Naval service
Howe's naval commands included the USS Berkeley (DDG-15) (1974–1975),Destroyer Squadron 31 (1977–1978),and Cruiser-Destroyer Group Three (1984–1986). His other assignments include Military Assistant to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1969–1974),Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1975–1977),Chief of Staff of the Seventh Fleet in Yokosuka,Japan (1978–1980),Senior Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1982,Director of the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs from 1982 to 1984,deputy chairman,NATO Military Committee,Brussels,Belgium (1986–1987),Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1987–1989). From May 1989 he served simultaneously as Commander in Chief,Allied Forces Southern Europe and Commander,United States Naval Forces Europe. Following that assignment,he was named Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs by President George H. W. Bush in 1991,succeeding Robert M. Gates when he moved on to become CIA director. [6] He retired from the United States Navy in 1992.
During his time as Deputy Assistant he was directly involved in the pursuit of President Manuel Noriega of Panama. [7] [8]
Service in Somalia and the Bloody Monday attack
In 1992, Howe was selected by the Clinton Administration to head UNOSOM II - the UN operation in Somalia that took over from the US in May in what was described by one American official as "the miscasting of the century." [3] In this capacity he came under criticism for hiding away from the action in his fortified bunker, [7] [3] and for his pursuit of Somali military leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid, which was called a "personal vendetta." [7]
On July 12, 1993, Howe oversaw the event Somalis call Bloody Monday. [3] According to American war correspondent Scott Peterson a group of Somali elders had gathered at a house to discuss a way to make peace to end the violence between Somali militias and the UN forces. [3] The gathering had been publicized in Somali newspapers the day before the attack as a peace gathering. [3] After being tipped off by an undercover operative, American Cobra attack helicopters launched TOW Missiles and 20 mm caliber cannon fire at the structure. [3] According to a Somali survivor, American ground troops killed 15 survivors at close range with pistols, a charge American commanders deny. [3] According to the International Committee of the Red Cross there were over 200 Somali casualties. [2] Four Western journalists were killed at the scene by Somalis following the attacks. [3]
Howe claimed that the mission took out a "very key terrorist planning cell" and that no civilians were killed. He stated "we knew what we were hitting. It was well planned." [3] The event is considered a turning point in the war as Somalis turned from wanting peace to wanting revenge, ultimately leading to the Black Hawk Down Incident. [2] Human Rights Watch declared that the attack "looked like mass murder." [9]
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.
Peter Pace is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace was the first Marine officer appointed as chairman and the first Marine officer to be appointed to three different four-star assignments; the others were as the sixth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2001, to August 12, 2005, and as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Southern Command from September 8, 2000, to September 30, 2001. Appointed chairman by President George W. Bush, Pace succeeded U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers on September 30, 2005.
William Oliver Studeman is a retired admiral of the United States Navy and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, with two extended periods as acting Director of Central Intelligence. As deputy director of Central Intelligence, he served in the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton under three directors of Central Intelligence, Robert Gates, R. James Woolsey Jr., and John M. Deutch. Studeman retired from the navy in 1995 after almost 35 years of service. Between 1988 and 1992 he was director of the National Security Agency; he was the Director of Naval Intelligence, from September 1985 to July 1988.
William James Crowe Jr. was a United States Navy admiral and diplomat who served as the 11th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom and Chair of the Intelligence Oversight Board under President Bill Clinton.
The United Nations Operation in Somalia II was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia and took place from March 1993 until March 1995, following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. UNOSOM II carried on from the transitory United States-controlled (UN-sanctioned) Unified Task Force (UNITAF), which had been preceded by UNOSOM I. Notably, UNOSOM II embarked on a nation-building mission, diverging from its predecessors. As delineated in UNSCR 814, the operation's objectives were to aid in relief provision and economic rehabilitation, foster political reconciliation, and re-establish political and civil administrations across Somalia.
Vice Admiral (ret.) Arthur Karl Cebrowski was a United States Navy admiral. He also who served from October 2001 to January 2005 as Director of the Office of Force Transformation in the U.S. Department of Defense. In this position, he was responsible for serving as an advocate, focal point, and catalyst for the transformation of the United States military.
The Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was a United States-led, United Nations-sanctioned multinational force which operated in Somalia from 5 December 1992 until 4 May 1993. A United States initiative, UNITAF was charged with carrying out United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of the country.
Rear Admiral Terence Edward "Terry" McKnight, United States Navy, is a former American naval officer who commanded a multi-national naval force tasked to confront piracy activities off the coast of Somalia.
John Scott Redd is a retired vice admiral of the United States Navy, and afterward the first Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, serving from 2005 until 2007. According to David Martin at the CBS Evening News, "Scott Redd may be the most important person you've never heard of." J.J. Green at Federal News Radio referred to Redd as "the man that I often call "E.F. Hutton". He is also the past President of the Naval Academy Class of 1966 and has served on the advisory boards of several non-profit organizations. An avid amateur radio operator, Redd has won twelve world championships and nine national championships.
The Somali National Alliance was a major politico-military faction formed on 16 June 1992 by four different rebel groups that had been in opposition to the regime of former Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre. The SNA was the first major inter-clan and inter-factional political alliance and was considered to be among the most powerful factions of the Somali Civil War. The alliance would most notably face off against the second phase of the United Nations Operation in Somalia in the latter half of 1993.
Eric Thor Olson is a retired United States Navy admiral who last served as the eighth Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) from July 2, 2007 to August 8, 2011. He previously served as Deputy Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command from 2003 to July 2007. Olson was the first Navy SEAL ever to be appointed to three-star and four-star flag rank, as well as the first naval officer to be USSOCOM's combatant commander. He took command from Army General Bryan D. Brown in 2007. Brown and Olson had served together at the SOCOM headquarters in Tampa for four years. He retired from active duty on August 22, 2011 after over 38 years of service. He relinquished command of SOCOM to Admiral William H. McRaven the same day.
Deborah A. Loewer is a retired American naval officer. She was the first warfare-qualified woman promoted to flag rank in the United States Navy. She was frocked to the rank of rear admiral on October 1, 2003 and retired in 2007.
Ann Elisabeth Rondeau is a retired United States Navy vice admiral. During her tenure in the navy, she received two Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and four Legion of Merit awards. Rondeau was the president of National Defense University and, after serving as the president of the College of DuPage, was chosen by United States Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer to be president of the Naval Postgraduate School in 2019.
Thomas M. Montgomery is an American soldier who retired from the United States Army in 1997 at the rank of Lieutenant General. A native of Indiana and graduate of Indiana University, he entered military service in 1963 and commanded an armored company during the Vietnam War, during which he was decorated with the Silver Star for gallantry in the face of the enemy. During the Somali Civil War, he served as deputy commander of the military element of UNOSOM II and would later spend three years as U.S. representative to the NATO Military Committee.
Richard C. Mangrum was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general who served as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1965 to 1967. Mangrum was a Marine Corps aviator who was awarded the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions during the Guadalcanal Campaign in World War II.
United Nations Security Council resolution 814, adopted unanimously on 26 March 1993, after reaffirming resolutions 733 (1992), 746 (1992), 751 (1992), 767 (1992), 775 (1992) and 794 (1993) on the ongoing civil war in Somalia, the council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, authorised an extension of the United Nations Operation in Somalia II until 31 October 1993.
Thomas E. "Ted" McNamara is a United States diplomat and State Department official.
John F. Kirby is a retired United States Navy rear admiral serving as White House National Security Communications Advisor since 2024. He previously served in the Biden administration as Pentagon Press Secretary and Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from 2021 to 2022 and as Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House from 2022 to 2024. He worked as a military and diplomatic analyst for CNN from 2017 to 2021. He served in the Obama administration as Pentagon Press Secretary from 2013 to 2015 and as the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 2015 to 2017.
The Bloody Monday raid, also known as the Abdi House raid or Operation Michigan, was a US military operation that took place in Mogadishu on 12 July 1993, during the United Nations Operation in Somalia II phase of the UN intervention in the Somali Civil War. Carried out by American QRF troops on behalf of UNOSOM II, the raid was the war's deadliest incident in Mogadishu to that point and a turning point in the UN operation. It inflamed anti-UN and anti-American sentiments among Somalis, galvanizing the insurgency that the US military faced during the Battle of Mogadishu three months later.
The June 5th 1993 attack on the Pakistani military was a major confrontation that occurred concurrently in different parts of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, between Somali citizens & militias against the Pakistani peacekeeping contingent of UNOSOM II.
