Gordon (T-AKR-296)
First U.S. Navy ship named in honor of Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon who was a U. S. Army soldier killed in action during Operation Gothic Serpent and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near Mogadishu, Somalia on 3 October 1993.
Gary Ivan Gordon was born on 30 August 1960 in Lincoln, Maine. He later attended Mattanawcook Academy and enlisted in the Army on 4 December 1978 under the delayed-entry program. Upon entering on active duty in February of the following year, Gordon completed the Combat Engineer and Basic Airborne Schools at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Fort Benning, Ga. respectively.
After completion of the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg, N.C. in July 1979, Gordon was assigned to the 2nd battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Devens, Mass. In November 1986, he volunteered for duty at Fort Bragg with the Special Operations Command.
Gordon was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia with other Delta members in the summer of 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger during Operation Gothic Serpent, a joint-force assault mission to apprehend key advisers to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. During the assault, two Sikorski UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters (Super Six One and Super Six Four) were providing insertion and air support to the assault team and were shot down and crashed in the city.
On 3 October 1993 Gordon's sniper team was providing fire from the lead helicopter during the assault and at the two helicopter crash sites while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fire from Aidid’s militia. When he learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart volunteered to be inserted in order to protect four critically wounded men despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy combatants closing in on the site. After his third request to be inserted, Gordon received permission to perform the mission.
When debris and enemy ground fire at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, they were inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol and under intense small arms fire from the enemy, they fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Gordon pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft and then established a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position.
Gordon used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers until depleting his ammunition. He then went back to the wreckage and recovered some of the crew's weapons and ammunition. Despite the fact that he was critically low on ammunition, he provided some of it to the dazed pilot and then radioed for help. Gordon then continued to travel the perimeter in order to protect the downed crew. After Shughart was fatally wounded and his own rifle ammunition was exhausted, Gordon returned to the wreckage again and recovered a rifle with the last five rounds of ammunition and then gave it to the pilot with the words, "good luck." Then, armed only with his pistol, he continued to fight until he was mortally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Nearly 50 Somalian bodies were found at the location.
Gary Ivan Gordon is interred at Lincoln Cemetery in Penobscot County, Maine.
(T-AKR-296: displacement 32,589; length 954'; beam 106'; draft 36'; speed 24 knots; complement 30 civilian and 5 active duty; class Gordon)
Built as the Danish Jutlandia in 1972; the ship was assigned to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) as Gordon (T-AKR-296) on 23 August 1996. She was converted at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., with a contract date of 23 May 1997; sponsored by Mrs. Carmen R. Gordon, widow of Gary Ivan Gordon; and entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service with MSC with a primarily civilian crew. A non-combatant Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) vessel, Gordon and other ships of her class are used to pre-position tanks, trucks, various wheeled vehicles and supplies needed to support an army heavy brigade. She is assigned to the Atlantic surge force and is maintained in Ready Operational Status 4 (ROS-4) in a lay-up berth at Manama, Bahrain.
Detailed history pending.
Paul J. Marcello
12 January 2016
