Michael J. Durant - In The Company Of Heroes

IN THE COMPANY OF HEROES

MICHAEL J. DURANT

CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 4 (USA, RET.)

WITH STEVEN HARTOV

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

New American Library

Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

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For information address G. P. Putnams Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.

First New American Library Electronic edition, May 2004

Copyright 2003 by Michael J. Durant with Steven Hartov All rights reserved

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following: Lyrics from Hells Bells 1980, J. Albert & Sons, Pty. Ltd. Used by permission.

Lyrics from Seminole Wind by John Anderson. Alamo Music Corp on behalf of itself and Holmes Creek Music. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Lyrics from Rooster (written by Jerry Cantrell) reprinted with permission of Buttnugget Publishing,

1992 Buttnugget Publishing.

Except where otherwise credited, photos have been graciously provided to the author by people on active duty who wish to remain anonymous.

MSR ISBN: 0-7865-4684-0

AEB ISBN: 0-7865-4685-9

Designed by Brian Mulligan

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Frontispiece: Detail of Mike Durants marked-up kneeboard map of Mogadishu, AugustOctober 1993

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Acknowledgments

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ross Perot, Al Zuckerman, my editor Doug Grad, and all the great staff at Penguin Group (USA) who helped turn the concept of this book into a reality. Id also like to thank my writer, Steven Hartov, for producing an extremely great read, and for the laughs we had in the process.

Thanks to the crew chiefs, maintainers, armament dogs, and support elements that do the work to make flying possible. Every time an aircraft lifts off, it does so as a result of your hard work and dedication.

To the customers out there in the community, past and present, I appreciate having had the privilege to work with you and to say that I was once a part of such a prestigious band of brothers. To my commanders, whose leadership and professionalism served as a model for us all. To the crew of Super 64: Ray Frank, Bill Cleveland, and Tommy Field; and to Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon for sacrificing it all so that others might live. To the families of the fallen, for your graciousness and compassion throughout such a trying ordeal.

Stephanie, your letter speaks volumes about the people who stand behind the soldiers that we send off to make war on our enemies; thank you for allowing me to share your thoughts. A special thanks to Gerry, Dan, Jane, Stan, Wendy, Cliff, Clay, Brian, Father Baker, Nick, Tom, and my parents for the pictures, the fact-checking, and a lifetime of unwavering support. To my family and my children for giving purpose to it all, and most of all to my wife, Lisa, for the late-night sanity checks, the encouragement, the great ideas, and the love.

The acts described in these pages appear unique in many ways, but they have been repeated throughout our proud history in the countless displays of courage and sacrifice that are the hallmarks of the American patriot. This work is dedicated to those patriots, the millions of men and women who have served this great country and those who continue to serve our nation so valiantly.

Introduction

I first met Michael Durant in April 1997, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when I was researching my book Black Hawk Down. Durant was still an active-duty pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a unit with a top-security clearance, and it had taken me more than a year to get permission to interview him.

When I arrived at Fort Campbell, I was surprised to find myself with not one, but three public affairs officers as escorts. They introduced me to Durant, a fit man with ramrod posture and a very serious manner, and then asked if we minded if they all sat in on the interview. It seems they werent worried about a security breach; they just wanted to hear Durant tell his story.

No wonder. Durants experience is one of the most harrowing in the history of the American military, and one of the most compelling ever told. Shot down over Mogadishu, injured in a hard crash landing, briefly rescued by two brave Delta Force operators, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, who died protecting him (and who were awarded posthumous Medals of Honor, the first since the Vietnam War), beset by an angry mob, stripped, and beaten, and certain of his own pending death, only to be spared, carried off into captivity, shot, publicly interrogated, and finally, after eleven days, released. The pilots story was about being thrown into a terrible, exhausting extreme of human experience, and somehow coming back alive. We all listened spellbound.

In a calm, deliberate voice, Durant unfolded the tale. He clearly remembered every detail of the event. Given the lives that were lost around him, Shughart, Gordon, his copilot Ray Frank, his crew chiefs Bill Cleveland and Tommy Field, Durant felt compelled to get the story straightindeed, he told me that the only reason he had agreed to talk to me was his concern that the incident be recorded correctly. In captivity he had kept notes secretly scribbled in the mar-gins of a Bible given him by visiting members of the International Red Cross. His determination to remember his story had begun then, lying in pain on a cot in some dark quarter of Mogadishu, not knowing if he would ever see home again.

When he did get home, Durant found himself in an awkward and often painful predicament. He was celebrated as a hero, but he didnt feel like one.

All I did was get shot down, he told me.

The real heroes were the men who died trying to save him, yet Durant was the one who got to come home and get on with his life.

There were offers for books and movie deals, some of which rankled the families of those whose men didnt make it. The army considered Durants performance under terrifying circumstances to have been a model for soldiers in captivity. Durant did a dignified and admirable job of coping with it all, of acknowledging the heartfelt admiration of his countrymen, never failing to downplay his own heroism and salute that of the men who fought to save his life. In light of it all, its little wonder that he took such care in telling the story to me.

When I went to Somalia and found the man who had supervised Durants captivity, Abdullahi Hassan, known as Firimbi, he confirmed Durants story down to the smallest detail, and was filled with admiration for the American helicopter pilot.