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Delta Force’s Samuel Booth Foster: Mogadishu and the ‘Better Deal’

by George E. Hand IV Aug 5, 2023
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Sam Foster rocking a bow tie and a killer smile.
Sam Foster rocking a bow tie and a killer smile.

Early Morning, 4 OCT 1993

October 04, 1993, as we gathered in our team rooms for morning PT, a man from our headquarters element came from room to room, instructing everyone to move upstairs to our Squadron Classroom. The TV screen to the front of the room came on, and a newsreel played showing the wounded Michael Durant from the downed Black Hawk Super 61 as he made benign statements about the US Task Force Ranger involvement in Mogadishu.

Views of skinny black children were seen bouncing up and down where they stood on the blades of Durant’s ruined aircraft. The scene shifted to Somali militia dragging the noosed bodies of Durant’s flight crew nude through the streets. At the end of the newsreel, the TV was switched off as all gaze shifted to Major John Quincy Adams, our squadron commander seated at the front of the classroom, clutching a single sheet of paper.

The Road to Mogadishu

John Adams read aloud a list of the men killed in action during the pitched Battle of the Black Sea in the capital city of Mogadishu, Somalia, the previous night. He announced the names of Gary Gordon and Randy Shugart, the two men missing from the C Squadron three troop (snipers). He finally read a staggering list of the many wounded and their essential condition. In the list were the names of brothers from my own Selection and Assessment class.

John Adams concluded by saying: “Report time back to squadron is 2200hrs; we deploy to Mogadishu Somalia by way of Cairo Egypt tonight… dismissed.” The squadron silently stood and filed out of the classroom with a smattering of mumbles and short whispers. I entered the team room, stunned, followed by Sam.

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