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The 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, more commonly known as Black Hawk Down, was detailed by the U.S. Army and lasted from October 3 to October 4 in 1993.
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| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2013) |
The 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, more commonly known as Black Hawk Down, was detailed by the U.S. Army and lasted from October 3 to October 4 in 1993.
13:50 – Task Force Ranger analysts receive intelligence of Salad's location.
14:49 – Habr Gidr clan leaders, two principal targets, and the United Nations Corporation are located at a residence in central Mogadishu, Somalia.
15:32 – Official force launch, consisting of 19 aircraft, twelve vehicles, and 160 men.
15:42 – Official assault begins. 1st SFOD-D soldiers hit the target house. Four-Ranger "chalk" "fast-rope" in. A Ranger, Private First Class Todd Blackburn, misses the rope and falls 70 feet to the street.
15:47 – Large crowds of Somalis begin converging on the target area.
15:58 – One of the vehicles, a five-ton truck, is hit and disabled by a rocket propelled grenade.
16:00 – Groups of armed Somalis from the city of Mogadishu begin converging on the target area.
16:02 – Raid targets captured: Assault force reports both clan leaders and about 21 others were in custody. As the force prepares to pull out, three vehicles are detached to rush the wounded Private Blackburn back to the base. SGT Dominick Pilla is killed as these vehicles return to base, becoming the first American fatality.
16:15 – The convoy is delayed and does not move out due to confusion about who is signaling whom. It turned out that Delta was waiting for the convoy to originate the signal to them while the convoy was waiting for Delta to initiate the signal to them. The prisoners were eventually loaded after the Delta teams moved the prisoners to the trucks.
16:20 – First helicopter crash: Black Hawk Super 6-1 is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed five blocks northeast[ verification needed ] of the target building. Delta Force snipers SSG Daniel Busch and SGT Jim Smith, survive the crash and begin to defend the crash site.
16:22 – Crowds of armed Somalis start racing towards the Super 6-1 crash site.
16:26 – A Humvee convoy starts moving. When the prisoners are loaded up, the convoy and ground forces all begin moving towards the crashed helicopter. Black Hawk Super 6-4, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, takes the place of Black Hawk Super 6-1 circling over the city.
16:28 – Search and rescue of Black Hawk Super 6-1: search and rescue team ropes in to assist the crew of the first crashed helicopter. Both pilot and co-pilot were dead. Two of the crew chiefs, Staff Sgt. Ray Dowdy and Staff Sgt. Charlie Warren, were severely wounded.
16:35 – The Convoy made a wrong turn and got lost among the city streets, sustaining heavy casualties by Somali snipers and armed militia.
16:40 – Second helicopter crash: Mike Durant's Black Hawk, Super 6–4, is also hit by a Somali rocket propelled grenade, and crashed about a mile southwest[ verification needed ] of the target building. Hostile crowds of Somalians begin moving toward it as well.
16:42 – Two Delta Force snipers, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, who had been providing cover fire by air were inserted into the crash site by helicopter at their own request, to help protect the injured Durant and his crew.
16:54 – HMMWV convoy abandons Black Hawk Super 6-1 search. The Lost Convoy, with more than half of its force either wounded or dead, abandons its search for the first downed Black Hawk and begins fighting its way back to the base.
17:03 – Quick Reaction Force convoy (a smaller, emergency convoy) is dispatched from Command and Control in an attempt to rescue the men stranded at Durant's crash site. It encounters immediate obstacles.
17:34 – QRF and the Lost Convoy decided to return to base. Both convoys, having sustained heavy casualties, linked up and abandon the efforts to break through to Durant. The remainder of the ground force of Rangers and commandos were converging around the first crash site, sustaining many casualties. Ranger Corporal Jamie Smith is among those shot.
17:40 – Snipers Shughart and Gordon run out of ammunition and are killed when hostile Somalis overrun Durant's crash site. Every member of the crew are dead, except for Durant, who suffered a broken leg and injured back. Durant is carried off by militia (He was eventually released to the Red Cross, 11 days later.) During Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia, Durant was the pilot of helicopter "Super Six Four." It was the second MH-60L of two Black Hawk helicopters to crash during the Battle of Mogadishu on October 3, 1993. His helicopter was hit on the tail by a rocket-propelled grenade. That led to its crash about a mile southwest of the operation's target. [1] [2] (Both Gordon and Shughart received the Medal of Honor posthumously for their heroism in this action.) [3]
17:45 – Both convoys return to the base. Ninety-nine men remain trapped and surrounded in the city around the first downed Black Hawk. Corporal Smith is bleeding heavily, medic requests immediate evacuation.
19:08 – Black Hawk Super 6-6 makes a daring re-supply run, dropping water, ammunition and medical supplies to the trapped force. It is badly damaged, cannot land to evacuate Corporal Smith, and limps back to base.
20:27 – Ranger Corporal Jamie Smith dies.
21:00 – Joint Task Force Command requests assistance from other commands. The Rescue Convoy, composed of two companies of 10th Mt. Division troops along with the remainder of Task Force Ranger, Pakistani tanks and Malaysian armored vehicles, is formed at Mogadishu's New Port, and begins planning the rescue.
23:23 – The rescue convoy moves out, but as it approaches the crash site there is a large explosion which severely damages the convoy and makes the rescue almost impossible. However, a stockpile of rocket-propelled grenades in the city allows them to be used to great effect. A large proportion of the population is affected by power outages due to the Americans' destroying electrical substations in Mogadishu.
At Midnight 00:00 (24:00), the Rangers are still trapped inside Mogadishu without essential equipment, such as night vision devices.
01:55 — Rescue convoy reaches the trapped Ranger force. A second half of the convoy reaches the site of Durant's downed Black Hawk. Durant and his crew are missing.
03:00 — Forces are still struggling to remove the pinned body of Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott, pilot of downed Super Six One.
05:30 — Rangers start moving from the city to the Pakistani Stadium, on foot. Wolcott's body is finally recovered. Vehicles roll out of the city. Elements of the Rangers are left to run to a rendez-vous point on National Street, covering the vehicles whilst enduring gunfire during the exfiltration. The road they take is known as the Mogadishu Mile.
06:30 — The force returns to the Pakistani Stadium. 13 Americans are confirmed dead or mortally wounded, 73 injured, and 6 missing in action (5 are later confirmed dead, raising the death toll to 18, and 1 taken prisoner).
A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor which propels the RPG towards the target and they are stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable with new rocket-propelled grenades, while others are single-use. RPGs are generally loaded from the front.
Gary Ivan Gordon was a master sergeant in the United States Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. At the time of his death, he was a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army's premier special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force". Together with his comrade, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, Gordon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993.
Randall David Shughart was a United States Army Delta Force operator who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Mogadishu, during Operation Gothic Serpent in October 1993.
Black Hawk Down is a 2001 war film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, and co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 eponymous non-fiction by journalist Mark Bowden, about the crew of a Black Hawk helicopter that was being shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Piven, Ioan Gruffudd, Ewen Bremner, Hugh Dancy, and Tom Hardy in his first film role. Orlando Bloom, Ty Burrell, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau also have minor roles.
The Battle of Mogadishu, also known as the Black Hawk Down Incident, was part of Operation Gothic Serpent. It was fought on 3–4 October 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States—supported by UNOSOM II—against the forces of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and armed irregular citizens of south Mogadishu.
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR (A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and these missions are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice.
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War is a 1999 book by journalist Mark Bowden. It documents efforts by the Unified Task Force to capture Somali faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid in 1993, and the resulting battle in Mogadishu between United States forces and Aidid's militia. One of the key events is the downing of two United States MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, from which the book derives its title, and the attempt to rescue their crews. United States forces included 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment; 160th SOAR; Delta Force; 24th Special Tactics Squadron; DEVGRU Navy SEALs; 10th Mountain Division; as well as Malaysian and Pakistani United Nations peacekeeping forces.
Michael John Durant is an American veteran, former pilot, businessman, author, and political candidate. He was involved in the "Black Hawk Down" incident while serving as a U.S. Army pilot, and ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the 2022 United States Senate election in Alabama.
Operation Gothic Serpent was a military operation conducted in Mogadishu, Somalia, by an American force code-named Task Force Ranger during the Somali Civil War in 1993. The primary objective of the operation was to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid, leader of the Somali National Alliance who was wanted by the UNOSOM II in response to his attacks against United Nations troops. The operation took place from August to October 1993 and was led by US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
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Michael Dane Steele is a retired colonel of the United States Army. He was a company commander in the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment during the Battle of Mogadishu (1993) in Somalia during Operation Gothic Serpent, which resulted in the now famous book and film Black Hawk Down, wherein he was portrayed by actor Jason Isaacs. He briefly appears in the documentary I Am an American Soldier.
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On 6 August 2011, a U.S. CH-47D Chinook military helicopter operating with the call sign Extortion 17 was shot down while transporting a Quick Reaction Force attempting to reinforce a Joint Special Operations Command unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Tangi Valley in Maidan Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan.
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