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On October 3, 1993 members of the elite US Army rangers and SOCOM's Delta Force executed a mission to attempt the capture of Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid. The opposition was much larger and better organized than originally thought, and the mission began to take a turn for the worse. In the ensuing battle, two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. As the second Blackhawk, containing Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, was hit and crashed, Master Sergeant Gary I. Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart, were in a nearby Blackhawk monitoring radio traffic. Gordon and Shughart were a sniper team for Delta Force and were assigned to over-watch the operation, engaging targets from the Blackhawk. As they monitored the downing of the 2nd Blackhawk it was evident that ground forces would not be available anytime soon to secure the crash site and protect the crew of four,
all of whom survived the crash. Gordon, the sniper team leader, requested they be inserted at the 2nd crash site. His request was denied twice before finally being approved on the third request. The initial insertion attempt failed and they had to insert about 100 meters away from the crash site. They were only armed with their sniper rifles and pistols.
Upon reaching the downed Blackhawk, which was under intense fire, Gordon and Shughart pulled the crew from the wreckage and proceeded to setup a defensive perimeter. The sniper team began to engage the attacking Somalis from the opposite side of the wreckage. Shugart was the first one to be mortally wounded at about the same time he ran out of ammo. Gordon returned to Durant and calmly asked if there were more weapons (he was out of ammo) and then retrieved some from the down Blackhawk, and began to re-engage the attackers. Again, out of ammo, he was only able to retrieve one weapon and five rounds, which he gave to Durant and said "Good Luck". He then drew his pistol and held off the attackers as long as possible, eventually being mortally wounded.
Concerning Shughart and Gordan, Durant made the comment "Without a doubt, I owe my life to these two men and their bravery...Those guys came in when they had to know it was a losing battle. There was nobody else left to back them up. If they had not come in, I wouldn't have survived."
Durant was captured and spent several days as a prisoner. He was the only survivor. The CIA quietly negotiated for the release of the bodies of the dead American soldiers, including Shugart and Gordon. Of those, Gordon's
body was the most badly mutilated and was dropped off in a plastic garbage bag at the
front of the U.S. mission.
For their bravery and actions beyond the call of duty, the United States government awarded both Shugart and Gordon the Medal of Honor, the only snipers to have ever received the MOH. The events of this mission have been well documented in the book Blackhawk Down, and the movie of the same title that was based on the book. In 1996 the US Navy named two ships after Shughart and Gordon in honor of their heroic actions. At Ft. Polk's JRTC, the largest town inside of "The Box" is named "Shughart-Gordon".
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