Editors Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Law enforcement officers from Maine are investigating a possible vandalism case of a gravestone belonging to US Army Master Sgt. Master SergeantGary Ivan Gordon was born on August 30, 1960, and died on October 3, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia. It wasn't a scream or a plea, just a statement of fact, like someone who'd nicked himself with a vegetable knife. Mike Durant survived and is alive today. Content on this website is free to use and share, but please provide a link back to Spec Ops Magazine as a source. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Vehicles roll out of the city. He was awarded the Medal of Honor with Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart for heroic actions he performed during Operation Gothic Serpent (Battle of Mogadishu) in October 1993. Before painting, I took the gun out of the stock and the handguard off as well as the rubber buttpad. Positioned approximately 3.5 miles southeast of Self Airfield, Shughart-Gordon is the largest of the three sites. On October 3, 1993, they engaged in Operation Gothic Serpent, a joint-force assault mission to apprehend key advisers to Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a Somali warlord. In total 50 Somalian bodies were found at the location. [1] According to Durant's book In the Company of Heroes, the Somalis counted 25 of their militia dead after the firefight. Their aim was to capture key allies of the powerful Somali warlord, Gen Mohamed Farah Aideed. Shughart and Gordon are dropped 100 meters from the site and the two men held off a horde of Somali attackers and ultimately saved the life of the lone survivor of the crash, Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant. As a result, Ive found myself increasingly interested in recreations of famous guns used around the world. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. President George H.W. Durant suffered a crushed vertebra in his back and a compound fracture of his left femur. It was second ship to undergo conversion from a commercial container vessel to a Large Medium Speed Roll-On/Roll-Off (LMSR) sealift ship. Sergeant First Class Shugharts 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. After their third request to be inserted, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader received permission to perform this volunteer mission. 1st Class Randy Shughart, who gave their lives to save their fellow soldiers during the fierce Battle of Mogadishu, are the focus of the latest graphic novel in the Association of the U.S. Army's series on recipients of the nation's highest award for valor. Eighteen American troops died in the ensuing 18-hour battle, including three of the four pilots in the downed Black Hawk. The mob finds him, and they start to beat him until one of Aidid's lieutenant's stops them and claims Durant as a hostage for the warlord. Wikipedia says this: "Aftermath After the battle, the bodies of several of the conflict's U.S. casualties (Black Hawk Super 64's crewmembers and their defenders, Delta Force soldiers MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart) were dragged through Mogadishu's streets by crowds of local civilians and SNA forces. Gary and Carmen talked about opening a furniture store, but also candidly discussed what would happen if he died. In the ensuing battle two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. Were the bodies of Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon recovered? [2][3], Shughart was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger. Your email address will not be published. A Black Hawk helicopter with the call sign Super Six-One was shot down first, and later that day the Black Hawk helicopter Super Six-Four was shot down. On October 3, 1993, during Operation Gothic Serpent, an assault mission to apprehend advisers to Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the Black Hawk helicopter with the call sign Super Six-One was shot down in the city. Shughart's body was recovered after several days. The views So now, lets talk about the build. Sergeant First Class Shughart continued his protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. While their heroic actions during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia resulted in their deaths, they efforts allowed for the rescue of a fellow soldier. The Battle of Mogadishu resulted in 18 soldiers killed five from Delta Force and 73 wounded. With the ARMS #18 mount and the Aimpoint PRO installed, we are now about 90% of the way to the finished product. Stories can drive us, inspire us, and we retell them for generations. Ray Dowdy and Staff Sgt. I didnt dive deep into what trigger Shughart would have had, or glass bedding of the action, etc. Their ammunition nearly depleted, Gordon and Shughart were killed by Somali militias gunfire. By most accounts, Gordon was killed first, with Shughart returning to an injured Mike Durant to give him Gordons carbine. [12] He then proceeded to openly criticize the president, telling him, "You are not fit to be president of the United States. [7], In the 2001 film Black Hawk Down, Shughart was portrayed by actor Johnny Strong. To me, it looks like he had thinner stripes on the gun than I usually paint, so I held the can closer to get the paint strip narrower. 2023 Springfield Armory. Please re-read the annotations in Black Hawk Down (book) Mcase07 ( talk) 20:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC) [ reply] "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.". Two Delta Force operators Master Sgt. United States Army Medal of Honor recipient (19581993), Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, List of post-Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients, "Randall D. Shughart, Sergeant First Class", United States Army Center of Military History, "For 8 Years, a Strained Relationship With the Military", "Cargo Ship Shughart (T-AKR 295) Named After Medal of Honor recipient", "Carlisle Barracks to dedicate Shughart Hall", "JFK Special Warfare Museum: Medal of Honor recipients", "Remarks by the President at Medal of Honor ceremony", "U.S. Army Infantry Homepage: National Infantry Museum Operation Restore Hope", "Naming of Randall D. Shughart United States Post Office Building in Newville, Pennsylvania", "Special Forces Association Chapter LXIV, SFC Randall Shughart Memorial Chapter, Carlisle, PA", "Veterans Memorial Grove and The Battle of Mogadishu Monument", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Randy_Shughart&oldid=1130617837, People from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Members of the United States Army Special Forces, American military personnel killed in action, United States Army Medal of Honor recipients, Battle of Mogadishu (1993) recipients of the Medal of Honor, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Randall Shughart was a US Army Delta Force soldier. Background: Shughart was born August . Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, were two Delta Force snipers who were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. views and opinions of Springfield Armory. Gordon wanted to be inserted to secure the crash site as hostile Somalis were converging on the area. Upon his third request, he and Shughart were inserted, armed with rifles and pistols. Your email address will not be published. The first thing you need is an M1A, of course. Shughart was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger. Atto is alleged to have masterminded the defeat of Aidid. Sergeant First Class Shughart continued his protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. Ridley Scott directed the movie. Two are Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart. The official citation states that Shughart had been killed first but Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, relates an account by Sergeant Paul Howe who heard Shughart call for help on the radio and noted that the weapon handed to Durant was not the distinctive M14 rifle that Shughart used. I only tried to match it in appearance and not performance. [1], Shughart joined the United States Army while attending Big Spring High School in Newville, entering upon graduation in 1976. Both Shughart and Gordon were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their selfless sacrifice, the first time it had been awarded since the Vietnam war. The bodies were returned in poor condition, one with a severed head. Grant served with and taught marksmanship for the United States Marine Corps. The ceremony was presided over by President Bill Clinton and attended by the families. Click the Go To Forum Thread link below to jump in and discuss this article and much more! I pulled up a picture on Google of where the stripes were and attempted to match it. The first phase of the assault went well, but shortly after an initial step, one of the Armys Black Hawk helicopters providing insertion and air support to the assault team, was shot down and crashed the downtown in the hostile controlled area. 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. Gordon rarely talked about the details of his military career. Sergeant First Class Shughart continued his protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. Hoot seems to be a merge of Hooten and Howe in the book, which features more prominently in the book than Hooten. Gary I. Gordon and Randall D. Shughart were true warriors and the finest American heroes. 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.