Today’s post is in honor of the 19 soldiers who gave their lives on this day in 1993 during Operation GOTHIC SERPENT: Sgt. Cornell L. Houston Sr. and Pfc. James H. Martin Jr. of the 10th Mountain Division; SSgt. William D. Cleveland Jr., SSgt. Thomas J. Field, and CW4 Raymond A. Frank of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment’s SUPER 64; CW3 Clinton P. Wolcott and CW3 Donovan L. Briley of SUPER 61; Cpl. James E. Smith, Spc. James M. Cavaco, Sgt. James C. Joyce, Cpl. Richard W. Kowalewski Jr., Sgt. Dominick M. Pilla, and Sgt. Lorenzo M. Ruiz of the 3rd Ranger Battalion; MSgt. Timothy L. Martin, SFC Earl R. Filmore Jr., SSgt. Daniel D. Busch, SFC Randy Shughart, and MSgt. Garry I. Gordon of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. (Delta’s SFC Matthew L. Rierson is killed in action on 6 Oct., but is typically included among the battle’s casualties.)
1794: President George Washington calls on the governors of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to mobilize troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington himself will lead the army – the only time a sitting president commands troops in the field. Henry “Light Horse” Lee, veteran of the American Revolution and father of Confederate General Robert E. Lee will also lead troops, and also participating in the campaign is Pvt. Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
1912: Four Marine battalions – including one led by Maj. Smedley Butler – converge and assault the fortress atop the 500-ft. Coyotepe Hill. Nicaraguan rebel commander Gen. Benjamin Zeledón is killed during the battle, and the rebellion effectively ends once the Marines capture the city of León in two days.
Butler, a veteran of the Boxer Rebellion, Banana Wars, Mexican Revolution, and World War I, is the only Marine in history to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor and the Marine Corps Brevet Medal.
1950: Major League Baseball rules that Philadelphia Phillies’ 17-game winner Curt Simmons, whose National Guard unit had just been activated during the Korean War, would not be eligible to pitch in the World Series, despite the fact that he was on furlough. With their ace left-hander out of the lineup, the Phillies will be swept by a New York Yankee team managed by World War I veteran Casey Stengel (USN) and featuring Joe DiMaggio (US Army), Whitey Ford (soon-to-be US Army), Hank Bauer (USMC), Jerry Coleman (USMC), and Yogi Berra (USN).
1962: Cmdr. Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, Jr. (USN) becomes the fifth American in space when he orbits the earth six times in his Sigma 7 capsule. After a nine-hour flight, he splashes down just half a mile from the recovery ship USS Kearsarge (CVS-33), joking that his target was the carrier’s “number three elevator.”
1993: (Featured Image) Special operations forces board several Army Black Hawk helicopters and set out to capture the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The snatch-and-grab operation was supposed to take only one hour, but when a rocket-propelled grenade takes out one of the helicopters, Operation GOTHIC SERPENT begins to spin out of control. As the vehicle convoy, originally intended to haul the captured leaders of the Habr Gidr clan, races through barricaded streets to establish a security perimeter around the first Black Hawk, another Black Hawk is shot down.
With resources stretched to the maximum and the vehicle convoy unable to reach the crash sites, Delta Force snipers Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall D. Shughart volunteer to land and provide cover fire for the second downed helicopter. Both are overrun and killed while protecting the four wounded crew members in the face of overwhelming numbers, and will be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.
Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison assembles a quick reaction force of 100 UN and 10th Mountain Division vehicles as the task force battles through the night. Nineteen American service members will be killed and 73 wounded during the intense urban combat of the Battle of Mogadishu. Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Durant, one of the downed Black Hawk pilots, is captured and held as a prisoner for 11 days.
2010: Ninety-two years after the end of World War I, Germany makes its last reparation payment demanded by the Treaty of Versailles.
