On this date in Ranger history: 3 October 1993, TF Ranger launched its seventh mission, this time into Aided’s stronghold in the so-called Black Sea slum district, near the Bakara Market to capture two of his key lieutenants. Helicopters carrying assault and blocking forces launched around 1530 from the task force compound at the western end of Mogadishu airport, with a ground convoy moving out three minutes later. By 1542 the ground forces had arrived at the target location, near the Olympic Hotel. The blocking force quickly established perimeter positions while the assault force searched the compound for Aided’s supporters. Both came under increasingly heavy enemy fire, more intense than during previous raids. The assault team captured twenty-four Somalis and was about to load them onto the convoy trucks when a circling MH–60 Black Hawk was hit by an RPG and crashed about three blocks from the target location. Almost immediately, one six-man element of the blocking force, as well as a small MH–6 assault helicopter and a modified MH–60 Black Hawk carrying a fifteen-man combat search and rescue (CSAR) team, went to the scene. The MH–6 crew arrived first, landed in a narrow alley in the middle of a fire fight, and evacuated two wounded soldiers to a military field hospital. Next, the six-man Ranger blocking element arrived on foot, followed by the CSAR helicopter. As the last two members of the search and rescue team were sliding down the fast ropes to the crash site, their helicopter was also hit by an RPG, but somehow the pilot kept the helicopter steady until the two reached the ground safely and then nursed the helicopter back to the airport. The situation now worsened. Ground fire struck two more MH–60s, with one going down less than a mile south of the first destroyed helicopter while the other limped to safety at the airport. A Somali mob overran this second crash site and, despite a heroic defense, killed everyone except one of the pilots, whom they took prisoner. Two C Squadron snipers, MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randall Shughart, were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their sacrifice in defense of the crash site. Meanwhile, after loading the detainees on the ground convoy trucks, the remaining assault and blocking forces moved on foot to the first crash area, passing through heavy fire that wounded a number of soldiers, and occupied buildings south and southwest of the downed helicopter. There they established defensive positions, laying down suppressive fire to hold the Somalis at bay, and treated their wounded while working to free the pilot’s body from the wreckage. Taking a different route, the ground convoy force with the detainees loaded in trucks attempted to reach the first crash site from the north. Unable to find it among the narrow, winding alleyways, they came under withering small arms and RPG fire. Finally, after suffering numerous casualties, losing two 5-ton trucks, and sustaining substantial damage to the other vehicles, the convoy commander decided to return to the airfield. On the way, the returning convoy encountered a second convoy consisting of the task force’s internal quick reaction element. This force of Delta and Ranger personnel had left the airport in hopes of reaching the site of the second crash. This element loaded some of the casualties of the first convoy onto its vehicles and both returned to base. About this time, the U.S. QRF for the UN, a company of the 2d Battalion, 14th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, also tried to reach the second crash site, but the soldiers were pinned down by Somali fire. After a tough, dismounted fire-fight near the K–4 traffic circle, the QRF commander, Lt. Col. William C. David, was compelled to move his small and outgunned force back to the safety of the airport to regroup and work with task force personnel on a coordinated rescue plan. While these elements moved back and forth through the suddenly lethal streets of Mogadishu, the TF Ranger soldiers at the first crash site were running short of critical supplies. They received a resupply of water and ammunition from a helicopter that evening, but that MH–60 was also hit with RPGs and barely managed to power back to the airport before breaking down completely. The relief column was slowly being formed first at the airport and then at the New Port area of the city. It took some time to assemble tanks and armored vehicles from the Pakistani and Malaysian forces nearby, explain the plan to them, and integrate their forces with the 2–14th Infantry elements. The time spent in coordination was vital, however, for such a complex, multinational force operation. Armor was essential as well, given the numerous roadblocks and RPGs flying across the streets of the city. After hours of planning and collecting forces, the sixty-plus vehicle convoy of the 10th Mountain Division and attached elements moved out of the New Port area north to National Street, the Pakistani tanks in the lead. Closely followed by circling AH–1 Cobra gunships, command and control UH–60s, and reconnaissance OH–58A helicopters, the convoy moved in fits and starts along National Street toward the crash sites. Accidentally, two of the Malaysian armored personnel carriers with soldiers from the 2d Platoon, Company A, 2–14th Infantry, turned south off National and were ambushed. The soldiers moved quickly into the cover of nearby buildings. It would be four hours before they were rescued. The rest of the convoy continued up National and turned north on Shalalawi Street past the Olympic Hotel toward the first crash site. The 10th Mountain soldiers in the Malaysian armored personnel carriers broke through to the site at 0155 on 4 October. The combined infantry force worked until dawn to free the pilot’s body, receiving grenade and small arms fire throughout the night. Close fire support by AH–6 and AH–1 attack helicopters, in some instances firing 2.75-inch rockets, helped keep the enemy at bay during those long hours of darkness. Company A, 2–14th Infantry, less its second platoon, reached the second crash site, but no trace could be found of the lost soldiers and aviators. As dawn broke, all the casualties from the first site were loaded onto the armored personnel carriers; the remainder of the force moved rapidly on foot south along Shalalawi Street to National Street in what became known as the Mogadishu Mile. Rangers Lead the Way!
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015