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1st SFOD-D
MSG Gary Gordon Killed defending the crew of Super Six-Four Medal of Honor
SFC Randy Shughart Killed defending the crew of Super Six-Four Medal of Honor
SSG Daniel Busch Crashed on Super Six-One, died from wounds received defending the downed crew Silver Star
SFC Earl Fillmore Killed moving to the first crash site Silver Star
SFC Matt Rierson Killed on October 6, 1993 by a mortar which landed just outside the hangar Silver Star
MSG Tim "Griz" Martin Died from wounds received on the Lost Convoy Silver Star and Purple Heart.
3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment
CPL Jamie Smith Died of wounds with the pinned-down force around crash site one Bronze Star with Valor Device and Oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart
SPC James Cavaco Killed on the Lost Convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device
SGT Casey Joyce Killed on the Lost Convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device
PFC Richard "Alphabet" Kowalewski Killed on the Lost Convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device
SGT Dominick Pilla Killed on Struecker's convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device
SGT Lorenzo Ruiz Killed on the Lost Convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device
160th SOAR (Nightstalkers)
SSG William Cleveland Crew chief on Super Six-Four-killed Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device
SSG Thomas Field Crew chief on Super Six-Four-killed Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device
CW4 Raymond Frank Copilot of Super Six-Four-killed Silver Star, Air Medal with Valor Device
CW3 Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott Pilot of Super Six-One and died in crash Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device
CW2 Donovan "Bull" Briley Copilot of Super Six-One and died in crash Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valor Device
2nd Battalion 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade 10th Mountain Division
SGT Cornell Houston Killed on the rescue convoy Bronze Star with Valor Device, de Fleury Medal
PFC James Martin Killed on the rescue convoy Purple Heart
You should go get a copy of In the Company of Heroes by Mike Durant.
Here's a story about the two MOH recipeints. Long, but worth the read...
Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart
The situation was grim on the afternoon of October 3rd, 1993. Things had been fucked from the beginning – what was supposed to have been a routine, thirty-minute raid to bust in and snatch the brutal Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid from the confines of his Mogadishu hideout quickly devolved into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. One Black Hawk helicopter had already been shot down – hit by a salvo of RPG fire, stranding teams of U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives on the ground deep inside enemy territory, surrounded by people actively trying to kill them. The entire city had completely exploded into a full-blown warzone in the span of a little less than an hour, as men from Aidid's militia rushed out from buildings across the city, armed to the teeth with assault rifles, pistols, rocket-propelled grenades, and whatever other nasty weaponry they could get their hands on. And now, just because things weren't fucked-up enough already, a second Black Hawk – one that had been sent in to provide assistance with this rapidly-degenerating situation – had also taken an RPG to the tail rotor and was now spewing black smoke as it crash-landed in a residential neighborhood dozens of blocks from the battle.
As Warrant Officer Michael Durant's Black Hawk, code named Super Six-Four, smashed down in a cloud of dust and smoke, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart watched helplessly from the deck of their Black Hawk as it maneuvered over to the crash site. These elite Delta Force snipers had initially been assigned to provide precision air-to-ground fire support to the operation, but now with Super Six-Four sitting helplessly in the middle of enemy territory like a six-million-dollar sitting duck, its crew all either dead or critically wounded, the herculean task had suddenly fallen on them – and them alone – to provide covering fire and keep any surviving crew members alive until a ground team could arrive and secure the area.
But the cavalry wasn't coming any time soon. Gordon and Shughart knew that as they looked out across the burning cityscape of Mogadishu. They knew that fewer than a hundred Rangers and Delta operatives were currently pinned down on the other side of the city, fighting for their lives, surrounded by thousands of well-armed Somali militia troops with explosives and heavy machine guns. The U.S. convoy that had been sent to rescue the stranded soldiers had been hammered by RPG fire from city windows, and they weren't making any progress through the maze of city streets that had been expertly blockaded by Aidid's men. Super Six-Four was completely cut off, and now a growing mob of AK47-toting militia was sprinting down the streets of Mogadishu, making a beeline towards the smashed helicopter and her severely battered crew.
Looking down at the wreckage of the Black Hawk, watching helplessly as Warrant Officer Durant sitting there in the pilot's chair of the crippled machine desperately fighting for his life, trying to pick off swarms of marauding militia men with an MP5 submachine gun set on single-shot fire, Delta Force sniper team leader Gary Gordon made the toughest call any man could possibly make.
He was going down there.
With the crowd rapidly closing in, and realizing that there was no chance for the downed pilot to survive the oncoming tidal wave of gunslinging humanity, Sergeant Gordon boldly requested to be placed on the ground so that he and Sergeant Shughart could set up a defensive perimeter and protect the downed helicopter and her crew. His request was denied. Twice. It was too dangerous, the commander argued, which is seriously fucking saying something considering that Sergeant Gordon's current job involved shooting a sniper rifle out of a moving helicopter while ground troops launched RPGs and shot AK-47s at him. But this was too much. He was volunteering for a suicide mission. Gandalf wasn't going to ride in on a white horse and save the day with a blinding flash of light. They were going to be going in alone.
But Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart couldn't just sit there and do nothing while wounded Americans were down there fighting for their lives against impossible odds.
On his third request, Gordon received permission to hit the ground and take the attack in.
"It was terribly risky, maybe even hopeless. But one or two properly-armed, well-trained soldiers could hold off an undisciplined mob indefinitely. Shughart and Gordon were experts at killing and staying alive. They were serious, career soldiers, trained to get hard, ugly things done. They saw opportunity where others could see only danger. Like the other operators, they prided themselves on staying cool and effective even in extreme danger. They lived and trained endlessly for moments like this. If there were a chance to succeed, these two believed they would."
The situation was grim on the afternoon of October 3rd, 1993. Things had been fucked from the beginning – what was supposed to have been a routine, thirty-minute raid to bust in and snatch the brutal Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid from the confines of his Mogadishu hideout quickly devolved into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. One Black Hawk helicopter had already been shot down – hit by a salvo of RPG fire, stranding teams of U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force operatives on the ground deep inside enemy territory, surrounded by people actively trying to kill them. The entire city had completely exploded into a full-blown warzone in the span of a little less than an hour, as men from Aidid's militia rushed out from buildings across the city, armed to the teeth with assault rifles, pistols, rocket-propelled grenades, and whatever other nasty weaponry they could get their hands on. And now, just because things weren't fucked-up enough already, a second Black Hawk – one that had been sent in to provide assistance with this rapidly-degenerating situation – had also taken an RPG to the tail rotor and was now spewing black smoke as it crash-landed in a residential neighborhood dozens of blocks from the battle.
As Warrant Officer Michael Durant's Black Hawk, code named Super Six-Four, smashed down in a cloud of dust and smoke, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart watched helplessly from the deck of their Black Hawk as it maneuvered over to the crash site. These elite Delta Force snipers had initially been assigned to provide precision air-to-ground fire support to the operation, but now with Super Six-Four sitting helplessly in the middle of enemy territory like a six-million-dollar sitting duck, its crew all either dead or critically wounded, the herculean task had suddenly fallen on them – and them alone – to provide covering fire and keep any surviving crew members alive until a ground team could arrive and secure the area.
But the cavalry wasn't coming any time soon. Gordon and Shughart knew that as they looked out across the burning cityscape of Mogadishu. They knew that fewer than a hundred Rangers and Delta operatives were currently pinned down on the other side of the city, fighting for their lives, surrounded by thousands of well-armed Somali militia troops with explosives and heavy machine guns. The U.S. convoy that had been sent to rescue the stranded soldiers had been hammered by RPG fire from city windows, and they weren't making any progress through the maze of city streets that had been expertly blockaded by Aidid's men. Super Six-Four was completely cut off, and now a growing mob of AK47-toting militia was sprinting down the streets of Mogadishu, making a beeline towards the smashed helicopter and her severely battered crew.
Looking down at the wreckage of the Black Hawk, watching helplessly as Warrant Officer Durant sitting there in the pilot's chair of the crippled machine desperately fighting for his life, trying to pick off swarms of marauding militia men with an MP5 submachine gun set on single-shot fire, Delta Force sniper team leader Gary Gordon made the toughest call any man could possibly make.
He was going down there.
"Without a doubt, I owe my life to these two men and their bravery.
Those guys came in when they had to know it was a losing battle.
There was nobody else left to back them up. If they had not come in, I wouldn't have survived."
Those guys came in when they had to know it was a losing battle.
There was nobody else left to back them up. If they had not come in, I wouldn't have survived."
But Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart couldn't just sit there and do nothing while wounded Americans were down there fighting for their lives against impossible odds.
On his third request, Gordon received permission to hit the ground and take the attack in.
"I never saw where they came from, but they had to come from the rear, otherwise I would have seen them approach. It was a surreal feeling. I mean it was like this awful situation that you just realized your in is now suddenly over."
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