Black Hawk Down' Speaks in Chambersburg (Print View) Page 1 of 2

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05/29/2008 Subject of 'Black Hawk Down' speaks in Chambersburg

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. — Retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Durant knows what it is to be “In the Company of Heroes,” the title of the book he wrote recounting his military career, the most harrowing episode of which was the time he spent as the prisoner of a Somali warlord after his helicopter was shot down over Mogadishu on Oct. 3, Michael J. Durant, right, talks with Franklin 1993. County Area Development Corp. President L. Michael Ross Wednesday at the Letterkenny Business Opportunity That 11-day ordeal was one of the central stories to Mark Bowden’s Showcase. Durant, who survived being shot 1999 best-seller “Black Hawk Down,” as well as the 2001 film version of down and captured in Mogadishu, Somalia, the book, in which Durant was portrayed by Ron Eldard. in 1993, spoke at the dinner about the personal, political and military lessons Before speaking to the 177 guests Wednesday at a dinner kicking off the learned from the battle. (Credit: Don Aines / third Letterkenny Business Opportunity Showcase, Durant sat down and Staff Writer) talked about the lessons he and the military learned from the Battle of Mogadishu.

“Look back, but don’t stare” was a piece of personal advice Durant said he has taken to heart. It came in a letter from a cancer survivor, the only member of her support group still alive.

It’s all right, Durant said, to remember the friends he lost and those who died to save him, but not to live in that past.

“It’s what I’d want them to do” if the situation was reversed, he said.

Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart, who lived in Newville, Pa., as a boy, and Master Sgt. Gary Gordon of Lincoln, Maine, received the Medal of Honor posthumously for protecting Durant and his three crew members after their Black Hawk helicopter, Super Six Four, was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The two Delta Force snipers fought their way into the crash site as 100 Michael J. Durant, a retired U.S. Army or more Somali militiamen converged on the wreckage, keeping them at helicopter pilot shot down over Mogadishu, bay until their ammunition was exhausted and they were killed. Somalia, in 1993, was the guest speaker Thursday for the Letterkenny Business Crewmen Bill Cleveland, Ray Frank and Tommy Field survived the Opportunity Showcase Wednesday in crash with severe injuries, but were killed by Somali militia. Durant, who Chambersburg, Pa. He recounted some of suffered a broken leg and back in the crash, was spared by his captors. the lessons learned from Somalia. (Credit: Don Aines / Staff Writer) Durant, a veteran of Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 and Desert Storm in 1991, was at first treated harshly in captivity. As his captors became less hostile, he was allowed to read a Bible, keeping coded notes in the margins, a secret diary of his captivity. http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=195083&format=print 5/29/2008 The Herald-Mail ONLINE - Subject of 'Black Hawk Down' speaks in Chambersburg (print view) Page 2 of 2

The U.S. Army lacked critical resources it had requested for Somalia — armor, artillery, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers off shore and AC-130 gunships in the air, Durant said. Despite that, the Army acquitted itself well in an urban battle its soldiers were not specifically trained to fight, he said.

Eighteen soldiers died, but hundreds of Somali fighters were killed as the Rangers and Delta Force units fought their way to safety. Durant said the political fallout of the battle was more damaging, as the United States withdrew from Somalia.

“That told the radical groups and the nation states that oppose us that we won’t stand up to a tough mission,” Durant said. “We’ll critique our way into withdrawal.”

The military learned valuable lessons about fighting in urban environments and against insurgents. Those lessons have proved effective in the war on terrorism, he said.

While the views of the presidential candidates differ widely on the war in Iraq, Durant said he believes all three realize that an “immediate and total withdrawal would be catastrophic.”

In practical terms, the situation in Iraq is much different from the limited military role the United States played in Somalia, making a withdrawal a far more complicated logistical exercise.

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http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=195083&format=print 5/29/2008