Posted on Oct 3, 2020
Medal of Honor Monday: Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon
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On October 3, 1993, MSG Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipient, died at the age of 33. From the article:
"If you've ever seen the movie "Black Hawk Down," then you know the story of Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon. Gordon and his comrade, Army Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart, made the most difficult decision service members could ever make — to give their lives for their brothers in arms. This Medal of Honor Monday, we honor Gordon's life and sacrifice during a 1993 humanitarian crisis in Somalia.
Gary Gordon was born Aug. 30, 1960, and grew up in Lincoln, Maine. At the age of 18, he joined the Army and was a combat engineer for many years before being selected for the elite Special Forces group known as Delta Force.
The Crisis
In the fall of 1993, civil war was raging in Somalia, which destroyed agriculture and led to widespread starvation. The United Nations stepped in to send humanitarian aid, but the food rations were often seized by local warlords.
By late August, the U.S. sent in Special Forces operators, including Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers, to protect those humanitarian efforts and crack down on the warlords. This led to the First Battle of Mogadishu on Oct. 3, 1993. It was supposed to be a quick raid of the Somali capital to capture high-value targets associated with warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. But it didn't go as planned.
The Decision
Gordon was a sniper team leader in the lead helicopter of several that were providing air support during the raid. As the chopper got hit with intense gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Gordon's team learned that two other Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down.
Several soldiers in desert camouflage look into the distant sky, where four Black Hawk helicopters are flying.
When Gordon learned that ground forces weren't going to make it to the second crash site to secure it, he and Shughart, another Delta Force soldier, volunteered to protect the downed chopper's survivors. They were both well aware that a hoard of militants was closing in on the crash site, and if they didn't help, the survivors wouldn't stand a chance. But they also knew they likely wouldn't, either.
Twice they asked for permission to go in, and twice they were denied — it was too dangerous. But on the third request, leaders finally gave them the go-ahead.
Selfless Sacrifice
Gordon and Shughart were inserted about 100 meters south of the crash site. To get to the downed chopper, they fought their way through enemy gunfire and "a dense maze of shanties and shacks," as the Medal of Honor citation read.
The downed helicopter's co-pilot and crew chiefs — Ray Frank, Tom Field and Bill Cleveland — were dead when they got to the wreckage. But Gordon pulled the badly injured pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Durant, from the helicopter. Gordon and Shughart then established a perimeter around the chopper, putting themselves in the most vulnerable position.
Armed with only a sniper rifle and a pistol, Gordon killed several attackers closing in on the site. When he ran out of ammunition, he dug some of the weapons and ammo out of the downed chopper, gave some of it to a dazed Durant, then radioed for help.
Eventually, Shughart was fatally wounded, and Gordon again ran out of rifle ammo. He grabbed one last rifle with the last five rounds of ammo from the wreckage, gave it to Durant and said, "Good luck." He then went back into the fray to fight off the enemy with just his pistol. He was quickly shot and killed.
The site was overrun by the militants, who took Durant hostage. He was let go about two weeks later, but it was the selfless actions of Gordon and Shughart that ultimately saved his life.
Meanwhile, the full-scale battle continued into the early morning — about 15 hours total — and led to the deaths of 18 American service members, with many more wounded.
Honor
As Gordon and Shughart died together, they were honored together, too. Both men posthumously received the Medal of Honor on May 23, 1994, during a ceremony at the White House. Gordon's wife and two children accepted it on his behalf.
"Gordon and Shughart knew their own chances of survival were extremely bleak. The pilot of their helicopter said that anyone in their right mind would never have gone in, but they insisted on it because they were comrades in danger, because they believed passionately in the creed that says, 'I will not fail those with whom I serve,'" President Bill Clinton said at the ceremony. "Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart died in the most courageous and selfless way any human being can act. They risked their lives without hesitation."
Gordon has been fondly remembered throughout the military since that day. The Navy named a sealift ship, USNS Gordon, after him in 1996. An elementary school near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was named in his honor, and there's also a memorial for him in his hometown."
"If you've ever seen the movie "Black Hawk Down," then you know the story of Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon. Gordon and his comrade, Army Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart, made the most difficult decision service members could ever make — to give their lives for their brothers in arms. This Medal of Honor Monday, we honor Gordon's life and sacrifice during a 1993 humanitarian crisis in Somalia.
Gary Gordon was born Aug. 30, 1960, and grew up in Lincoln, Maine. At the age of 18, he joined the Army and was a combat engineer for many years before being selected for the elite Special Forces group known as Delta Force.
The Crisis
In the fall of 1993, civil war was raging in Somalia, which destroyed agriculture and led to widespread starvation. The United Nations stepped in to send humanitarian aid, but the food rations were often seized by local warlords.
By late August, the U.S. sent in Special Forces operators, including Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers, to protect those humanitarian efforts and crack down on the warlords. This led to the First Battle of Mogadishu on Oct. 3, 1993. It was supposed to be a quick raid of the Somali capital to capture high-value targets associated with warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. But it didn't go as planned.
The Decision
Gordon was a sniper team leader in the lead helicopter of several that were providing air support during the raid. As the chopper got hit with intense gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Gordon's team learned that two other Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down.
Several soldiers in desert camouflage look into the distant sky, where four Black Hawk helicopters are flying.
When Gordon learned that ground forces weren't going to make it to the second crash site to secure it, he and Shughart, another Delta Force soldier, volunteered to protect the downed chopper's survivors. They were both well aware that a hoard of militants was closing in on the crash site, and if they didn't help, the survivors wouldn't stand a chance. But they also knew they likely wouldn't, either.
Twice they asked for permission to go in, and twice they were denied — it was too dangerous. But on the third request, leaders finally gave them the go-ahead.
Selfless Sacrifice
Gordon and Shughart were inserted about 100 meters south of the crash site. To get to the downed chopper, they fought their way through enemy gunfire and "a dense maze of shanties and shacks," as the Medal of Honor citation read.
The downed helicopter's co-pilot and crew chiefs — Ray Frank, Tom Field and Bill Cleveland — were dead when they got to the wreckage. But Gordon pulled the badly injured pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Durant, from the helicopter. Gordon and Shughart then established a perimeter around the chopper, putting themselves in the most vulnerable position.
Armed with only a sniper rifle and a pistol, Gordon killed several attackers closing in on the site. When he ran out of ammunition, he dug some of the weapons and ammo out of the downed chopper, gave some of it to a dazed Durant, then radioed for help.
Eventually, Shughart was fatally wounded, and Gordon again ran out of rifle ammo. He grabbed one last rifle with the last five rounds of ammo from the wreckage, gave it to Durant and said, "Good luck." He then went back into the fray to fight off the enemy with just his pistol. He was quickly shot and killed.
The site was overrun by the militants, who took Durant hostage. He was let go about two weeks later, but it was the selfless actions of Gordon and Shughart that ultimately saved his life.
Meanwhile, the full-scale battle continued into the early morning — about 15 hours total — and led to the deaths of 18 American service members, with many more wounded.
Honor
As Gordon and Shughart died together, they were honored together, too. Both men posthumously received the Medal of Honor on May 23, 1994, during a ceremony at the White House. Gordon's wife and two children accepted it on his behalf.
"Gordon and Shughart knew their own chances of survival were extremely bleak. The pilot of their helicopter said that anyone in their right mind would never have gone in, but they insisted on it because they were comrades in danger, because they believed passionately in the creed that says, 'I will not fail those with whom I serve,'" President Bill Clinton said at the ceremony. "Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart died in the most courageous and selfless way any human being can act. They risked their lives without hesitation."
Gordon has been fondly remembered throughout the military since that day. The Navy named a sealift ship, USNS Gordon, after him in 1996. An elementary school near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was named in his honor, and there's also a memorial for him in his hometown."
Medal of Honor Monday: Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon
Posted from defense.gov
Medal of Honor
American History
Military History
Valor
Combat
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Larry Moores and the Gary Gordon Medal of Honor Memorial
3rd Ranger Battalion "Blackhawk Down" veteran Larry Moores joins TNAV to talk about the Gary Gordon Medal of Honor Memorial.
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for honoring 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D) Master Sgt. Gary Gordon on the anniversary of his death in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993.
Rest in peace Gary Gordon
3rd Ranger Battalion "Blackhawk Down" veteran Larry Moores joins TNAV to talk about the Gary Gordon Medal of Honor Memorial.
https://youtu.be/iTxjI418ehE?t=1019
Images:
1. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon
2. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon by APC
3. Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon in uniform and mufti
4. President Bill Clinton looks on as Carmen Gordon shows the Medal of Honor to her son, Ian, 6, after the president presented the medal to Mrs. Gordon, at the White House.
Biography
1. militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=1972
2. arits.org/index.php/biographies/352-msg-gary-gordon
1. Background from {[ https://militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=1972]}
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon
Birthplace: Lincoln, ME, USA
Gender: Male
Branch: Army (1784 - present)
Date of Birth: 30 August 1960
Date of Death: 03 October 1993
Rank: Master Sergeant
Years Served: 1978-1993
Engagements:
• Operation Just Cause - Panama (1989 - 1990)
• Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
Gary Ivan Gordon
Master Sergeant, U.S. Army
Medal of Honor Recipient
Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon (30 August 1960 - 3 October 1993) was a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army's premiere special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force." Together with Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions and sacrifice during the Battle of Mogadishu on 3 October 1993.
Gary Ivan Gordon was born on 30 August 1960 in Lincoln, ME, and graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. He joined the U.S. Army that same year at age 18 and after serving with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group, he was chosen to join the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force", as a sniper. Before deploying with his unit to Somalia he married his wife, Carmen, and together they had two children.
Combat and Death in Somalia
Gordon was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia, with other Delta members in the summer of 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger. On 3 October 1993, Gordon was Sniper Team Leader during Operation Gothic Serpent, a joint-force assault mission to apprehend key advisers to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. During the assault, Super Six One, one of the Army's Black Hawk helicopters providing insertion and air support to the assault team, was shot down and crashed in the city. A Combat Search and Rescue team was dispatched to the first crash site to secure it and a short time later Super Six Four was shot down as well. Ranger forces on the ground were not able to assist the downed helicopter crew of the second crash site as they were already engaged in heavy combat with Aidid's militia and making their way to the first crash site.
Gordon and his Delta Force sniper teammates Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart and Sergeant First Class Brad Hallings, who were providing sniper cover from the air, wanted to be dropped at the second crash site in order to protect the four critically wounded crew although large numbers of armed, hostile Somalis were converging on the area. Mission commanders denied Gordon's request, saying that the situation was already too dangerous for the three Delta snipers to effectively protect the Blackhawk crew from the ground. Command's position was that the snipers could be of more assistance by continuing to provide air cover. Gordon, however, concluded that there was no way the Black Hawk crew could survive on their own and repeated his request twice until he finally received permission. Sergeant First Class Brad Hallings had assumed control of a minigun after a crew chief was injured and was not inserted with Shughart and Gordon.
Once on the ground, Gordon and Shughart, armed with only their personal weapons and sidearms, fought their way to the downed Blackhawk. By this time, more Somalis were arriving who were intent on either capturing or killing the American servicemen. When they reached Super Six Four, Gordon and Shughart extracted the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant and the other crew members from the aircraft, and established defensive positions around the crash site. Despite having inflicted heavy casualties against the Somalis, the two Delta snipers were too outnumbered and outgunned. Their ammunition nearly depleted, Gordon and Shughart finally were killed by Somali gunfire. It is believed that Gordon was first to be fatally wounded. His teammate Shughart retrieved Gordon's CAR-15 and gave it to Durant to use. Shortly after, Shughart was killed and Durant was taken alive. Immediately after the battle, the Somalis counted 24 of their own men dead with many more severely wounded.
Controversy and Confusion
There was some confusion in the aftermath of the action as to who had been killed first. The official citation states that it was Shughart, but Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, the book about the October 1993 events, relates an account by Sergeant Paul Howe, another Delta operator participating in the battle. Howe said that he heard Shughart call for help on the radio and that the weapon handed to Durant was not the distinctive M14 used by Shughart. Furthermore, Howe said that Shughart would never have given his own weapon to another soldier to use while he was still able to fight. In Durant's book, In the Company of Heroes, he states that Gordon was on the left side of the Blackhawk, after both he and Shughart moved Durant to a safer location, and only heard Gordon say, "Damn, I'm hit." Afterwards Shughart came from the left side of the Blackhawk with the CAR-15.
After the attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, U.S. Special Forces units were inserted into Afghanistan to assist the Northern Alliance forces in overthrowing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists. Following an intense mountain battle known as Operation Anaconda in March 2002, U.S. troops searching a bunker complex found a GPS unit and holding pouch labeled "G. Gordon." Intelligence analysts believed at first this was Sergeant Gordon's GPS unit that he purchased on the private market and used in Somalia. The Gordon family was notified immediately of the find prior to the information being released to the public. It ultimately turned out that it wasn't Gordon's GPS but that of a helicopter pilot lost in an earlier fight during Operation Anaconda.
Medal of Honor Citation:
Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia. Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fire from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site. After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck." Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
On 23 May 1994, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart both posthumously received the Medal of Honor in recognition of the heroic actions they took and the sacrifices they made to help protect the life of Durant and the crew of Super Six Four. They were the only soldiers participating in Operation Gothic Serpent to receive the military's highest honor, and were the first Medal of Honor recipients since the Vietnam War. Their medals were presented to their wives, Carmen Gordon and Stephanie Shughart, by President of the United States Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the White House.
Medals and Awards
During his military career, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon earned the following military medals and awards:
Medal of Honor
Purple Heart
Meritorious Service Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Joint Service Achievement Medals (2)
Good Conduct Medals (4)
Combat Infantryman Badge
Master Parachutist Badge
Ranger Tab
Special Forces Tab
French Army Mountaineering Badge
Royal Danish Parachutist Badge
Joint Meritorious Unit Award
Honors
The U.S. Navy officially named a roll-on/roll-off ship, USNS Gordon, in a ceremony at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, 4 July 1996, at Newport News, VA. Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), was the ceremony's principal speaker. Serving as the ship's sponsor was Carmen Gordon, widow of the ship's namesake. Gordon was the second ship to undergo conversion from a commercial container vessel to a Large Medium Speed Roll On/Roll Off (LMSR) sealift ship and is operated by the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, Washington, DC.
Gordon Elementary School in Linden Oaks, Harnett County, NC, which opened in January 2009, was named in his honor. The school is near Fort Bragg, where Gordon was stationed before being deployed to Somalia.
Death and Burial
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon was killed in action on 3 October 1993, in Somalia. He is buried at Lincoln Cemetery, Lincoln, Penobscot County, ME."
arits.org biography of MSG Gary Ivan Gordon
Background from {[ https://arits.org/index.php/biographies/352-msg-gary-gordon}]
MSG Gary I. Gordon 's Biography
Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck."
Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
During his military service, MSG Gary I. Gordon also served in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta
Master Sergeant Gary I. Gordon - Medal of Honor Citation
{[http://www.history.army.mil/moh/somalia.html]}
Place and Date: 3 October 1993, Mogadishu, Somalia
Citation: Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fires from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.
After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position.
Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help.
Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck."
Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
===
Gary Gordon, A Hero Who Died In The Heat Of Somalia
SCOTT S. SMITH
{[http://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/gary-gordon-trained-as-delta-force-sniper/]}
Gary Gordon wouldn’t give up while aiming to rescue fellow soldiers trapped in Somalia in 1993.
The Army master sergeant’s third request to commanders was approved — with this warning:
You’ll likely die in the attempt.
Undaunted, Gordon and Randy Shughart — a fellow Delta Force sniper — went into the Mogadishu maze with guns blazing and took down a slew of terrorists.
And nearly pulled it off alive.
“Gordon was the epitome of the dependable individual who so believes in taking responsibility that he gives his life to protect his fellow men,” Fred Borch, author of “For Military Merit: Recipients of the Purple Heart,” told IBD. “He and Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the first Americans to receive our highest military decoration since the Vietnam War.”
Remembrance
Gordon and Shugart are among the Americans honored on Memorial Day, which remembers those who died serving in the military.
Gordon (1960-93) was born in Lincoln, Maine, a mill town of 5,000 nestled in the northern forests. His teachers thought he was smart, but his grades drifted because he was obsessed doodling “anything and everything military-related,” his mother told a reporter. Not a surprise, since the Vietnam War was on TV every night.
He joined the Boy Scouts and played football in high school, graduating in 1978. He and his future wife, Carmen, met when she was visiting her grandparents, and they engaged in a three-year correspondence after he joined the Army.
After their wedding came a son, Ian, then a daughter, Brittany.
Gary and Carmen talked about opening a furniture store, but also candidly discussed what would happen if he died.
Gordon rarely talked about the details of his military career. He initially served with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces, then became a sniper for the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force — an elite Army anti-terror unit.
Into Central America
In 1989, Gordon was with the outfit in Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama to capture its dictator, Manuel Noriega.
Two years later, the government of Somalia was overthrown and a civil war erupted. One result was disruption of the African country’s agriculture, resulting in 300,000 people dying of starvation. In 1992, a cease-fire opened the way for the United Nations to deliver food, protected by a coalition that included U.S. troops.
Much of the food was hijacked by Mohamed Aidid’s militia, and suddenly hundreds of thousands more Somalians were at risk of dying.
The U.S. Army aimed to prevent that, with Gordon’s Delta outfit landing in Mogadishu in the summer of 1993.
After Aidid’s forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers that were part of the United Nations, the U.N. Security Council called for the militia leaders to be arrested or killed.
On Oct. 3, Gordon was the sniper team leader during Operation Gothic Serpent, an American operation that targeted Aidid’s key advisers in the slums of Mogadishu. The showdown pitted 160 special operations soldiers — arriving in 19 helicopters and 12 vehicles — against 3,000 Aidid men.
During the assault, one of the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Nearby operational command sent a ground team with chopper support to rescue the men, but it made slow progress in heavy fighting with Aidid’s militia.
Then a second Black Hawk was shot down, and militia members and an armed mob converged on the site. Gordon and two sergeant first class subordinates, Shughart and Brad Hallings, had been providing fire cover from another helicopter, but they knew this wasn’t enough if the crew of the second downed chopper was to be saved.
Facing The Fire
The only way to rescue survivors was for the Gordon-Shughart-Hallings copter to go in. When superiors reluctantly approved the mission, Gordon grinned and gave a thumbs up, but Hallings had to stay behind to man the minigun because its operator was wounded.
“This was an example of direct, honest communication and extremely high trust between a team leader and higher command,” said Clayton Chun, author of “Gothic Serpent” and chairman of the Department of Distance Education at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. “The snipers’ training, adaptive thinking, values and commander’s confidence in them allowed them to unequivocally accept the very high risk and take action.”
Gordon’s lesson is that when something is crucial, push hard.
A smoke grenade gave Gordon and Shughart some cover as they fought their way 100 yards through a shantytown to the downed craft.
Overhead, other Army helicopters came under fire from RPGs and had to withdraw.
Michael Durant, the pilot of the second downed chopper, wrote in “In the Company of Heroes”: “To me, they were like Batman and Robin, only much better, and they just walked up to my aircraft like they were out for a stroll in the park. They acted as if they were in no particular rush, and they raised me up gently and carried me to an open spot on the ground to the right of the cockpit and set me down carefully in the dust. Without a doubt, they saved my life.”
Chun said, “One removed the three other severely injured crew members, while the other provided covering fire and then they quickly assessed their situation. They set up a defense perimeter and gave Durant a rifle to protect their rear, since he was the only one in condition to help them. They realized that reinforcements would most likely not arrive in time, but fought on against overwhelming odds, exhibiting selfless service and personal courage.”
Suddenly Durant heard Gordon say, “Damn. I’m hit.”
The pilot wrote: “He sounded almost irritated, like this was just going to make things harder for him. It wasn’t a scream or a plea, just a statement of fact, like someone who’d nicked himself with a vegetable knife. I never saw or heard from him again.”
When the site was overrun by the Somali militia, Durant was the only survivor and was held hostage for 11 days until he was released to the Red Cross. The bodies of 50 Somalis were later found surrounding the chopper.
Deadly Price
The Army task force did capture Aidid’s advisers, but at high cost. The Battle of Mogadishu resulted in 18 soldiers killed — five from Delta Force — and 73 wounded. The Somalis claimed 315 of their own died and 812 were wounded.
The Americans’ “overconfidence played a part in the problems during the raid,” wrote Chun. “Many believed that it would not last long and would encounter little opposition.”
The critical lesson is to never underestimate your enemy.
The U.N. declared an end to the mission in April 1994. Aidid was fatally wounded in a battle with a rival militia two years later.
On Oct. 14, 1993, in rain as the population of Lincoln stood by in honor, Gordon was buried in his uniform in a flag-filled cemetery.
Shughart (1958-93) was buried in Carlisle.
Carmen Gordon wrote a letter to their children and had it published to help others coping with similar loss: “Your father had two families. One was us and the other was his comrades. Once he committed to something, the way was clear. He chose to be a husband and father and never wavered in those roles. He chose the military and ‘I shall not fail those with whom I serve’ became his simple religion. When his other family needed him, he did not hesitate, as he would not have hesitated for us.”
On May 23, 1994, President Clinton awarded Gordon and Shughart the Medal of Honor, joining just 3,000 others in two centuries.
The award read in part: “Master Sergeant Gordon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty … reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.”
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{[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gordon]}
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Debts of Honor
By Douglas E. Kneeland;
Published: May 29, 1995
{[http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/29/opinion/debts-of-honor.html]}
For much of the nation, it seems, Memorial Day has come to mean the unofficial start of summer, a holiday to spend at the beach or in the backyard. In small towns in this part of the country, however, people still feel deeply their obligations to the past. And there aren't many of us who don't willingly remember and honor our dead, whether they died in the service of their country or simply succumbed to illness or age.
I was about to describe the holiday as somber, and in an obvious way it is that. But there's also a certain joy in the sense of continuity and fulfillment that comes with pausing to pay tribute to those who have gone before.
Today, I'm thinking about someone in particular: Gary Gordon, a young man who left this town, his hometown (and mine), to join the Army in 1978, when he was 18 years old.
Lincoln is a pulp-and-paper mill town and shopping center of 5,500 tucked among the fir forests and spring-fed lakes of northern Penobscot County. Gary attended the local high school and was a running back on the football team. He wasn't in the starting line-up, but he always gave his best. He liked to draw and doodle and sometimes his teachers thought he did too much of it in class. His mother, Betty, says his favorite subjects for drawing were military -- guns and tanks and things. That could have been a hint of his later career path, but in the years of the Vietnam War a lot of young boys were attracted to the military.
Still, Gary's interest may have surpassed that of the others. He liked to read and regularly rode his bike to the library to borrow books. A while back a friend of Gary's was seeking some information on the Medal of Honor at the library and found what he was looking for in an Army Information Digest pamphlet published in 1962 on the shelf. Checking the card in the back, he discovered that the last person to take out the publication had been Gary Gordon, on Oct. 1, 1971.
On Oct. 3, 1993, 22 years and two days after he borrowed that pamphlet, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon of the Army's elite Delta Force died along with 17 other Americans in a battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Seventy-five soldiers were wounded.)
He and his partner, Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart of Newville, Pa., were lowered down from a helicopter in the midst of the battle and killed as they sought to rescue wounded members of the crew of another helicopter that had been shot down. The pilot of the downed craft, Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, survived (he was captured, but later released), and said not long after, "Without a doubt, I owe my life to these two men and their bravery."
In a ceremony at the White House on May 23d last year, President Clinton awarded Medals of Honor posthumously to Gary and Randy "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." The medals were given to their widows, Carmen Gordon and Stephanie Shughart. Gary's children, Ian and Brittany, were there, as were his parents, Duane and Betty Gordon. These are the only Medals of Honor that have been awarded for acts of valor committed in the years since the Vietnam War.
Perhaps this is a good place to say something about the history of the medal. Established July 1862 by an act of Congress, it is our nation's highest military honor as well as the first to be given. Until that time, Americans hadn't thought much about rewarding their military forces, but as tales of heroism began to emerge from the battles of the Civil War, politicians in Washington responded to a growing public sentiment for recognition of outstanding heroism.
The first six were presented on March 25, 1863, to survivors of a Union Army raiding party that had slipped into Georgia in civilian clothes in April 1862 to sabotage the Confederate rail link between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
All told, there are slightly more than 3,400 Medals of Honor on the books for the 132-odd years of its history, about half of those given for heroism during the Civil War, a time when brutal hand-to-hand fighting was the rule rather than the exception. World War I produced 96 winners; World War II, 432; Korea, 131, and Vietnam, 238.
In one corner of Duane and Betty Gordon's living room, there's a small display of a flag that flew over the Army compound in Mogadishu, one of Gary's green berets and other mementos of his military career. A drawing he did a few months before he was sent to Somalia, in August 1993, has a prominent place on the wall. The precise detailing of men in battle with a helicopter hovering in the background lowering reinforcement troops on ropes sometimes makes his parents wonder whether Gary had a premonition of his fate.
"It would have been really weird if there'd only been two of them," said his mother, noting that the drawing shows three men coming down the ropes, not two as when Gary and Randy made the drop.
On Oct. 14, 1993, Gary Gordon was brought home to Lincoln. "I was overwhelmed when I came into town that night and saw the crowd downtown in the rain and the cold," Betty said. Her eyes moist, she added, "You raise a child and then suddenly you're sitting in a car alone . . ."
She said some people ask why Gary wasn't buried at Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington. She tells them: "He didn't want to be. He wanted to be brought home here."
So he came home to lie in the cemetery on West Broadway, not far from the center of town and the library where he borrowed books on battles and the Medal of Honor.
Douglas E. Kneeland was a reporter and editor at The New York Times for 22 years. This is adapted from his column in The Lincoln News, a weekly newspaper."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick MSG Felipe De Leon Brown SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see) LTC Greg Henning Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant TSgt David L. MSgt Robert "Rock" Aldi SPC Margaret Higgins PO3 Phyllis Maynard SPC Diana D.
Rest in peace Gary Gordon
3rd Ranger Battalion "Blackhawk Down" veteran Larry Moores joins TNAV to talk about the Gary Gordon Medal of Honor Memorial.
https://youtu.be/iTxjI418ehE?t=1019
Images:
1. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon
2. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon by APC
3. Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon in uniform and mufti
4. President Bill Clinton looks on as Carmen Gordon shows the Medal of Honor to her son, Ian, 6, after the president presented the medal to Mrs. Gordon, at the White House.
Biography
1. militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=1972
2. arits.org/index.php/biographies/352-msg-gary-gordon
1. Background from {[ https://militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=1972]}
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon
Birthplace: Lincoln, ME, USA
Gender: Male
Branch: Army (1784 - present)
Date of Birth: 30 August 1960
Date of Death: 03 October 1993
Rank: Master Sergeant
Years Served: 1978-1993
Engagements:
• Operation Just Cause - Panama (1989 - 1990)
• Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
Gary Ivan Gordon
Master Sergeant, U.S. Army
Medal of Honor Recipient
Battle of Mogadishu (1993)
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon (30 August 1960 - 3 October 1993) was a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army's premiere special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force." Together with Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions and sacrifice during the Battle of Mogadishu on 3 October 1993.
Gary Ivan Gordon was born on 30 August 1960 in Lincoln, ME, and graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. He joined the U.S. Army that same year at age 18 and after serving with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group, he was chosen to join the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force", as a sniper. Before deploying with his unit to Somalia he married his wife, Carmen, and together they had two children.
Combat and Death in Somalia
Gordon was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia, with other Delta members in the summer of 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger. On 3 October 1993, Gordon was Sniper Team Leader during Operation Gothic Serpent, a joint-force assault mission to apprehend key advisers to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. During the assault, Super Six One, one of the Army's Black Hawk helicopters providing insertion and air support to the assault team, was shot down and crashed in the city. A Combat Search and Rescue team was dispatched to the first crash site to secure it and a short time later Super Six Four was shot down as well. Ranger forces on the ground were not able to assist the downed helicopter crew of the second crash site as they were already engaged in heavy combat with Aidid's militia and making their way to the first crash site.
Gordon and his Delta Force sniper teammates Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart and Sergeant First Class Brad Hallings, who were providing sniper cover from the air, wanted to be dropped at the second crash site in order to protect the four critically wounded crew although large numbers of armed, hostile Somalis were converging on the area. Mission commanders denied Gordon's request, saying that the situation was already too dangerous for the three Delta snipers to effectively protect the Blackhawk crew from the ground. Command's position was that the snipers could be of more assistance by continuing to provide air cover. Gordon, however, concluded that there was no way the Black Hawk crew could survive on their own and repeated his request twice until he finally received permission. Sergeant First Class Brad Hallings had assumed control of a minigun after a crew chief was injured and was not inserted with Shughart and Gordon.
Once on the ground, Gordon and Shughart, armed with only their personal weapons and sidearms, fought their way to the downed Blackhawk. By this time, more Somalis were arriving who were intent on either capturing or killing the American servicemen. When they reached Super Six Four, Gordon and Shughart extracted the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant and the other crew members from the aircraft, and established defensive positions around the crash site. Despite having inflicted heavy casualties against the Somalis, the two Delta snipers were too outnumbered and outgunned. Their ammunition nearly depleted, Gordon and Shughart finally were killed by Somali gunfire. It is believed that Gordon was first to be fatally wounded. His teammate Shughart retrieved Gordon's CAR-15 and gave it to Durant to use. Shortly after, Shughart was killed and Durant was taken alive. Immediately after the battle, the Somalis counted 24 of their own men dead with many more severely wounded.
Controversy and Confusion
There was some confusion in the aftermath of the action as to who had been killed first. The official citation states that it was Shughart, but Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, the book about the October 1993 events, relates an account by Sergeant Paul Howe, another Delta operator participating in the battle. Howe said that he heard Shughart call for help on the radio and that the weapon handed to Durant was not the distinctive M14 used by Shughart. Furthermore, Howe said that Shughart would never have given his own weapon to another soldier to use while he was still able to fight. In Durant's book, In the Company of Heroes, he states that Gordon was on the left side of the Blackhawk, after both he and Shughart moved Durant to a safer location, and only heard Gordon say, "Damn, I'm hit." Afterwards Shughart came from the left side of the Blackhawk with the CAR-15.
After the attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, U.S. Special Forces units were inserted into Afghanistan to assist the Northern Alliance forces in overthrowing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists. Following an intense mountain battle known as Operation Anaconda in March 2002, U.S. troops searching a bunker complex found a GPS unit and holding pouch labeled "G. Gordon." Intelligence analysts believed at first this was Sergeant Gordon's GPS unit that he purchased on the private market and used in Somalia. The Gordon family was notified immediately of the find prior to the information being released to the public. It ultimately turned out that it wasn't Gordon's GPS but that of a helicopter pilot lost in an earlier fight during Operation Anaconda.
Medal of Honor Citation:
Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia. Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fire from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site. After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck." Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
On 23 May 1994, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart both posthumously received the Medal of Honor in recognition of the heroic actions they took and the sacrifices they made to help protect the life of Durant and the crew of Super Six Four. They were the only soldiers participating in Operation Gothic Serpent to receive the military's highest honor, and were the first Medal of Honor recipients since the Vietnam War. Their medals were presented to their wives, Carmen Gordon and Stephanie Shughart, by President of the United States Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the White House.
Medals and Awards
During his military career, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon earned the following military medals and awards:
Medal of Honor
Purple Heart
Meritorious Service Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Joint Service Achievement Medals (2)
Good Conduct Medals (4)
Combat Infantryman Badge
Master Parachutist Badge
Ranger Tab
Special Forces Tab
French Army Mountaineering Badge
Royal Danish Parachutist Badge
Joint Meritorious Unit Award
Honors
The U.S. Navy officially named a roll-on/roll-off ship, USNS Gordon, in a ceremony at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, 4 July 1996, at Newport News, VA. Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), was the ceremony's principal speaker. Serving as the ship's sponsor was Carmen Gordon, widow of the ship's namesake. Gordon was the second ship to undergo conversion from a commercial container vessel to a Large Medium Speed Roll On/Roll Off (LMSR) sealift ship and is operated by the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, Washington, DC.
Gordon Elementary School in Linden Oaks, Harnett County, NC, which opened in January 2009, was named in his honor. The school is near Fort Bragg, where Gordon was stationed before being deployed to Somalia.
Death and Burial
Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon was killed in action on 3 October 1993, in Somalia. He is buried at Lincoln Cemetery, Lincoln, Penobscot County, ME."
arits.org biography of MSG Gary Ivan Gordon
Background from {[ https://arits.org/index.php/biographies/352-msg-gary-gordon}]
MSG Gary I. Gordon 's Biography
Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck."
Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
During his military service, MSG Gary I. Gordon also served in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta
Master Sergeant Gary I. Gordon - Medal of Honor Citation
{[http://www.history.army.mil/moh/somalia.html]}
Place and Date: 3 October 1993, Mogadishu, Somalia
Citation: Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fires from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.
After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Master Sergeant Gordon was inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon and his fellow sniper, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Master Sergeant Gordon immediately pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position.
Master Sergeant Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until he depleted his ammunition. Master Sergeant Gordon then went back to the wreckage, recovering some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help.
Master Sergeant Gordon continued to travel the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. After his team member was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition exhausted, Master Sergeant Gordon returned to the wreckage, recovering a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck."
Then, armed only with his pistol, Master Sergeant Gordon continued to fight until he was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Master Sergeant Gordon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.
===
Gary Gordon, A Hero Who Died In The Heat Of Somalia
SCOTT S. SMITH
{[http://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/gary-gordon-trained-as-delta-force-sniper/]}
Gary Gordon wouldn’t give up while aiming to rescue fellow soldiers trapped in Somalia in 1993.
The Army master sergeant’s third request to commanders was approved — with this warning:
You’ll likely die in the attempt.
Undaunted, Gordon and Randy Shughart — a fellow Delta Force sniper — went into the Mogadishu maze with guns blazing and took down a slew of terrorists.
And nearly pulled it off alive.
“Gordon was the epitome of the dependable individual who so believes in taking responsibility that he gives his life to protect his fellow men,” Fred Borch, author of “For Military Merit: Recipients of the Purple Heart,” told IBD. “He and Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the first Americans to receive our highest military decoration since the Vietnam War.”
Remembrance
Gordon and Shugart are among the Americans honored on Memorial Day, which remembers those who died serving in the military.
Gordon (1960-93) was born in Lincoln, Maine, a mill town of 5,000 nestled in the northern forests. His teachers thought he was smart, but his grades drifted because he was obsessed doodling “anything and everything military-related,” his mother told a reporter. Not a surprise, since the Vietnam War was on TV every night.
He joined the Boy Scouts and played football in high school, graduating in 1978. He and his future wife, Carmen, met when she was visiting her grandparents, and they engaged in a three-year correspondence after he joined the Army.
After their wedding came a son, Ian, then a daughter, Brittany.
Gary and Carmen talked about opening a furniture store, but also candidly discussed what would happen if he died.
Gordon rarely talked about the details of his military career. He initially served with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces, then became a sniper for the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force — an elite Army anti-terror unit.
Into Central America
In 1989, Gordon was with the outfit in Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama to capture its dictator, Manuel Noriega.
Two years later, the government of Somalia was overthrown and a civil war erupted. One result was disruption of the African country’s agriculture, resulting in 300,000 people dying of starvation. In 1992, a cease-fire opened the way for the United Nations to deliver food, protected by a coalition that included U.S. troops.
Much of the food was hijacked by Mohamed Aidid’s militia, and suddenly hundreds of thousands more Somalians were at risk of dying.
The U.S. Army aimed to prevent that, with Gordon’s Delta outfit landing in Mogadishu in the summer of 1993.
After Aidid’s forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers that were part of the United Nations, the U.N. Security Council called for the militia leaders to be arrested or killed.
On Oct. 3, Gordon was the sniper team leader during Operation Gothic Serpent, an American operation that targeted Aidid’s key advisers in the slums of Mogadishu. The showdown pitted 160 special operations soldiers — arriving in 19 helicopters and 12 vehicles — against 3,000 Aidid men.
During the assault, one of the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Nearby operational command sent a ground team with chopper support to rescue the men, but it made slow progress in heavy fighting with Aidid’s militia.
Then a second Black Hawk was shot down, and militia members and an armed mob converged on the site. Gordon and two sergeant first class subordinates, Shughart and Brad Hallings, had been providing fire cover from another helicopter, but they knew this wasn’t enough if the crew of the second downed chopper was to be saved.
Facing The Fire
The only way to rescue survivors was for the Gordon-Shughart-Hallings copter to go in. When superiors reluctantly approved the mission, Gordon grinned and gave a thumbs up, but Hallings had to stay behind to man the minigun because its operator was wounded.
“This was an example of direct, honest communication and extremely high trust between a team leader and higher command,” said Clayton Chun, author of “Gothic Serpent” and chairman of the Department of Distance Education at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. “The snipers’ training, adaptive thinking, values and commander’s confidence in them allowed them to unequivocally accept the very high risk and take action.”
Gordon’s lesson is that when something is crucial, push hard.
A smoke grenade gave Gordon and Shughart some cover as they fought their way 100 yards through a shantytown to the downed craft.
Overhead, other Army helicopters came under fire from RPGs and had to withdraw.
Michael Durant, the pilot of the second downed chopper, wrote in “In the Company of Heroes”: “To me, they were like Batman and Robin, only much better, and they just walked up to my aircraft like they were out for a stroll in the park. They acted as if they were in no particular rush, and they raised me up gently and carried me to an open spot on the ground to the right of the cockpit and set me down carefully in the dust. Without a doubt, they saved my life.”
Chun said, “One removed the three other severely injured crew members, while the other provided covering fire and then they quickly assessed their situation. They set up a defense perimeter and gave Durant a rifle to protect their rear, since he was the only one in condition to help them. They realized that reinforcements would most likely not arrive in time, but fought on against overwhelming odds, exhibiting selfless service and personal courage.”
Suddenly Durant heard Gordon say, “Damn. I’m hit.”
The pilot wrote: “He sounded almost irritated, like this was just going to make things harder for him. It wasn’t a scream or a plea, just a statement of fact, like someone who’d nicked himself with a vegetable knife. I never saw or heard from him again.”
When the site was overrun by the Somali militia, Durant was the only survivor and was held hostage for 11 days until he was released to the Red Cross. The bodies of 50 Somalis were later found surrounding the chopper.
Deadly Price
The Army task force did capture Aidid’s advisers, but at high cost. The Battle of Mogadishu resulted in 18 soldiers killed — five from Delta Force — and 73 wounded. The Somalis claimed 315 of their own died and 812 were wounded.
The Americans’ “overconfidence played a part in the problems during the raid,” wrote Chun. “Many believed that it would not last long and would encounter little opposition.”
The critical lesson is to never underestimate your enemy.
The U.N. declared an end to the mission in April 1994. Aidid was fatally wounded in a battle with a rival militia two years later.
On Oct. 14, 1993, in rain as the population of Lincoln stood by in honor, Gordon was buried in his uniform in a flag-filled cemetery.
Shughart (1958-93) was buried in Carlisle.
Carmen Gordon wrote a letter to their children and had it published to help others coping with similar loss: “Your father had two families. One was us and the other was his comrades. Once he committed to something, the way was clear. He chose to be a husband and father and never wavered in those roles. He chose the military and ‘I shall not fail those with whom I serve’ became his simple religion. When his other family needed him, he did not hesitate, as he would not have hesitated for us.”
On May 23, 1994, President Clinton awarded Gordon and Shughart the Medal of Honor, joining just 3,000 others in two centuries.
The award read in part: “Master Sergeant Gordon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty … reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.”
---
{[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gordon]}
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Debts of Honor
By Douglas E. Kneeland;
Published: May 29, 1995
{[http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/29/opinion/debts-of-honor.html]}
For much of the nation, it seems, Memorial Day has come to mean the unofficial start of summer, a holiday to spend at the beach or in the backyard. In small towns in this part of the country, however, people still feel deeply their obligations to the past. And there aren't many of us who don't willingly remember and honor our dead, whether they died in the service of their country or simply succumbed to illness or age.
I was about to describe the holiday as somber, and in an obvious way it is that. But there's also a certain joy in the sense of continuity and fulfillment that comes with pausing to pay tribute to those who have gone before.
Today, I'm thinking about someone in particular: Gary Gordon, a young man who left this town, his hometown (and mine), to join the Army in 1978, when he was 18 years old.
Lincoln is a pulp-and-paper mill town and shopping center of 5,500 tucked among the fir forests and spring-fed lakes of northern Penobscot County. Gary attended the local high school and was a running back on the football team. He wasn't in the starting line-up, but he always gave his best. He liked to draw and doodle and sometimes his teachers thought he did too much of it in class. His mother, Betty, says his favorite subjects for drawing were military -- guns and tanks and things. That could have been a hint of his later career path, but in the years of the Vietnam War a lot of young boys were attracted to the military.
Still, Gary's interest may have surpassed that of the others. He liked to read and regularly rode his bike to the library to borrow books. A while back a friend of Gary's was seeking some information on the Medal of Honor at the library and found what he was looking for in an Army Information Digest pamphlet published in 1962 on the shelf. Checking the card in the back, he discovered that the last person to take out the publication had been Gary Gordon, on Oct. 1, 1971.
On Oct. 3, 1993, 22 years and two days after he borrowed that pamphlet, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon of the Army's elite Delta Force died along with 17 other Americans in a battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Seventy-five soldiers were wounded.)
He and his partner, Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart of Newville, Pa., were lowered down from a helicopter in the midst of the battle and killed as they sought to rescue wounded members of the crew of another helicopter that had been shot down. The pilot of the downed craft, Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, survived (he was captured, but later released), and said not long after, "Without a doubt, I owe my life to these two men and their bravery."
In a ceremony at the White House on May 23d last year, President Clinton awarded Medals of Honor posthumously to Gary and Randy "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." The medals were given to their widows, Carmen Gordon and Stephanie Shughart. Gary's children, Ian and Brittany, were there, as were his parents, Duane and Betty Gordon. These are the only Medals of Honor that have been awarded for acts of valor committed in the years since the Vietnam War.
Perhaps this is a good place to say something about the history of the medal. Established July 1862 by an act of Congress, it is our nation's highest military honor as well as the first to be given. Until that time, Americans hadn't thought much about rewarding their military forces, but as tales of heroism began to emerge from the battles of the Civil War, politicians in Washington responded to a growing public sentiment for recognition of outstanding heroism.
The first six were presented on March 25, 1863, to survivors of a Union Army raiding party that had slipped into Georgia in civilian clothes in April 1862 to sabotage the Confederate rail link between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
All told, there are slightly more than 3,400 Medals of Honor on the books for the 132-odd years of its history, about half of those given for heroism during the Civil War, a time when brutal hand-to-hand fighting was the rule rather than the exception. World War I produced 96 winners; World War II, 432; Korea, 131, and Vietnam, 238.
In one corner of Duane and Betty Gordon's living room, there's a small display of a flag that flew over the Army compound in Mogadishu, one of Gary's green berets and other mementos of his military career. A drawing he did a few months before he was sent to Somalia, in August 1993, has a prominent place on the wall. The precise detailing of men in battle with a helicopter hovering in the background lowering reinforcement troops on ropes sometimes makes his parents wonder whether Gary had a premonition of his fate.
"It would have been really weird if there'd only been two of them," said his mother, noting that the drawing shows three men coming down the ropes, not two as when Gary and Randy made the drop.
On Oct. 14, 1993, Gary Gordon was brought home to Lincoln. "I was overwhelmed when I came into town that night and saw the crowd downtown in the rain and the cold," Betty said. Her eyes moist, she added, "You raise a child and then suddenly you're sitting in a car alone . . ."
She said some people ask why Gary wasn't buried at Arlington National Cemetery, outside of Washington. She tells them: "He didn't want to be. He wanted to be brought home here."
So he came home to lie in the cemetery on West Broadway, not far from the center of town and the library where he borrowed books on battles and the Medal of Honor.
Douglas E. Kneeland was a reporter and editor at The New York Times for 22 years. This is adapted from his column in The Lincoln News, a weekly newspaper."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick MSG Felipe De Leon Brown SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see) LTC Greg Henning Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant TSgt David L. MSgt Robert "Rock" Aldi SPC Margaret Higgins PO3 Phyllis Maynard SPC Diana D.
(12)
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LTC Stephen F.
randy shughart and gary gordon
Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon slide show to the song sacrifice by creed these men were heroes during operation Gothic serpent witch took place on October 3 ...
Image
1. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon's Medals and Decorations
2. 1st SFOD-D Recce/Sniper element SFC Brad Halling, Medal of Honor recipients MSG Gary Gordon, SFC Randy Shughart, and Silver Star recipient SSG Dan Busch (kneeling) who fought in Mogadishu, Somalia during Operation Gothic Serpent
3. USNS 'Gordon' {T-AKR-296) naming ceremony program, Newport News, Virginia, 1996
4. Gary Gordon Tribute drawing by Zach Perry
Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mAm-otNCAI
Background from {{http://lincoln.mainememory.net/page/1687/display.html]}
Gary Gordon
Responses from four students in Mrs. Harris' Social Studies class can be viewed below: Sierrah Davis
Item Contributed by Lincoln Historical Society
Gary Gordon was born August 30, 1960 in Lincoln, Maine. He graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. At the age of 18, Gordon joined the U.S. Army as a member of the First Special Forces Operation Detachment. He was also the leader of the sniper team. He was married to Carmen and had two children. His family never saw him in any of his military uniforms, even on his wedding day, because he wanted to keep his military career separate from his home life as much as possible.
Gary died October 3, 1993, while trying to save people in a helicopter that went down. He was a well-known man in his hometown for doing such a heroic act. In 1996, the U.S. Navy named a Roll-on/Roll-off cargo ship U.S.N.S. Gordon in honor of Gary Gordon. He received many awards after he died, but the most important one was the Medal Of Honor. This is because it is the highest U.S. military award given to the ones who risk their lives in combat and go above the call of duty. Gordon was the only man from Lincoln who went to fight in Somalia. Today, most soldiers still look up to the brave and heroic soldier, Gary Ivan Gordon.
Shawn Kinkead
"Create a ‘why’ question, research the answer, and create response answering the question"
Why was Gary Gordon so important to Lincoln?
Gary Gordon is a well-known man in his hometown of Lincoln, Maine. He chose to serve his country right out of high school at the age of 18. Instead of going off for further education in college, he chose to serve on his own free will. He was a man from Lincoln that went to fight for the U.S. Army in Mogadishu, Somalia. He was riding in a helicopter and he gave his gun to the pilot to protect himself. He told the pilot to leave and he and his partner took enemy fire so the helicopter would be safe away from the area of fire. He gave his life to save the lives of others who went on to live for a longer period of time. He has now earned the highest medal, the Medal of Honor. Gary Gordon was the leader of a sniper team known as Detachment-Force, or also known as Delta Force. He was incredible and loyal to his country and the people he served with. As loyal as he was, he still died as a hero saving lives and doing what he wanted to do.
Molly Gordon
Personal response
The fact that Gary Gordon risked his life in Mogadishu, Somalia and lost it for the sake of one other man is very heroic. This definitely made me stop and think about how lucky I am to have a dad that isn’t a part of the war. Gary had a wife, Carmen Gordon, of Lincoln, and two children, Ian, 6, and Brittany, 3, at the time of his death on October 3, 1993 at the age of 33.
When I read about Gary, it also made me stop and think about what I would do if I were in Gary’s position. I would like to think I would have made the same choice if I had been in Gary’s shoes. The man that Gary saved was Michael Durant, the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter. Gary’s last words to Michael were “Good luck” and Gary handed Michael his gun.
I think that this could impact our future by learning about this in school; it can encourage people to help others also. This might encourage others to show their bravery and serve our country. This event could impact my future because it make me stop and think maybe I would want to take risks to help others, just like Gary.
Works Cited
Day, John S. "Clinton Posthumously Honors 2 Soldiers for Bravery in Somalia." Bangor Daily News (Bangor) 5 April 2010.
"Gary Gordon." Web. Editorial. 23 May 1994. {[http://www.quad-a.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=76]}
"Gary Gordon." Lincoln, Maine. Lincoln, 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. {[<http://www.lincolnmaine.org/Gary20%Gordon/gary-gordon.htm>.]}
"Gary Gordon." Web. 6 April 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gordon
PBS. "Gary Gordon." Web. Editorial. 9 April 2010. {[http://www.pbs.org/weta/americanvalor/stories/gordon.html]}
Tenggren, Kevin. "President Presents Medal of Honor to Lincoln Soldier's Wife." Lincoln News (Lincoln) 26 Feb. 1994: 1-3.
1 "USNS Gordon Delivered to United States Navy." Newport News (Newport) 5 Sept. 1996:
FYI SGM Gerald FifeMaj Wayne CristSGM Bill FrazerCSM (Join to see)SSG Jeffrey LeakeCSM Bruce TregoSP5 Dennis LobergerSFC Bruce SmithSSG (Join to see)SPC Chris HallgrimsonMSG Glen MillerSSG Robert RicciSSG Paul HeadleeCWO3 Randy WestonSGT John Graham1651880-spc-kerry-good]SFC (Join to see)SSG Samuel KermonSSG Robert Mark OdomCpl (Join to see)
1. MSG Gary Ivan Gordon's Medals and Decorations
2. 1st SFOD-D Recce/Sniper element SFC Brad Halling, Medal of Honor recipients MSG Gary Gordon, SFC Randy Shughart, and Silver Star recipient SSG Dan Busch (kneeling) who fought in Mogadishu, Somalia during Operation Gothic Serpent
3. USNS 'Gordon' {T-AKR-296) naming ceremony program, Newport News, Virginia, 1996
4. Gary Gordon Tribute drawing by Zach Perry
Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mAm-otNCAI
Background from {{http://lincoln.mainememory.net/page/1687/display.html]}
Gary Gordon
Responses from four students in Mrs. Harris' Social Studies class can be viewed below: Sierrah Davis
Item Contributed by Lincoln Historical Society
Gary Gordon was born August 30, 1960 in Lincoln, Maine. He graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. At the age of 18, Gordon joined the U.S. Army as a member of the First Special Forces Operation Detachment. He was also the leader of the sniper team. He was married to Carmen and had two children. His family never saw him in any of his military uniforms, even on his wedding day, because he wanted to keep his military career separate from his home life as much as possible.
Gary died October 3, 1993, while trying to save people in a helicopter that went down. He was a well-known man in his hometown for doing such a heroic act. In 1996, the U.S. Navy named a Roll-on/Roll-off cargo ship U.S.N.S. Gordon in honor of Gary Gordon. He received many awards after he died, but the most important one was the Medal Of Honor. This is because it is the highest U.S. military award given to the ones who risk their lives in combat and go above the call of duty. Gordon was the only man from Lincoln who went to fight in Somalia. Today, most soldiers still look up to the brave and heroic soldier, Gary Ivan Gordon.
Shawn Kinkead
"Create a ‘why’ question, research the answer, and create response answering the question"
Why was Gary Gordon so important to Lincoln?
Gary Gordon is a well-known man in his hometown of Lincoln, Maine. He chose to serve his country right out of high school at the age of 18. Instead of going off for further education in college, he chose to serve on his own free will. He was a man from Lincoln that went to fight for the U.S. Army in Mogadishu, Somalia. He was riding in a helicopter and he gave his gun to the pilot to protect himself. He told the pilot to leave and he and his partner took enemy fire so the helicopter would be safe away from the area of fire. He gave his life to save the lives of others who went on to live for a longer period of time. He has now earned the highest medal, the Medal of Honor. Gary Gordon was the leader of a sniper team known as Detachment-Force, or also known as Delta Force. He was incredible and loyal to his country and the people he served with. As loyal as he was, he still died as a hero saving lives and doing what he wanted to do.
Molly Gordon
Personal response
The fact that Gary Gordon risked his life in Mogadishu, Somalia and lost it for the sake of one other man is very heroic. This definitely made me stop and think about how lucky I am to have a dad that isn’t a part of the war. Gary had a wife, Carmen Gordon, of Lincoln, and two children, Ian, 6, and Brittany, 3, at the time of his death on October 3, 1993 at the age of 33.
When I read about Gary, it also made me stop and think about what I would do if I were in Gary’s position. I would like to think I would have made the same choice if I had been in Gary’s shoes. The man that Gary saved was Michael Durant, the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter. Gary’s last words to Michael were “Good luck” and Gary handed Michael his gun.
I think that this could impact our future by learning about this in school; it can encourage people to help others also. This might encourage others to show their bravery and serve our country. This event could impact my future because it make me stop and think maybe I would want to take risks to help others, just like Gary.
Works Cited
Day, John S. "Clinton Posthumously Honors 2 Soldiers for Bravery in Somalia." Bangor Daily News (Bangor) 5 April 2010.
"Gary Gordon." Web. Editorial. 23 May 1994. {[http://www.quad-a.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=76]}
"Gary Gordon." Lincoln, Maine. Lincoln, 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. {[<http://www.lincolnmaine.org/Gary20%Gordon/gary-gordon.htm>.]}
"Gary Gordon." Web. 6 April 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gordon
PBS. "Gary Gordon." Web. Editorial. 9 April 2010. {[http://www.pbs.org/weta/americanvalor/stories/gordon.html]}
Tenggren, Kevin. "President Presents Medal of Honor to Lincoln Soldier's Wife." Lincoln News (Lincoln) 26 Feb. 1994: 1-3.
1 "USNS Gordon Delivered to United States Navy." Newport News (Newport) 5 Sept. 1996:
FYI SGM Gerald FifeMaj Wayne CristSGM Bill FrazerCSM (Join to see)SSG Jeffrey LeakeCSM Bruce TregoSP5 Dennis LobergerSFC Bruce SmithSSG (Join to see)SPC Chris HallgrimsonMSG Glen MillerSSG Robert RicciSSG Paul HeadleeCWO3 Randy WestonSGT John Graham1651880-spc-kerry-good]SFC (Join to see)SSG Samuel KermonSSG Robert Mark OdomCpl (Join to see)
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