Medal of Honor recipient Clint Romesha, whose story is told in The Outpost, is second from right. Photo credit: Army.mil
October 3rd isn’t one of the better known dates in the annals of war heroism but here at The War Movie Correspondent, we’re on a mission to change that.
That’s because October 3rd marks the anniversary of two extraordinary military operations that together, resulted in four Medal of Honor recipients: the Battle of Mogadishu immortalized in Black Hawk Down and the Battle of Kamdesh, brought to the screen in The Outpost.
October 3-4, 1993: The Battle of Mogadishu
Black Hawk Down tells the riveting story of the chaos that ensued when two Army Black Hawk helicopters engaged in a precise but routine operation budgeted for only 30 minutes crashed in what became a two-day standoff that would ultimately kill 19 Army Rangers and injure 73 others.
Two Delta Force snipers, MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart, were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions defending the helicopter crews.
Watch the trailer for Black Hawk Down here:
October 3, 2009: The Battle of Kamdesh
The Battle of Kamdesh took place in eastern Afghanistan on October 3, 2009 when Combat Outpost Keating was overrun by a force of 300 Taliban. Eight Americans were killed and 27 wounded in one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. The gritty moment-to-moment reality of the battle became the basis for the book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper and later The Outpost.
Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha and Staff Sergeant Ty Carter were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the battle.
Watch the trailer for The Outpost here: