The 'Black Hawk' Chaplain
DAVID KITHCART: In 1991 Mogadishu, Somalia, was a hot bed of controversy. Warlords and various factions were fighting for the rule of the country while an estimated 300,000 Somalis died of starvation.
In 1992 25, 000 U.S. combat troops were sent to assist in the United Nations
humanitarian mission to deliver food and supplies to the desperate people. Warlord General Mohammed Farrah Aidid had now emerged as the countrys leader.
By June 1993, U.S. troop strength was reduced to 1, 200 soldiers. That same month, 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were massacred during a Somali weapons inspection. The U.N. Security Council then called for the capture of Warlord Aidid. When a U.S. helicopter strike killed over 50 Aidid clansmen, his war with the United States was on.
U.S. Army Ranger Staff Sgt. Jeff Struecker was part of the 26, 440 elite troops deployed to Somalia in August 1993. Their mission: neutralize Aidid.
JEFF STRUECKER: The way Task Force Ranger executed their missions October 3 and 4 was not the only mission that Task Force Ranger executed. In fact, it was the seventh mission that they had done in the city. Generally, what happened was that Special Operations soldiers loaded onto helicopters. They lifted off from the airfield where we were staying, and they arrived at the rooftops and the alleyways of the building that we were going to hit whenever we found somebody very influential in Aidids clan or Aidid himself.
They would slide on those ropes--what we call fast-roping-- slide down the ropes to the four corners of that building. They would secure that building, make sure that no one inside the building got out, and make sure that anyone in the general vicinity would not get in as the rest of those Special Operations guys did business inside the building. As the helicopters were lifting off and flying to the buildings, Hummvees would leave the airfield, generally about 10 to 12 Hummvees. I was usually in the lead Hummvee, so I had the responsibility to navigate this column of vehicles to the objective building.
Wed place ourselves at the four corners of this target building, and we would become the extreme outside perimeter of this building.
The mission was a success for the first 30 minutes. We had accomplished everything that we had expected to do. We had secured these two very influential men in Aidids government and Aidids clan. We had secured everybody else inside the buildings.
DAVID KITHCART: For reasons still unknown to this day, Pvt. First Class Todd Blackburn missed his "fast rope" and fell from the helicopter face first 70 feet to the ground.
JEFF STRUECKER: When the medics got to him, they didnt think that Todd Blackburn would survive. As soon as I got in the area, as soon as we rolled up into the area, the target building, my commander was calling me on the radio saying, 'Hey, Todd Blackburn is very seriously injured. You need to get him out of here and take him back to the airfield.'
DAVID KITHCART: The men loaded Blackburn onto a vehicle as the convoy of three Hummvees, with Jeffs in the lead, left for the airfield, but as they turned onto a main road
JEFF STRUECKER: We were being shot at by rocket-propelled grenades and various machine guns from every direction--from buildings, from rooftops, from doorways, from alleyways. Everywhere that we drove we were being shot at by intense enemy fire.
DAVID KITHCART: Jeff quickly ordered his men to return fire from both sides and the rear of the Hummvee. They continued to drive slowly to keep from injuring Blackburn any further.
JEFF STRUECKER: I would shoot everything to the front. Together the four of us would take out as many targets as possible on the way back.
DAVID KITHCART: But tragedy struck as a Somali gunman shot at the right side of the Hummvee.
JEFF STRUECKER: Dominick Pilla and this gunman pulled the trigger at the same time. They fired a burst of bullets at the same time, and both of those men shot and killed each other at the same moment.
Most of the men in my vehicle started to panic at the situation. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw that the entire backside of the vehicle was just red already with Dominick Pillas blood. Ill be honest with you: At that moment I started to lose a little bit of control.
But my next reaction, without even thinking, was to tell the man in the backseat, Tim Moinahan, that he was going to have to now face his weapon to the right and shoot at all the targets to the right, take Dominick Pillas sector of fire and shoot at all those targets until we got back.
As I made it back to the airfield, I felt a sigh of relief like, 'OK, Ive made it back. Ive lost one of my men, and its not what I wanted to do, but Im safe and the rest of us are safe.' I thought, 'The rest of the assault force will be back in just a few minutes, and the operation will be over with.'
At that moment, my platoon leader, Lt. Larry Morse, came up to me and grabbed me by the arm and said, 'Theres been a Black Hawk helicopter shot down. You need to get your men ready to go back out into the city.'
DAVID KITHCART: Another soldier who overheard Lt. Morse pulled Jeff aside.
JEFF STRUECKER: 'Sergeant, you will cause very serious psychological effects on your men if you leave them sitting in that blood the rest of the night.' He said, 'You need to go clean your vehicle up.'
I had been writing letters back and forth to my wife, Dawn. She had written to me just about a month-and-a-half earlier saying that she was pregnant with our first child, and as I was cleaning the blood off that back of the vehicle, I was thinking, 'Im never going to see my wife again. Im never going to see my child. Im not going to survive tonight. None of us will.'
DAVID KITHCART: But Jeff, who had been a Christian since the age of 13, realized that he was duty-bound on two fronts.
JEFF STRUECKER: As a Christian, I had both my responsibility to Christ and to God, but I also had a creed that all rangers live by. That creed is that even if I am the last man on the objective, I will sacrifice everything to accomplish the mission. It was very logical for me to pray, 'God, just make us successful at this operation. Whatever else happens, I dont want to disappoint my nation. I dont want to embarrass my country. Just make us successful in this operation. God, Im in over my head. I can see it very clearly now, and I need Your help." What became very significant for the next several moments is in the landscape of my mind, I was watching the events of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and no longer cleaning the blood off the back of the vehicle.
I remember thinking about the prayer that He had prayed the night that He was going to the Cross. The prayer was, 'God, if it is possible, allow this cup to pass from me.' In my mind and in my heart I was thinking, 'God, if theres any way possible, allow this thing to pass from me. I dont want to go back out there and I dont want to die.' Then I remembered the next statement that Jesus made, and it was like He was speaking it right into my ear. I remember hearing Him say, 'Not my will but yours be done.' I started to think, 'God, I dont know whats going to happen next, but not my will, but Yours be done.'
I realized two very important things. The first thing that I realized was that no matter what happened to me in life, my life was firmly in Gods hands. No matter what, I was going to go back out into the city, and either I was going to go home to my family, or I was going to go home to heaven. Either way, I was going to be fine. From that moment, it was what Scripture describes as the peace that transcends all understanding. From that moment on the rest of the night, I never feared what was going to happen to me next. I really believed, very firmly believed, the rest of the night that I was still going to die, but I never feared for my life the rest of the night. As I was on those vehicles, I was thinking and I was praying, 'God, dont let another one of my men die until I have a chance to talk to them about faith in Christ.'
We drove back out into the city. This time we were trying to find the crash site where Mike Durants helicopter had crashed. There were a couple of Somalian gunmen. One of them had a rocket-propelled grenade. The other two had machine guns. They started to fire at my vehicle. I watched this rocket-propelled grenade from ten feet away from my vehicle go right across the hood of my vehicle, completely miss my vehicle, and slam into the wall next to me. As soon as that grenade missed me, two of the gunmen that were right next to our vehicle, ten feet away from us, opened fired on our vehicle. You could have hit us with a rock closer than you could have hit us with their machine guns. Miraculously, all of those bullets missed the men on my vehicles. They shot my vehicle up pretty badly, but no one was injured.
DAVID KITHCART: Jeff and his men stopped and loaded dead and wounded soldiers onto the vehicles and took them back to the airfield.
JEFF STRUECKER: A third time my commander said to me, 'You need to get more ammunition and get ready to go back out into the city.' I spent the next ten hours on a main road, National Street in Mogadishu, Somalia, slinging lead back and forth with the enemy. When the next morning rolled around, although my vehicle was shot, was full of bullet holes, and three of the four tires in that vehicle were shot flat underneath me, none of my men, although some of them were wounded, none of my men were killed.
DAVID KITHCART: The soldiers returned to the airfield the morning of October 4.
JEFF STRUECKER: The shape of the unit just overwhelmed me. Now, it wasnt the bullet holes that were overwhelming or the blood that was everywhere. Certainly there was blood everywhere and bullet holes everywhere, but it was the condition of those men who had survived the operation. I saw battle-hardened rangers with tears in their eyes saying, 'Hey, what is going to happen to me if I go out there and I lose my life?" I spent probably the next 24- to 48- hours, every chance that I had, and I shared Christ with as many friends of mine as would listen. I was amazed at the amount of men who before would have nothing to do with it who were sitting there listening. At that moment, I thought, 'God, if You give me an opportunity like this again, I will take it.'
DAVID KITHCART: As news of the battle in Mogadishu broke worldwide in the media, the men were stunned to see the reports.
JEFF STRUECKER: For the rangers, a group of men who have a creed that spells out very clearly that they will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy, for us it was a symbol of disgrace that bodies were being drug up and down the streets. Every single one of us was very willing to get our stuff back on, to go back out there, no matter how intense the situation, and to get those bodies back.
DAVID KITHCART: But new U.S. policy prevented Task Force Ranger from further military action. More frustration came a few days later.
JEFF STRUECKER: The news report hit the streets and the video footage of Mike Durant in captivity, so we sat on the edge of our seats and we looked at the picture, trying to find some clue of where this guy was. Most of us thought to ourselves, and said to our commanders, 'Sir, give me the opportunity to go back out there. Ill get those men. Ill rescue Mike Durant. Well bring them back.'
DAVID KITHCART: Weeks later, Jeff and his fellow soldiers were sent back home. Mike Durant was eventually released, as were the bodies of the fallen soldiers. Todd Blackburn, the Ranger who fell 70 feet, did recover. Jeff entered the grueling three-day, non-stop 'Best Ranger' competition several times. In 1996 he and his partner won the prestigious event. But Jeff believed that God was calling him into ministry and left the Army to study at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
In 2001 Jeff returned to the Army as a chaplain stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He has never forgotten his fellow soldiers and their search for answers after the battle of Mogadishu.
JEFF STRUECKER: It has been the motivation ever since then to want to be back in the Army doing what Im doing now. I consider myself to have the greatest job in the Army. I have the responsibility to serve not only my country, but to serve Christ and to represent Him to all of those men, to the roughly 500 men in my unit, and their families. God has given me a great responsibility in that. Whats amazing is how gracious God is, because I am, by no means, the model Ranger. I am, by no means, the perfect example of what a Christian soldier should be. If it were up to me in Mogadishu, I probably would have laid down my weapon, went into the corner, curled up in a ball and hid. But it was my faith in Christ that gave me the strength to go back out there and to do my job. I tell soldiers today all of the time, 'Listen, I have a belief that transcends death.' I tell them any soldier in language that theyll understand-- I tell them, 'I have a bulletproof faith, and it has never been shaken since that moment.'
