Former Delta Force sniper Brad Halling shined a light on the absolute brutality of the Battle of Mogadishu.
The Battle of Mogadishu began on Oct. 3, 1993, in Somalia when an American Special Operations task force conducted a capture mission against warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s forces.
Task Force Ranger was in the country to stop a famine and genocide. The elite task force consisted of Army Rangers, Delta Force operators and a small group of Air Force and DEVGRU (SEAL Team 6) operators.
What started as a simple snatch-and-grab mission turned into a fight for survival after two helicopters were shot down. The events were made even more famous with the 1999 book “Black Hawk Down” and 2001 film of the same name.
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Halling was a Delta Force sniper deployed as a member of Task Force Ranger when the events unfolded. He was on the same helicopter as Medal of Honor recipients Gary Gordon (KIA) and Randy Shughart (KIA).
Gordon and Shughart famously inserted at the crash site of a downed helicopter and fought to the brutal and violent end against a horde of Somali attackers. Their teammate, who lost a leg when his helicopter was hit, remembers the carnage more than 30 years later.
Halling said the following in a video released by Black Rifle Coffee, explaining how he lost his leg and the intense violence of the combat:
“By the time that bird went down, the comms were total chaos. Everybody’s world was in a window this big and it was as bad or worse than the window next to them. I look up and the door gunner, Paul Shannon, gets shot through the hands. The gun goes quiet. I got up. Helped him with his hand. I gave him my CAR-15 and I ended up on the minigun and I never got off the minigun. We could see [Mike] Durant’s helicopter. There had been requests made to go in and try and assist them. Gary [Gordon] and Randy [Shughart] went there believing that they were going to be able to recover these guys and get them out. And I believed it. When they left, I didn’t have any feeling that that was going to be the last time I saw them. But I will forever remember seeing them leave that aircraft. I can still picture it. I can even tell you Gary was out first and Randy got out after Gary was on the ground. What actually unfortunately happens is the crowds did realize this bird went down, but their cover was our bird. While we were over top of Gary and Randy, we got hit by that RPG. That RPG came up through the floor, went through my leg, and then up into the engine compartment. I still remember the flash being first, the heat that followed, and the immense over pressure in that bird as that round detonated. And I remember the unbelievable violence that airframe started shaking.”
You can watch Halling’s full comments below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
It’s impossible to understand what the Battle of Mogadishu was like unless you were a part of it. I’ve spoken with several men who were there, and while they all say “Black Hawk Down” does a nice job of capturing the chaos, a movie is still not close to the reality on the ground.
American soldiers found a city unleashed against them as they tried to secure two separate crash sites and save as many of their teammates as possible.
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Impossible decisions had to be made, and the Rangers, Delta Force operators and everyone else on the ground had to do whatever was necessary to survive.
Fractions of a second must have felt like a lifetime as enemy bullets and rockets rained down. Former Ranger and CAG operator Brad Thomas summed up the decisions that the men were faced with very well in my Instagram video below.
Be thankful such men exist and are on our side. Let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
