcing the warlord to take a more active and open role with his forces.

In spite of a number of handicaps, Task Force Ranger attempted to seize and to maintain the initiative by planning and launching a number of raids that proved to be unsuccessful. On 7 September, the force moved to Phase III and expanded its target list to include six of Aidid's top lieutenants and staff. Despite some Ranger success, Aidid continued his defiance even as the task force attempted to track him down with additional ambushes and killings of U.N. forces.




The seventh and final mission of Task Force Ranger commenced at approximately 1300 on 3 October when a Somali agent passed word that a number of Aidid's lieutenants, including two of the six on the expanded target list...Muhammed Hassan Awale and Omar Salad Elmi...would be meeting later that afternoon.

The mark was in the vicinity of the Olympic Hotel...a white, five-story building that served as a landmark since it was one of the few large buildings left intact in the city. HawlwadigRoad, intersected by narrow dirt alleys, ran in front of the hotel and was one of the few paved roads in the city. Across Hawlwadig, one block north, was...what would turn out to be...the ultimate target house, a two-sectioned building with two stories in the front, three stories in the rear, and a flat roof on both. L-shaped, the structure had a small courtyard enclosed by a high stonewall.




Just three blocks to the west of the hotel was the Bakara Market...the most heavily armed region of Mogadishu. This area was known by soldiers as "the Black Sea" and was referred to as real "Indian country." The assault force was formidable and consisted of seventy-five Rangers and forty Delta soldiers onboard an air armada of sixteen helicopters. The Delta and Ranger assault force would be inserted by four MH-6 and six MH-60 Black Hawks with four AH-6J Little Birds providing close air support.

In that the target area was too confining and too dangerous to land helicopters to extract the prisoners..."precious packages"...and assault force, a fifty-two-man Ranger ground element...including some Delta operatives and Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six...was to deploy from the airport in a twelve-vehicle convoy on a three-mile journey in direct support of the operation.


Michael Durant's helicopter heading out over Mogadishu on Oct. 3, 1993. Mike Goodale rode on this one.

The helicopters lifted off at 1532 after a thirty-seven minute delay. Taking a circuitous flight from their staging base just three miles away from the objective and moving low and fast over the ocean's breakers, the aircraft made a dash over the city, with the MH-6s carrying four Deltas, two to a side, on their external benches. Rapidly landing on Hawlwadig Road in a billowing swirl of rust-orange dust that created some significant visibility problems, a group of six helicopters, composed of four MH-6 Little Birds and two Black Hawks, inserted forty Delta soldiers on the road in front of the building. Simultaneously, sixty Rangers were inserted into the objective by 'fast-rope' to establish a security perimeter between the four corners of the target's city block.

The mission's "precious cargo," twenty-four prisoners, including the two primary men they had sought, had been quickly captured and the Ranger twelve-vehicle ground convoy was called at the twenty-minute mark to make its way to their location from their hold position approximately 200 meters from the objective. As the ground convoy picked up the prisoners in front of the building, enemy fire began to gain in intensity. A convoy of three vehicles was dispatched with an injured Ranger to make its way back to the airfield. The three vehicles came under such heavy fire that they barely made it.




The situation grew progressively worse at the objective around 1610 when the first Rocket Propelled Grenades...RPGs...were fired at circling helicopters. Finally, at 1620, the strategy paid off with a hit on the tail rotor of the lead assault Black Hawk, "Super 61" that brought it crashing down on the roof of a house located within a walled compound. The Black Hawk fell to earth on its left side, its top wedged against the remains of a wall in a narrow alley, its nose to the ground. Within, the pilot lay dead, the five others aboard lay injured.

Having rehearsed the possibility of an aircraft going down, the task force quickly implemented three contingency plans: provide cover with a nearby CSAR Black Hawk, Super 68, deploy the main body of Task Force Ranger from the objective to the crash site, and alert the Quick Reaction Force from the 10th Mountain Division to deploy from its location at the Somali National University to the Mogadishu Airport, from where it could launch to support CSAR missions.



On the ground at the objective, the Rangers on the perimeter began to move to the location of the downed Black Hawk with the Delta operatives doing the same soon after the transfer of the prisoners to the ground convoy. At the crash site, survivors were attempting to establish a defense while a Little Bird courageously set down in a nearby alley called Freedom Road to extract two survivors.

The first group of Rangers arrived at the crash site after completing a terrifying run of over three blocks with bullets boring down the alleys from every direction. Eight minutes after Super 61 going down, the CSAR Black Hawk, carrying fifteen members of a highly trained combat search-and-rescue unit was hovering over and fast-roping down to Freedom Road. Hit by an RPG and trailing a thin gray haze of smoke, the mortally wounded CSAR bird barely made its way back to the airfield three miles away where it crash landed.


The pilots and crew of Super 64.

As the remainder of the Rangers and Delta made their way to the Super 61 crash site, it was discovered that the remains of the pilot were trapped in his seat. The real problem became how to get the body out, for there appeared no easy way to reclaim it. Abandoning their aviation comrade was not an option for the Rangers or Delta as arriving groups expanded and fortified a security perimeter around the downed helicopter.

It did not take long for the situation to dramatically worsen when an RPG claimed that second victim less than twenty minutes after the first. Overhead, Super 64 had been directed to take Super 61's orbital spot over the target area when it, too, took an RPG round to the tail. Within minutes, the rotor failed and the aircraft plummeted impacting on top of a frail shack.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am

[Valin]

MSG Gary Gordon


Rank & Organization: Master Sergeant, USASOC,
Task Force Ranger; 1st SFOD-D, Squadron C

Date & Location: Sunday, 3 October 1993, Mogadishu, Somalia

Place & Date of Birth: Lincoln, Maine, 30 Aug 1960



Citation: Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fires from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.

After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew.

After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck." Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon, his unit and the United States Army.






More Details


During a raid in Mogadishu on 3 October 1993, MSG. Gary Gordon and SFC. Randall Shughart, leader and member of a sniper team with Task Force Ranger in Somalia, were providing precision and suppressive fires from helicopters above two helicopter crash sites. Learning that no ground forces were available to rescue one of the downed aircrews and aware that a growing number of enemy were closing in on the site, MSG. Gordon and SFC. Shughart volunteered to be inserted to protect their critically wounded comrades. Their initial request was turned down because of the danger of the situation. They asked a second time; permission was denied. Only after their third request were they inserted.

MSG. Gordon and SFC. Shughart were inserted one hundred meters south of the downed chopper. Armed only with their personal weapons, the two NCOs fought their way to the downed fliers through intense small arms fire, a maze of shanties and shacks, and the enemy converging on the site. After MSG. Gordon and SFC. Shughart pulled the wounded from the wreckage, they established a perimeter, put themselves in the most dangerous position, and fought off a series of attacks. The two NCOs continued to protect their comrades until they had depleted their ammunition and were themselves fatally wounded. Their actions saved the life of an Army pilot.

No one will ever know what was running through the minds of MSG. Gordon and SFC. Shughart as they left the comparative safety of their helicopter to go to the aid of the downed aircrew. The two NCOs knew there was no ground rescue force available, and they certainly knew there was no going back to their helicopter. They may have suspected that things would turn out as they did; nonetheless, they did what they believed to be the right thing. They acted based on Army values, which they had clearly made their own: loyalty to their fellow soldiers; the duty to stand by them, regardless of the circumstances; the personal courage to act, even in the face of great danger; selfless service, the willingness to give their all. MSG. Gary I. Gordon and SFC. Randall D. Shughart lived Army values to the end; they were posthumously awarded Medals of Honor.

Before being assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command, MSG Gordon served with the 2d Battalion, 10th SFG(A) at Fort Devens, MA. His awards included the Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, two Joint Service Achievement Medals and four Good Conduct Medals. He was also authorized to wear the Combat Infantryman Badge, Master Airborne wings, Ranger tab, Special Forces tab, French Army Mountaineering Badge, the Royal Danish Parachutist Badge and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.






No greater love.

[snippy_about_it]

No greater love.

Amen.

Thank you Valin.

[snippy_about_it]

...standing in awe of Sergeants Shugart and Gordon, the very epitome of the NCO corps.

Well said ct. Many times I know we all feel the unexplicable combination of sadness and pride reading about our troops.

[snippy_about_it]

I'll never understand why we just watch such atrocities...

It is hard. Especially when we know we have the power,equipment and better technology than any third world enemy.

[alfa6]

Did ya notice that rome8 signed up 9/24/2004?

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Yeah, after I said, Huh? Then I decided to see what else he/she/it had posted. All the same and I swear, I don't have the codes!!!

[Valin]

rome8 Troll?

I read it 3 times, and it still doesn't make any sense. Weather this is good or bad I make no comment.

[Valin]

her left (injured) leg had as good "range of motion" & strength as the right one.

Well that's good. Now someone (unnamed) can get kicked in the butt with both legs. :-)

[Samwise]

I've never seen the movie. I wish I hadn't read this. God rest their souls.

[Soaring Feather]

Hi snippy and Sam, all,


I'm home! Whew what a day, I am tired out. Sales were okay and hope to do better tomorrow.

Nice banquet and it was grand having a couple of my girls with me. We heard wonderful Finn Folk music, a piano concert, had Tango dancers and lots of other entertainment. I won a basket of cheese and wine. We had filled 6 baskets as raffle items. I gave the wine to the girls. The baskets were all different, a bath basket, a Made in New York basket, a Bird basket, a Gentleman's basket and can't remember the other one. I had a great time, but am glad to be home. Have to do it all again tomorrow.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Valin.

They had to know what the chances were and they went anyway, that's what heroes are made of.

[SAMWolf]

Sounds more like someone is off their meds.

[SAMWolf]

It's a good movie. It'll make you feel good, sad and pissed off all at the same time.

[SAMWolf]

Finn Fun Finishes Feather For Friday. :-)

[Soaring Feather]

ROTLMAO!!!!

Now you have to work one up using Saturday!!

[PhilDragoo]

I saw "Blackhawk Down" with Hank and Erika Holzer.

I had just read that Clinton had expelled our Ambassador and broke up the good operation the ambassador had with our Marines.

Putting our people into a mission creep under the deathwish deadstick loser umbrella of the UN without armor and air power is treasonous.

Spectre would have created wide swaths of safety (for us) and death (for Aidad's cockroaches).

Armor a la the Thunder Run would have been appropriate.

Clinton should have been drug through the streets of Mogadishu, not the finest fighting force on earth.

We will re-elect Bush and send Kerry as our Sudan plenipotentiary armed with all the weapons systems he voted for over the last twenty years.

Jean-FOS Keri as Shambo, with bandeliers of spitballs.

[SAMWolf]

Sunny Scandinavian Saturday Satisfies Sonnet Sales ;-)