Randy Shughart grew up on a dairy farm in Newville, Pennsylvania, enlisted straight out of high school in 1976 and went to the 2nd Ranger Battalion. He left the Army, came back three years later because civilian life did not hold him, and was selected for Delta Force in 1986. Those who served with him describe a very quiet man and one of the finest rifle shots in the unit.
On 3 October 1993 he and Gary Gordon were sniper overwatch in a helicopter above Mogadishu when Super Six-Four went down in the middle of the city. They could see crowds converging on the wreck and no one else who could get there.
Three times they asked to be inserted. Twice they were told no. The third time they were allowed to go, knowing what the odds were: two men, two rifles, one pistol each, and a crash site in an area held by thousands.
They got Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant out of the cockpit, moved him to cover, handed him a weapon and then stood the perimeter. Durant later described Shughart coming round the nose of the aircraft, handing him his own rifle with the words 'good luck', and going back to the fight. It was the last thing he heard from him.
Both men received the Medal of Honor posthumously — the first awarded to American soldiers since Vietnam. Durant came home after eleven days as a prisoner and has spent the thirty years since making sure people know the names. A Navy destroyer, USS Shughart, carries his.
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