Black Hawk Down

The Leadership Breakfast speaker today was Matt Eversmann, one of the Army Rangers that went into Mogadishu, Somalia October 3, 1993. They went in to do a mission that was only supposed to take 30 minutes & ended up lasting over 12 hours!! Even though they lost several good men that day, they succeeded in their mission of capturing two men (and as a bonus, 19 others) close to the main bad guy, Mohamed Aidid.

But you can see that by watching Josh Hartnett as Mr. Eversmann in Black Hawk Down. Which I watched last night. You know, I’m a nerd & decided to “study” for the talk this morning.

What was great about this talk was Mr. Eversmann’s perspective on the events of that day which, surprise surprise, differed a little from the movie. What really touched me was the inspiration and reinforcement of his faith & duty to this mission. To our country. To those defenseless, starving people. He mentioned a memorial at Ft Bragg that had a Bible verse from Isaiah that really hit home for him. And he talked about how God told Joshua he was to pick up the leadership role where Moses left off and how Joshua was scared crapless but God told him five times that he would be there with him. Mr. Eversmann talked about how great leaders exhibit selfless service, courage & commitment to whatever it is they’re doing.

One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is when TWO Delta snipers go in to rescue the guys from the second Black Hawk crash. When everyone else was securing the first crash site, there was no one to help at the second. But these two guys rescued the only survivor, Michael Durant and themselves were killed because of the enormity of the Somalian crowd that descended on the helicopter. Very haunting. And Mr. Eversmann spoke about how those two men were so committed to their mission that they asked permission three times to be placed in that environment. How courageous they fought for as long and as hard as they could before they were finally killed. He said they are the epitome of selfless service to their fellow man. That scene in the movie is only a few minutes long but Mr. Eversmann’s compassionate words for those men definitely left an impression on me.

I’m not sure which Leadership Breakfast this is for me but every single year has been SO amazingly uplifting. Which is funny because the subject matter hasn’t really been that pleasant. But to see & hear how true leadership is being demonstrated is amazing and very inspirational and I’m grateful to be associated with a company that supports this event.