Hoch came and spoke today. He told us about a story from Mike Durant, the only person that survived Black Hawk Down. There were many drug lords that were controlling Somalia, and the US was air-dropping supplies to the people that needed them in the middle of the cities. The drug cartels were stealing nearly everything from everybody else. The US sent 15-20 Black Hawk helicopters to Somalia. We thought it was going to be really easy for us to win, but it did not go nearly that well. The drug cartels had RPG's that they used to shoot down helicopters, but they didn't have enough money to continuously fire at them. 6 days after the first helicopter drops and everybody dies on impact, Mike Durant's helicopter went down. 3 of the 6 people on the helicopter died on impact, the other two died within a short amount of time. Two men went it to attempt to save them, but they died shortly after getting there. Mike was taken as a POW, and was moved around often, while having a severed back bone, and a broken femur. He was previously taught how to make a POW video, and sent one to the US. Mike was shot in the shoulder with an AK-47, and received burn marks when he pulled it out of his shoulder. The US sent many people there and they got him back after 13 days in Somalia.
When he returned to the United States, he was in a hospital for over two months. The military thought he was incapable of flying a helicopter. He trained and ran a 10K to get his helicopter license, and he passed his test and got his wings back.
He does around 300 speeches a year, has a few kids, and his daughter wants to be a Black Hawk pilot.
You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!
Comments