# Mogadishu, Somalia - Sunday, Oct. 3, 1993



## Bob Hubbard (May 15, 2003)

Sunday, October 3, 1993 
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON of Sunday, Oct. 3, 1993, attack helicopters dropped about 120 elite American soldiers into a busy neighborhood in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct several top lieutenants of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and return to base. It was supposed to take about an hour. 

   Instead, two of their high-tech UH-60 Blackhawk attack helicopters were shot down. The men were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city, fighting for their lives. When they emerged the following morning, 18 Americans were dead and 73 were wounded. One, helicopter pilot Michael Durant, had been carried off by an angry mob. He was still alive, held captive somewhere in the city.

Some additional information on this battle can be found in the following sources:

Black Hawk Down (Movie)

Black Hawk Down: An American War Story
The Original Newspaper Series Online 
http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/somalia/

The True Story of Black Hawk Down
http://www.historychannel.com/globa...e.jsp?EGrpType=Series&Id=8305398&NetwCode=THC

Memorials to these soldiers are found here:
http://www.nightstalkers.com/tfranger/blackhawkdown/contents.html 
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Casulties:
CW3 Donovan Briley
SSG Daniel Busch
CPL James Cavaco
SSG William Cleveland
SSG Thomas Field
SFC Earl Fillmore
CW4 Raymond Frank
MSG Gary Gordon
SGT Cornell Houston
SGT James Joyce
PFC Richard Kowalewski
PFC James Martin
MSG Timothy Martin
SPC Dominick Pilla
SFC Matthew Rierson
SGT Lorenzo Ruiz
SFC Randy Shughart
CPL James Smith
CW4 Clifton Wolcott


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