Clip 029 | Prisoner of War | Michael Durant and the Black Hawk Down Incident

So Gary Gordon goes down first, and I hear him say he's hit. Randy then comes back around the nose of the aircraft and he asks me if there's any more weapons in the aircraft, and you know, you're asking about how I felt earlier. That sense of relief is now gone, you know, and I realize we're we're taking losses. I've only seen two guys here and one of them's down, and now obviously Randy's out of ammunition or getting close. Good news is I knew. I knew where the crew chiefs, them sixteen's were. I pointed him in that direction. He went and got him, and he gave me what I believe was Gary's weapon, and it only had half a magazine or so left in it. I fired those rounds out he went around the nose. I heard him make a radio call,

and the last transmission I heard was a reaction forces en route. Cause for maybe a little bit optimism, but not a whole lot. And then a big increase in in shooting goes on on the left side of the aircraft. I'm on the right, this is on the left. I'm laying on my back because of my injuries. They got me out of the aircraft and I'm on my back and then it all stops and all I hear is yelling and screaming and debris and you know, obviously not American voices. And I realized that everybody else over there's probably gone, and they're gonna come around the nose here any moment, and they did, and uh, I just fegared I was dead for sure. That's got to be. I mean, I can't even understand how how how that would feel, you know. I mean,

that's those that's those situations that you hear about, like oh, old military stories that just happened to someone, that it could happen. It's a possibility, but I don't think anybody ever actually thinks it would happen to them, you know, in that situation. I certainly didn't. And you know, you just do what you've been trained to do. I guess which is which is what I reverted to it at that point. And I had to credit survival school. Had I not been to survival school, honestly, don't know what I would have done. Because they teach you, they teach you strategies for various situations like this, and and uh, that's what I reverted to how long before you spoke with someone that spoke English so you could at least

know what was going on, or they can feed you some information or you know. Yeah, it would be that night, I would say, but very limited. And I was hurt bad, you know, so I don't even know that what I was doing or saying would have made any sense, you know. But at that point, my femur fracture was a compound femer fracture, so my boney come out of my leg. H you know, I'd been shot. Uh, it was I was in bad shape. But I seem to recall having a brief conversation with somebody that night. I don't really remember what was said, but and then the main conversation would be with the doctor who ultimately comes the following night. Yeah, what was going through your mind though? I mean, you say your seer training kicks in.

What kind of strategies you know? Were you going? I mean just kind of I guess, tell us, how did you make it through this? How did you relate with the enemy or make them relate to you so that you just weren't killed immediately? Yeah? Well, what I didn't know is that they had orders to capture an American. And I was at that point as I understand that the only one left alive at crashl too, so I had that in my favor. I guess, you know, maybe I could have done anything and I still would have survived. But I mean, the main thing is can't I can't say that, you know, there was a switch flip. But they teach you things like just don't do stupid things, you know, like if you much John Wayne movie, and you know John

Wayne's in this situation, he spits in their face, you know what I mean, Like the real world, that's a ticket to get in the bullet in your forehead, you know. I mean, you just have to not aggravate the situation, I guess, and be as as non responsive as as could be, you know what I mean. Don't don't cry out, don't you know, spit at them, don't call them idiots, don't you know?

You know what I mean, just I don't want to see. It's not really passive, but it's don't aggravate the situation because nobody's accountable at this point. You know, they shoot me, nobody knows the difference, and you know, you you have to do everything you can to survive, and and that's essentially the mode that I switched to once you know, the overad was was done. Yeah, you know, you have to, like you said, you don't want to aggravate the situation. You almost have to kind of build some rapport there because that you do whatever you can to stay alive, you know, keep your honor clean and all that. And I don't know, it's just that's pretty crazy. And you're also injured. You've been shot, I understand it was like a superficial wound. Even shot you're talking

about You've got this fractured femur, which on its own has got to be horrific, but now it's a compound fracture. Now it's compound fracture in a third world country where who knows if you're going to get an infection or something from that. You got a broken back. I mean, what a crazy situation. When they brought in a doctor. When they brought in the doctor, how much could they actually do for you? Not much, because you know, this was a big fight, most of which I was completely unaware.

I mean, it went on for fifteen more hours after I got shot down. Estimates are as many as two thousand wounded. So he's been dealing with all these wounded, some all these because he's a Somali doctor and he has no supplies left. I mean, he showed up I call it his blue tackle box. He had I think he had betadine solution, aspirin, and some forceps or whatever that he's probably used on twenty five people before he got to me. You know, so, uh, not much he could do. He did clean. His biggest concern was my femur, because you know, that's a you know, I mean, I've heard stories of people in sports that broke their femur, went to the hospital and got an infection, you know, So it's a that's a precarious injury to have in a

situation like that. So he he cleaned it the best he could with that betadine solution, and you know, there's no pain meds here, so he's he's probing the thing with with this wad of beta dye, trying to clean it all out and put a bandage over it. It's a miracle, and got an infection. I don't know how that I didn't. Yeah, I understand that you got a radio at some point, and you got a visit from the Red Cross as well. Yeah, yeah, they The Red Cross visit was a complete surprise. I had no idea it was coming. There were some hints, like they cleaned up the room. I mean, before the Red Cross came, there was dead flies everywhere, food all over the place. I mean's like I was living in a in a dump. They

cleaned that all up. They put some fresh pajamas on me. They brought in a mattress. I'd been laying on the concrete up to that point. I still had my original clothing on. So I'm thinking, something's got to be happening here. And sure enough, the Red Cross shows up. But one one woman who had been told without notice, hey, if you want to go see the prisoner, come with us, and she just grabbed her you know whatever she could grab it and came. I think the only thing she had with her was a was a form letter that I could write a letter to my family, which I did. Now. You were also they also made a recording of you. You know, they were asking some questions and stuff. Was this before or after the Red Cross visit? Before it

happened within the first twenty four hours, Yeah, they were. They were trying to get me to say, you know, political statements, which really is interesting because to me, they understand the significance of that better than the average American does. You know. They're considered sort of, I don't know, you know, certainly inferior to us from a military perspective. But they they realized the significance of a political statement much much more. They were not asking questions about, you know, are you with Delta force? Are you you know, are you how many operators did you have with you? You know, what kind of weapons? That They weren't asking any of that stuff.

There was two main things they were asking, which they ended up getting on tape. One was how you this is their exact words, how you think this mission in Somalia? And I said, I'm a soldier. I do what I'm told. And then they said you kill the people innocent? And I said, innocent people being killed is not good. And the Survivals School would consider those textbook answers for the last thirty years as far as I know. And they I don't think they knew what they had. You know, they thought I answered their questions, and they put that out on the air HOIAFS and in fact, in hindsight at least the survival experts to tell me that that actually helped me more than the far more than I help them, because now there's evidence that they have on a prisoner, and you know,

the international community is going to expect them to abide by the Geneva Convention and treat me humanely and all those things. Whereas when nobody knows whether I'm alive or dead, they can do what they want. Now with the radio that you receive, at what point did you start getting actual updates of what had happened, what occurred. Yeah, I'd have to go back and look at my notes and be exactly one hundred percent right here, but I think it was around day five or six where they You know, the thing they teach in survival school is if they're offering you something and they're not asking for anything in return, take it because I mean, that might be you know, your last bit of food, that might be your last glass of water,

that might be you know, you may never get another chance to get this, So don't play hardball and say, you know, I don't want anything unless they're asking you to do something. And they they said, you want a radio, And they said sure, then they brought me a transistor radio and I listened to Armed Forces radio broadcast in Somalia, and then the BBC, which was also broadcasting in Somalia, and that's where I started to learn about how big the battle was, you know, how many fatalities there were, what was going on politically outside it was. It was very helpful.

That's crazy that they would even let you have a radio, Like that's something I would never expect if I was taken prisoner, that they would be like, here's a radio where you can have all this information, is access to the world. It's a crazy story, I mean. And that's that's part of why I wrote my book, because my book is more focused on that part of it. It's not focused on the battle. My book, the battle ends in chapter one, you know, so it's almost a continuation of black Hawk Down. And that's kind of what I felt like, that part of the story had not been told. And that's why we can you talk about how the US forces knew that you had a radio and how they utilize that. Yeah, so actually you're now that you're helping me recreate the

timeline here. The Red Cross knew I had a radio and and so that the radio pre seeded the Red Cross visit and they told the unit that I had a radio, so they did all sorts of things. They started requesting songs for me, So I'm hearing dedications. I mean, you know, you could have just get more bizarre than this, probably not. You know.

The one thing that I'll never forget is I got a request or a song dedication, pretty sure I'm correct here from Bull Briley who was a good friend of mine, Donovan Briley, and it was the song whoops there it is I think or I like big Butts or something, because it was just it was just one of those songs of the time, right yeah, yeah, And you know it was typical Donovan. And what I did know is that Donovan was dead and it was just somebody else was doing on his behalf.

And then that was probably the last devastation, devastating thing to learn once I got released, is that Cliff and Donovan went on because I didn't. I did not learn that over the radio or prior to that point. Hmm. That's interesting that they hadn't been covered on either. Well, I'm not surprised it wouldn't be covered on AFN, but you think BBC would have something like that on there. Yeah. I mean it's crazy because everyone again, like you mentioned, everyone knows about the battle itself and stuff. There's been so much coverage of that, but you were oblivious to all of it.

You know, you were over here fighting your own back, trying to just stay alive, not knowing I'm sure that there's negotiations happening or anything like that, or not maybe aware of what level that they're at. Did I mean, how were you treated? I mean, were you being treated pretty well? Do you think, you know, considering? Yeah, not initially.

I mean initially it was pretty rough. They you know, there's been a you just got out of a firefight, you know, I mean they're shooting you and you're shooting them, so the hostilities are running high. But you know you mentioned earlier about building report. I didn't really do this on purpose. I was just I was just trying to do what I had learned to do in survival school, and I just did a few things that I do think built rapport and I guess humanized me. In fact, when the Red Cross came back and talked to the unit, they described what they said was the reverse Stockholm syndrome. The Stockholm syndrome is when the prison or sympathizes with their captors. The Red Cross said, it was like the opposite that my

captors were sympathizing with me. And again this wasn't some grand strategy. I was just doing of being me, but I was also trying to do what they taught me to do in survival school. And in the end, I think it did cause them to build a relationship with me, which I think, you know, ultimately will And there's if there's a rescue attempt and their orders are you know, shoot him before he's rescued, it's going to cause him to at least pause, you know, if if we've been communicating, you know, like this head guard for Inby, you know, I talked to him about his his many wives and and you know, they had this drug they called cot that they chewed, and they brought some in one time, and they wanted me to have some, and I acted like I was

going to do it. And then when the guards all left, I threw my portion to for Inby. So he ended up with a double ration and his big smile came across his face. I mean, just you know, stupid little stuff like that. That and he was with me from basically day three or four, I can't remember through the end, which is not that long. But when you're with someone twenty four to seven, you know, you start to realize that you know, they're that that's a human on the other side of this equation. Yeah, for sure, one hundred percent.

Did you know following this this event? Did have you? Have you been in contact with anyone that was on the Somali side? Liked, do you know who the doctor was? Did you? I don't know. It's twenty twenty four. It'd be easy to email someone if they're still alive. I don't know if that's a thing that's happened. So they reached out to me, actually, and I went to the unit and I said, hey, look, you know they've reached out to me. Give me some guidance here, you know. And I was a little surprised. And of course, it all depends on who you talk to, right I'm sure if I had talked to this other person, I would have got a different answer. But basically was told, you know, it's your call if you want to if

you want to meet with them, you know me, you know what you're obviously not going to disclose any any information, but in terms of whether or not you want to meet with them and SA to you. So I decided to meet with this guy. Now, he is not any of the characters we've talked about so far. He's an intermediary. And I agreed to meet him in a public place in Nashville. And I got there early, and I'm, you know, doing the tom Plancy thing, and I'm in some corner of the room looking trying to make sure this is not some sort of setup. And the guy shows up and he's I mean, I spotted like that. Some all these have a very distinct physical uh have very distinct physical characteristics. There's other countries in Africa like this, but they're very They're very

European looking, very you know, slender build, and I mean just based on his clothing, I knew as soon as he got there this was him. And he sits down and I waited a few minutes. He's obviously by himself, he's not looking around. There's nobody I could see anywhere. So I finally decided to go sit down with them, and they wanted me to be basically an intermediary between the Somalis and the American people. They even made a shirt which I still have that has a African American hand and a Caucasian hand holding hands and it says, you know, us Somali Alliance or something like that. I mean it looked like a kid did it with finger painting.

I mean, this wasn't very sophisticated. And they wanted me, and I basically at that point said, there's no way. I mean, there is so much bitterness and so much anger over what your people did. I can't do it. I mean, in my mind that would be betraying my comrades and I can't do it. And I said, but you know, there is something you could do for me. If you could recover any of the personal items from any of my crew or Randy or Gary and get those two mets so I could get them to the family, that might be a step in the right direction. And they never got anything to me, and that was it. I did get letters from a deed. I got a letter from Forimby, the headguard, and I got a letter from the doctor.

The only one I wrote back to was it was Forimby, because I felt like he went above and beyond to take care of me, and I simply said, you know, thank you. You did more for me than I probably would have for you, and I appreciate that it probably helped me survive. And that's all I did. That's so that's so crazy though, right that they would you know, you're getting letters from a warlord wanting wanting correspondence with you. I mean, it's it's interesting because I've had I've had people from the Taliban and stuff common on some of my videos before and be like, hey, I was there for that attack, you know I was.

I remember this, and I'm like and then I thought about it. I was like, would I ever have a person from the Taliban on the podcast, you know, just to talk to them and be like, you know, what was why were you there? What was your take on it? You know and kind of just kind of understand, right, you know, have a different kind of understanding there. Well, the situation is different depending on which Fox earlier. And I can tell you that, yeah, I mean your situation. I mean I completely understand after the videos came out of them, you know, mutilating bodies and stuff like what when did you hear about that that they were dragging Americans through the streets and stuff. Not until I was in the hospital, all the way back at for campbell Man.

I couldn't believe it, because you know, there was some installation around me once I got released, you know, yeah, which I never really thought of it in these terms, but the Sabals gave me more access to the media than than Americans did once I got released, you know. But for because that was awful. I mean, it was just awful. And all of those remains were from crash that too, because you know, we're the only ones who were over on so it was my crew, it was Randy and Gary and just I can't understand it. I mean I really can't.

I still can't come to terms with that. Yeah, I know, I mean I remember, I don't remember that obviously. I was probably ten or eleven when that occurred. I learned about it later on, and then when it came fresh to mind when the Blackwater contractors were drug through the streets and then burned and their bodies were hung from the bridge in Fallujah, and it was just like I was thinking, like, how can a person do that

Clip 029 | Prisoner of War | Michael Durant and the Black Hawk Down Incident

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