Hometown of “Black Hawk Down” MOH Operator To Plan Memorial

The town of Lincoln, Maine is teaming with the Special Forces Charitable Trust to build a memorial dedicated to the men who died in Somalia in 1993.

Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart were forever immortalized when they made the fateful decision to stay and fight, defending the injured soldiers at the site of a crashed U.S. military helicopter in Mogadishu in October 1993.

Nearly 25 years later, officials want to memorialize the two soldiers and the other 17 troops who were killed during Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia with a new memorial in Gordon’s hometown.

Gordon and Shughart served with the Fort Bragg-based 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force. They volunteered to protect the crash site and fought off attackers until they ran out of ammunition.

They were posthumously awarded the nation’s highest combat decoration, the Medal of Honor, for their efforts to protect the lives of American troops while sacrificing their own during a battle that has become known as “Black Hawk Down” thanks to a popular book and movie by the same name.

The pair are also the namesake of schools on Fort Bragg.

In June, the Special Forces Charitable Trust and Master Sgt. Gary Gordon Medal of Honor Memorial Fund will team up in Gordon’s hometown of Lincoln, Maine, for a memorial 5k run/walk aimed at raising money for a new memorial that will include a full-size bronze statue of Gordon on a five-foot granite base that will feature his Medal of Honor citation and the names of all of the American soldiers killed in Somalia in 1993.

The memorial, once complete, will be the only one of its kind that honors all of the soldiers lost in Mogadishu in 1993, according to officials.

It will be placed in a Veterans’ Park in Lincoln. It will be created by artist Douwe Blumberg, who also created the Horse Soldier monument in New York City and the Nevada State Veterans Memorial in Las Vegas.

The planned 5K race will take place in Lincoln, however, if anyone who would like to donate and run the race on their own, they can register online and even receive a finisher’s medal.

For more information and any questions about this event or the planned memorial, go to specialforcescharitabletrust.org/upcoming-events/.

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia