Inside the Real Black Hawk Down | No Man Left Behind

So the overall mission in Somalia was really a relief operation. We were providing security for the relief organizations who were there trying to distribute food to the starving Somali. Aded was the warlord of the day, so he stepped in and started attacking the United Nations food shipments. Our mission was quite clear. Some guys have been slightly wounded in some of these firefights that we had been in, but nothing all that bad.

This was probably the six or seventh mission, another run-of-the-mill raid. We felt invincible; I know I did. Not long into the mission, we started to realize that this was not as we expected. The firefight surrounding the convoy was unprecedented. The longer we were there, the worse things were getting.

"Hey, we got somebody hit! Who's the casualty? What's his status?"

"He's KIA. Radio just went dead."

Because all of a sudden, now it's a whole different battle. That feeling of invincibility and vulnerability went away pretty quickly. That turning point came when I saw that Blackhawk get shot.

"Blackhawk down!"

"We have a Blackhawk hit!"

This was not a position we ever expected to be in. It's time to move; we've got to get to the crash site. Then I start to realize, okay, we've been shot down. It's only a matter of minutes before bad guys show up.

Part of the Ranger Creed is, "I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of an enemy."

And then they descended on me. They were completely out of control. They were doing things I had never seen humans do—route number 10 to 1. But when you know that that battle is mounting, there's so much on the line, you realize how dire the situation has become.

The last thing you can do is let your men see you lose hope. Not a day goes by where, at some point, I don't think about something in the streets of Mogadishu. We're one of the guys; we all sell ourselves short. We don't realize how capable we are and how important we are to people.

I had a moment where I thought I was going to die, but I never gave up. Never gave up. That level of bonding and that level of care for one another is extraordinary. Most people go a lifetime and don't know that.