Action in Mogadishu, Somalia

2/14th Infantry Battalion Aids Rangers
3-4 October 1993

On 3 October, Special Operations Task Force Ranger (TFR) conducted a daylight raid on an enemy stronghold, deep in militia-held Mogadishu. The Rangers had successfully captured some of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid’s key aides but went to the aid of an aircraft shot down by enemy fire. They were quickly surrounded by Somali gunmen. The 2-14^th Infantry quick reaction force (QRF) was dispatched to secure the ground evacuation route. As darkness fell, the 2-14^th Infantry was reinforced with coalition armor and for three hours they fought a moving gun battle from the gates of the Port to the Olympic Hotel and the Ranger perimeter. The 2-14th was successful in linking up with the Rangers and began withdrawal under fire along a route secured by Pakistani forces. As dawn broke over the city the exhausted soldiers marched, rode, and stumbled into the protective Pakistani enclave at city stadium. For 2-14th soldiers, the ordeal had lasted over twelve hours. The 2-14th had a total of twenty-nine soldiers wounded and one killed, PFC Martin. Task Force Ranger suffered nineteen killed, fifty-seven wounded, and one missing (captured, later returned alive). Estimates of Somali militia losses were three hundred killed and over seven hundred wounded. With six and a half hours of continuous fighting, this was the longest sustained firefight by regular US forces since the Vietnam War.

This incident became the inspiration for the movie, Blackhawk Down