Veterans reflect on Battle of Mogadishu

On October 3-4, 1993 the Battle of Mogadishu took place. In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organisation in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Soldiers and about 1,000 Somalis were killed in heavy fighting. From the article:

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Veterans reflect on Battle of Mogadishu
By Anna PedronOctober 7, 2015

Retired Master Sgt. Rob Phipps, left, retired Sgt. Maj. Brad Halling, center, and retired Chief Warrant Officer Stan Wood (right), all veterans of the Battle of Mogadishu, spoke to Manuever Center of Excellence students Oct. 3 about their experience with the battle and the lessons they learned the hard way.
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FORT BENNING, Ga., (Oct. 7, 2015) -- Amid the sounds of heavy fire and the beating of Black Hawk rotors, with images of rappelling Soldiers and heavy smoke flashing behind him, Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, took the stage Oct. 3 to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu.

"Tomorrow at this time, plus or minus 30 seconds, Task Force Ranger put boots on the ground in the Bakaara market in Mogadishu, Somalia," Miller said. "They would find themselves in a firefight that went almost 20 hours, and when faced with extraordinary circumstances, those Soldiers did extraordinary things."

Eight veterans of the battle took the stage at Marshall Auditorium to share the experiences they had and the lessons they learned during Operation Gothic Serpent.

They were retired Master Sgt. Matt Eversmann, retired Col. Ron Russell, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Dan Jollota, retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Tony Rinderer, retired Master Sgt. Rob Phipps, retired Sgt. Maj. Brad Halling, retired Chief Warrant Officer Stan Wood and Maj. Gen. Scott Miller.

On Aug. 23, 1993, Task Force Ranger flew into Mogadishu, Somalia, and began operations primarily to capture or kill Somali warlords who were jeopardizing humanitarian relief efforts. On Oct. 3, 1993, Task Force Ranger conducted a raid in order to capture high-value targets associated with warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

Special operations forces assaulted the target while Rangers surrounded the area around the objective, and the plan was for a ground reaction force to move to the target building to extract the personnel on target with heavy tactical vehicles.

One Ranger, Pfc. Todd Blackburn, was injured when he fell from a helicopter during insertion and had to be evacuated. Shortly after that, a Black Hawk designated Super 61, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Cliff Wolcott and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Donovan Briley, was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

"It is easy to stand on the stage at Fort Benning 22 years later and sound a lot braver and more confident than I was on Oct. 3, 1993," said Eversmann, who was the leader of Chalk Four during the battle and in charge of Blackburn. "And I wish I could give you this Patton-like speech that would inspire and encourage you, but it would be a complete lie.

"Seeing one of my Soldiers bleeding two minutes into battle, not knowing what happened or if he was going to make it, was an indelible moment for a young sergeant who had never been deployed before. The reality is I was scared, and muscle memory simply took over. And all the things I thought I was prepared for - didn't matter.

"I wish I'd asked things before I left because there was a lot of knowledge around me. But I was too intimidated to ask anyone for advice."

Members of the ground reaction force evacuated Blackburn and the HVTs from the area while all remaining personnel on the ground attempted to reach and secure Wolcott and Briley's crash site.

A combat search and rescue team was inserted at Super 61's crash site by a Black Hawk designated Super 68. Super 68's pilot was Jollota (now CW5), who was able to allow the team to reach the ground despite being hit by an RPG during insertion.

"An RPG has a very unique sound," Jollota said. "There was no doubt in my mind I had been hit by something pretty heavy. Fear took over, so I immediately took in power and I was getting out of there. My crew chief in the back saved the Rangers' lives. He screamed at me, 'Sir, you've got to stop. We've got Rangers on the ropes.' These poor guys were hanging on to the fast ropes for dear life as I picked this thing up to a hover. The crew chief talked me back down into the hover hole. We got those Rangers off and we took off."

"If you don't think personal relationships are important, keep this in mind - there would be no Rob Phipps if it wasn't for Dan Jollota," said Phipps, one of the Rangers who fast roped into Cliff Wolcott's crash site from the CSR Black Hawk. "Because I was one of those guys on the rope."

Despite being hit by the RPG, Jollota was able to fly the damaged aircraft back to the U.S.-controlled airfield.

Twenty-eight minutes after Super 61 was shot down, the Black Hawk designated Super 64 and piloted by Chief Warrant Officers 3 Mike Durant and Raymond Frank took an RPG to the tail rotor and crashed about a mile from the first crash site.

Two snipers, Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart, were inserted at Super 64's crash site in an attempt to defend crash survivors. That convoy never reached the crash site of Super 64, as it was eventually overrun. All personnel, with the exception of Durant, were killed. Durant was captured by Aidid's militia. For their actions, Gordon and Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

It was not known until later that all personnel at Super 64's crash site were lost. In fact, Jollota returned to the fight in a new aircraft to search for any sign of survivors.
Meanwhile, the initial assault force eventually reached the first crash site. The personnel at the site remained under heavy fire, and were trapped for the night.

"For some reason in our profession we have this odd inclination to go get shot at. There is a level of anxiety associated with our profession," Miller said. "And I was scared that day. We were all scared. When all of a sudden the guy next to you, you watch him go down, and you realize it hurts when you get shot. And you've got this level of fear and anxiety that is gripping. And what you have to do is figure out how you're going to work through it."

"Committed to the relationships, we were not going to leave. We were going to die in place if that's what it took until we were going to bring everyone out of there," Phipps said.

Ultimately, a multinational force of Malaysians, Pakistanis and members of the 10th Mountain Division were able to mobilize a relief convoy that arrived at the first crash site around 2 a.m. Oct. 4. By 6:30 a.m., all U.S. forces had been evacuated.

"I learned about joint experiences from a young age because I had so many experienced guys on my bird - not just international, but cultural as well and the importance of knowing how to work together. Our partners all over the world are crucial to the fight," Phipps said.

During the operation, 18 U.S. service members were killed in action. Between 800 and 1,000 enemy forces were estimated to have been killed. After 11 days in captivity, Durant was released.

Common themes from those involved in the battle were the power of the personal relationships that had been forged before the battle, strengthened once challenges arose and continued in the aftermath and to this day, and the MCoE initiative to train smart, fast, lethal and precise Soldiers.

"Personal relationships are the most important thing you will do in your military career, because you will rely on them again and again and again," Russell said. "In this organization you grow up together and those relationships will continue for the rest of your life."

"What drove me and filled me with peace that day was I never thought we were going to be overrun. Not with the guys I was with. If something had happened to me and I died, I knew I was going home. Because someone was going to get me home. That's a relationship piece that is really, really hard to explain," Miller said.

"When it comes down to it, you've got to be smarter than the bad guys and sometimes you've got to be smarter than yourself," said Rinderer, who flew numerous missions in support of the rescue operations. "Not just what you take with you, but have to continue to get smart as things change. We spent 18 hours going back and forth between the battle and the refuel station, and in the eight minutes it took to refuel and get back, you came back to a whole new battle. You have to be smart enough to catch up with that, and know that it's the reality of war.

"To get fast, you have to slow down. It's nothing more than doing the basics over and over until the muscle memory gets it right. Once you have that, you'll be able to react fast. Better to go slower and do it right the first time than try to be too quick and have to do it over and over again.

"Something we have witnessed in every battle in history is weapons aren't lethal, people are lethal. No weapons system is any more lethal than the person, team or organization wielding it. You have to have the mentality of 'you (the bad guys) are not getting to our guys without going through us first' - the mindset that you're going to use your weapons to grind them into the ground."

"Practice makes precision, and you have to hone your skill and continue to develop it as long as you are in the service in order to be precise," Eversmann said. "Marksmanship is a skill every Soldier needs, regardless of rank, military operations specialty or branch. Because it doesn't matter where you are at any moment of any day in any theater, you are going to be in the fight and you've got to be prepared."
"Anybody who doesn't think that marksmanship is important - we were outnumbered out there," Miller said. "If you miss, it's your life. When you can step out with composure, skill and competency to eliminate a threat you save someone's life."

"Smart, fast, lethal and precise isn't just a battalion or brigade thing, it goes all the way down to the individual Soldier. Be adaptive, think on your feet - don't be afraid to think outside the box or take action," Phipps said.

Miller ended the event by quoting Shakespeare, saying, "He who bled with me today shall always be my brother," and reading the names of the men who were killed in action that day.

"I've got a whole lot of brothers. These men didn't stop after Oct. 3-4. These men spent the next 20 plus years making the Army better everywhere they touched it, and they said never again," he said.

LEST WE FORGET

•Master Sgt. Gary Gordon

•Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart

•Staff Sgt. Daniel Busch

•Sgt. 1st Class Earl Fillmore

•Master Sgt. Timothy Martin

•Cpl. Jamie Smith

•Spc. James Cavaco

•Sgt. Casey Joyce

•Cpl. Richard Kowalewski

•Sgt. Dominick Pilla

•Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz

•Staff Sgt. William Cleveland

•Staff Sgt. Thomas Field

•Chief Warrant Officer 4 Raymond Frank

•Chief Warrant Officer 3 Clifton Wolcott

•Chief Warrant Officer 2 Donovan Briley

•Sgt. Cornell Houston

•Pfc. James Martin Jr.