Medal of Honor · Somalia
Gary Ivan Gordon
Master Sergeant, U.S. Army
- Date of Action
- October 3, 1993
- Location
- Mogadishu, Somalia
- Medal Presented
- May 23, 1994
- Status
- Awarded posthumously
Values Embodied
- Courage
- Sacrifice
- Commitment
Official Citation
This citation is paraphrased from public-domain histories and is pending verbatim verification against the Congressional Medal of Honor Society archive.
Master Sergeant Gordon, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as Sniper Team Leader, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Master Sergeant Gordon's sniper team provided precision fires from the lead helicopter during an assault and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade fires. When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site.
After his team was inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon armed the critically wounded crew chief of the helicopter and placed him in the best position to return fire. Under intense small arms fire, Master Sergeant Gordon provided covering fire for the pilot until he, too, was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life.
Biography
Before the War
Gary Ivan Gordon was born August 30, 1960, in Lincoln, Maine — a small mill town in the Penobscot River valley. He enlisted in the Army in 1978, rose through the infantry, and was selected in 1985 for 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. By 1993 he was a Master Sergeant and a team leader — a quiet, deeply religious man known in the unit for mentoring younger sergeants and for a reputation as one of Delta’s best snipers.
The Action
On the afternoon of October 3, 1993, Task Force Ranger lost two Black Hawk helicopters over central Mogadishu during the raid on the Bakaara Market. Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart were the sniper team in an orbiting helicopter overhead. A ground reaction force could not reach the second crash site, where pilot CW3 Michael Durant was trapped, badly injured, and surrounded by an advancing Somali militia.
Gordon and Shughart asked — three times, according to radio transcripts — to be inserted on the ground to defend the wreckage until help could arrive. On the third request they were cleared in. They held off the crowd around the Black Hawk for some time, moving between the dead and wounded, running out of ammunition, and keeping the pilot alive. Shughart was killed first. Gordon gave Durant his last rifle and five rounds of ammunition, said “good luck,” and moved back to the nose of the aircraft, where he was killed a short time after.
Durant alone survived the crash site and was taken prisoner; he was released eleven days later.
After the War
Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Clinton on May 23, 1994 — the first Medals of Honor presented since the Vietnam War. Gordon is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Lincoln, Maine. His wife Carmen accepted the Medal on behalf of their two children.