Blackhawk Down

Today is October 3rd, 2008. To many or even most of you this is just another day, it's Friday the end of the work week and time to relax and maybe even party some, and that's cool, it's what you're supposed to do. But today is also a very special anniversary to a select few. To these select few, today is the 15th anniversary of a day for those that survived it, they will never live to forget it. For fifteen years ago today, October 3rd, 1993. On this day during Operation "Restore Hope" Members of the Elite 75th U.S. Army Rangers 3rd Batallion and Members of the also Elite Delta Force. In Mogadishu, Somalia Africa, there to aid the starving people and capture the Warlord Muhammed Farah Adid, who was commiting genocide and his weapon was hunger. Millions had died already to this man's hands and orders.

Then came the day October 3rd 1993. The 75th Rangers and Delta Force were ordered into the Bakara Market deep inside the city of Mogadishu, a very hostile area. They went in from the air in helicopters and from the ground on humvee convoys. Their goal was to capture Muhammed Farah Adid and/or some of his top Lieutenants.

The warlord's militia were ready, they were well informed of our coming, they had people including children with cell phones and radios stations along the entry route to give good warning of the American troops arrival. When the troops arrived in the Bakara Market, the streets were immediately blocked off behind them, by overturning old cars, piling up tires and setting fire to them, virtually trapping the rangers and delta force teams within the boundries of hostile territory. The ambush began, there was hostile fire from all directions, the fight lasted throughout the day and the night into the morning of October 4th. During the battle 2 American Blackhawk helicopters were shotdown in the city, and 19 soldiers would lay dead and another 70 would be wounded.

The Mogadishu Firefight was the bloodiest battle for American troops since the Vietnam War. In the battle two Congressional Medals Of Honor were posthumously awarded to two great heroes, Sgt. Randy Shugart, and Sgt. Gary Gordon. These two men were stationed high above the ground in a helicopter serving as snipers for the ground troops and they requested at their own free will to be put down on the ground to defend the crew of a shot down helicopter which was being converged upong by hundreds and hundreds of armed Somalians. They saved the life of the pilot, but in doing so, they gallantly gave up their own lives.

This day should be remembered, even though it was a 24 hour war, it was a war in which many good young American soldiers fought with valor and honor and gave their life's blood and their lives to defend what was right.

They were there to aid a starving country, a starving people who in the end, turned on them and bit the hands of the American soldiers that were there to help them. This is too often the case in many situations. But I will not go into that now, that's politics in my opinion, and when you mix politics and war, soldiers die and usually for nothing.

Many of you may not know of the day October 3rd 1993 as I said earlier, but I am sure you probably know the movie Blackhawk Down what you need to know most importantly, is that it wasn't just a movie, it was real, boys died, boys bled, and those that came home carry the day with them in silence in their hearts and minds for the rest of their lives. God Bless Those We Lost With Eternal Peace, and God Bless those that came home with peace within themselves and a nation that remembers and appreciates their sacrifices.