Famed Black Hawk pilot recalls battle

On October 3, 1993, a humanitarian mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, turned violent after the failed capture of a local warlord. The world watched in shock as things rapidly grew out of control. As The Battle of Mogadishu ended, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been destroyed and 18 U.S. servicemembers were dead.

24 years later in an auditorium at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the sole Black Hawk crew survivor, Ret. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Durant shared his story and lessons from Mogadishu at a professional development seminar.

Durant started his presentation with photos of his time in service and explained the importance of good people. He showed a photo of his crew in Somalia as he began to explain his perspective of what happened that fateful day.

“The harsh reality is that the only surviving crew member is here with you today,” said Durant. “I had a highly trained crew and we were capable of doing the mission without a doubt. The responsibility for what happened does not rest with them.”

Task Force Ranger had been ordered to capture Warlord Mohammed Aidid and intelligence suggested he would be near the Olympia Hotel on a particularly bad side of town. The unit mobilized for an aerial insertion and ground extraction. Durant made the drop off and began circling the combat zone at distance to avoid enemy contact, believing his work was done.

“We missed Aidid by thirty seconds,” said Durant. “Then everything started going wrong.”

While providing overwatch for the troops on the ground, the first Black Hawk was shot down, killing everyone onboard. Durant and his crew were sent in to replace the first team, though the threat of surface to air missiles had not been dealt with.

Durant’s helicopter was hit in the gear box by a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Initially, the damage appeared to be superficial. But suddenly, the impairment caused the helicopter’s tail rotor to disintegrate and Durant’s Black Hawk began to spin violently out of control as he attempted to fly toward the airfield.

“There are two ways to stop a helicopter from spinning – you can dive and pick up speed to straighten the helicopter out; we didn’t have the altitude to do that,” said Durant. “Or, you can shut the engine off. We flew like a vending machine.”

The helicopter plummeted to the earth. Durant managed to put it down on the wheels in an undeveloped part of the city, likely saving his and his co-pilot’s life, at least for the time being.

But, the speed of the impact was immense. It tossed around the flight engineer in the back of the helicopter as it destroyed the aircraft, creating a carnage of shattered shanty shacks and steel.

“The force of the crash permanently compressed the bones in my spine and snapped my femur straight in two,” said Durant, the crowd cringed. “It’s likely the flight engineer died instantly.”

Unable to free himself from the cockpit, militants closed in on the wreckage and Durant prepared himself for death.

Circling above, two Delta Force snipers providing covering fire in another helicopter overhead radioed in and asked for permission to extract Durant. They were denied.

They asked again, and were denied.

They asked a third time, refusing to leave a man behind, and were finally given permission.

 U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. First Class Randy Shughart were inserted near the crash site. After helping Durant out of the cockpit, they fought valiantly to defend Durant, his co-pilot and the crash site.

 Both were killed in action after fending off waves of Somali militants until their last rounds were spent. Their selfless act of heroism awarded them both The Medal of Honor posthumously.

The Somalis circled around the helicopter, and to their surprise, found Durant propped up against it with his empty rifle across his chest. He was spared only because of his value as a hostage.

The Somalis scavenged his gear right off of his body while they yanked and twisted his boots off of his feet, causing his femur to puncture out of his leg.

The Somalis stole away with Durant and paraded him through the streets of Mogadishu while the world watched in horror before taking him as a prisoner of war.

Held in captivity for 11 days, Durant was shot in the arm by a Somali militant and interrogated on film which was famously released worldwide.

He was released to The International Committee of the Red Cross and flown to Landstuhl, Germany, where he began his long recovery.

Out of harm’s way Durant realized his fight was just beginning He was told his injuries were so severe he would never fly again. The bones in his spine had compressed 33 percent from the impact of the crash and he had a metal rod in his leg. He was devastated, and determined to prove everyone who doubted him wrong. This was his next mission.

“I wasn’t going to let them tell me I was never going to fly again after all I had been through,” said Durant. “In 1995 I decided I was going to run the Marine Corps Marathon. They took the rod out of my leg in January – the run was in November.”

He told himself he needed to finish to prove to himself that he was qualified and capable of resuming flying for the U.S. Army.

“No matter what you do, finish,” Durant told himself. “There is no excuse for quitting. Quitting is never an option. You can alter your course, you can change the bar you shoot for, but you can never quit.”  

After concluding his tale, Durant offered to answer individual questions and servicemembers flooded the floor and lined up across the room, eager to meet him and shake his hand.

Today, Durant owns a successful Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business with partners across both NASA and the Department of Defense. When he isn’t managing his company, he travels the world telling his death-defying story while sharing tactical, operational and political lessons from his outstanding life and Mogadishu to both servicemembers and civilians alike.