Immediately upon fast roping into the target the team was engaged by militia. A CCT NCO, while returning fire, moved with his element to a small courtyard, linking up with another assault element. He took up security at the door and instantly started engaging numerous targets in an alleyway across the street. He called for fire support – talking in a Blackhawk onto the target – miniguns where used to clear the alley allowing the assault element to move to the objective site. At the objective site his element linked up with other members of the assault and aided in the movement of 15 detainees to a pickup point. After the detainees had been loaded, his element moved, while under constant fire, to helicopter crash site #1 (the northern site). Once close to the crash site, and upon seeing that the assault element was exposed, the CCT NCO immediately threw his body against two chained metal doors leading to a walled courtyard. With the help of a Special Forces (SF) team member, the doors gave way and they cleared the courtyard and the attached house, they subdued and flex tied 5 Somalis while clearing this area. This became the strong point for the rest of the night – security positions and a casualty collection point were established. Throughout the night this position took repeated heavy fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). The CCT NCO established communications with the security elements and overhead (airborne) fire assets. On the spot, he developed a perimeter marking system (one easily recognizable from the air), and brought repeated and suppressive fire runs down the adjacent alleyways and streets. He accomplished all of this without "eyes" on the target – maintaining contact with the security posts, receiving information on enemy positions and passing instructions for marking targets. He would then format and pass critical instructions to the gunships, talking the pilots down to the enemy positions and giving adjustments. On several occasions, he laboriously talked the gunships onto a target less than 20 meters from friendly forces. His actions were instrumental in suppressing enemy fires that endangered our forces under the extreme conditions of night operations in an urban environment. His personal comments concerning this action included "without the awesome job done by the gunships, I don't think we would have made it out."

Visitor since 23 February 1998

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