Soldiers from the Battle of Mogadishu 1993

Gypsy

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Lest we forget. I've listed the men who died, their action and the medal(s)received.

Source is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993)

My thoughts are with all.


John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" ...


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
 
Aidid's militia and the local fighters recieved a serious beating that day.

Rest in peace Warriors.
 
"On that fateful day"

Rest easy Warriors. You have not been forgotten. Your names are still etched in our minds and forever in the history of Special Operations. We have not forgotten. :(
 
May they rest in peace. :(


I just read this blog post written by Keni Thomas:

A great day to be Alive
Current mood: proud
Category: Life

Today is Sunday the 4th of Oct. 16 years ago the 4th of October fell on a Monday. I remember it as if it were yesterday. At about the same time you were coming home from church today, I was stepping off a Blackhawk helicopter as we landed back at base after 18 hours of hell.

So many were wounded. Too many were dead. And those of us who were fortunate to make it back in one piece would forever carry the scars of that battle. We had gone in the day before as a highly trained, highly motivated fighting force. We came out the next morning on the 4th as combat veterans.

All in all Task Force Ranger would loose 18 men. Our ranger company lost 6. The delta squadron lost 6. The night stalkers lost 6 in the crashes. A sobering lesson of the team concept. All players are of equal importance because every element is dependent on the other. Of the 150 or so of us in TFR, 78 were wounded. Somali casualties were listed well over a thousand.

I should also point out that the 10th mountain division of the QRF also lost a man. They are seldom mentioned when it comes to the story of Blackhawk Down. But they should know everyone of us were thankful they came. We could not have gotten our wounded comrades back with out their help.

For those of us who make it out something like that where others did not, you will spend the rest of your life followed by a strange sense of guilt. We all asked the question, “Why me?” “Why God did You let me walk away when men who were three times the soldier that I was did not? Men who deserved to live. Men who should have lived. Men who had families, children and wives. Why was I one of the chosen ones? Why me? What am I supposed to do with this?

You can do one of two things with the guilt. You can get angry and let the unfairness of it all bury you. Or you can choose to let it motivate you. See it for what it is. Its more than an opportunity or some devine “second chance”. See it as a responsibility, a duty, and a commitment to those who got you out of there, to carry on and live a happy life filled with purpose, direction and motivation.

Years later, even after the noise of slamming doors no longer made me duck for cover, and the mere site of Old Glory no longer made me cry, I was still feeling the effects of combat. I was still fighting the battle of Mogadishu only now I was years away safely at home in the middle of a good life. Guilt would continue to haunt me. Sure I followed my dreams of music. The intestinal fortitude instilled in me as a ranger would not allow otherwise. Outwardly, Keni was a positive, motivated, dreamer out there doing what he loved to do. Good for him. Way to go Keni!

But down inside I could never fully commit to ejoying the life I had. In fact, I could never fully commit to anything. Why, it just didn’t seem “hard” enough. Somewhere deep inside, I felt I shouldn’t really be allowed to be happy. It should be enough that I was here when others were not. It affected everything. My sense of self worth, my relationships. The moment I felt the good life closing in, that voice of guilt inside me began to whisper.

"You know, you’re not allowed to be happy. Think about Casey’s wife. Think about Pilla’s parents. How do you think they feel”

And so the enemy with in me would covertly sabotage whatever good God had sent my way. I became a master of disguise, camouflaging my emotions. On the outside I appeared passionate and full of fire declaring “I love my Life. I love you!” Because that’s what I knew I was supposed to be. In reality, I was shutting down my feelings because somewhere between the streets of Mogadishu, the hospitals of recovering friends, and the tombstones at Arlington, I convinced myself I didn’t deserve to be here.

It takes one to know one and it was a Vietnam veteran, a friend of my father, who wrote to me after yet another painful break-up that I had somehow managed to manufacture. And without talking to me or knowing me all that well he pinpointed the problem with the accuracy of a laser guided missle.


“You know Keni, you are allowed to be happy”, he said. “In fact, you owe it to those guys who got you out of there”


Yeah Yeah tell me something I didn’t know.


But it was this next line I remember most of all that planted the seed of change in my restless and guilt-ridden heart.


If any one of your friends could come back from the dead and talk to you today, do you really think they would tell you that you were supposed to feel guilty?



I’m not saying the change was an immediate metamorphose, as if God himself had spoken the words and then SHAZAM I was struck by a bolt of lightning. But the seed was planted and I knew that combat veteran of Vietnam was right. I’d grown accustomed to the numbness and comfortable with in the walls I had erected around my heart. It is exactly those walls we build to protect us that ultimately will imprison us. This guilt I drug around with me like a ball and chain was self-imposed. I had the key all along. God had indeed spoken to me. It was time to start breaking free of Somalia and begin running out of that city for good.

For the thousands of you who share the title of “combat veteran” I thank you for your service and sympathize with your loss. Do not let the guilt of your survival become your ghost. God brought you this far for a reason. Enjoy your life. Live it with a passion. Make a difference. And never miss an opportunity to tell the story of those around you on that day. You know the day. It will forever be engraved in your memory as if it were yesterday.

To the men of TFR, I thank you for bringing me home. I am forever indebted. Today is a good day to be us and a great day to be alive.

we few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
 
On a side note.. the movie did no justice to the two 10th MTN KIAs... They might not even have been included in the ending credits from what I remember. Ty for mentioning!


6 Delta KIA...
Nothing to take away from my fellow fallen Rangers and the brave Night Stalkers. But I can't imagine how hard 6 KIA must have hit that tiny unit. And im sure there were some were wounded severly to where they could no longer serve... that's like half a goddamn Troop.


RIP Warriors.
 
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