Gary Gordon & Randy Shughart Vignette

Decades of lawless, inter-clan warfare had reduced the East African nation of Somalia to a level of chaos, poverty, and death seldom witnessed in recorded history. Eighty percent of international relief supplies, mainly food for the starving population, was stolen by warlords – much of which was traded away for more and more weapons – all of which lead to the starvation death of over 300,000 Somalis.

After years of international diplomatic and military initiatives failed to restore order and following the brutal slaying of U.S. military personnel and Western journalists, on October 3, 1993 America’s elite Delta Force launched an assault on the Somali capital of Mogadishu to capture and bring to justice the infamous warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

While the story has been made famous in the film “Blackhawk Down”, the bravery and self-sacrafice of the men of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment in the furious hours of the Battle of Mogadishu – and their commitment to rid the Somali people of a vicious warlord – was nowhere better displayed than by the actions of Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt First Class Randy Shughart.

Shughart and Gordon were providing sniper cover from the air after the 2nd Blackhawk helicopter, Super Six Four, was shot down, with its critically wounded crew defenseless against the raging hoards converging on them. Shughart and Gordon repeatedly requested to be dropped at the crash site to save the crew only to have their requests denied by mission commanders because the situation on the ground was hopelessly dangerous.

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Finally their requests were approved. When Shughart and Gordon reached the downed Blackhawk, they extracted the wounded crew and defended them from attacks in all directions. Alone against an ever-growing enemy force – with only their personal weapons and side arms – Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon, in the finest tradition of the American soldier – inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy til their ammunition was gone and they were overrun and killed by enemy fire.

On May 23, 1994, Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor – the first recipients of the Medal since the Vietnam War.