The phrase Blackhawk Down is imprinted on the hearts of our country! Join us in Downtown Dunedin on October 3, 2026, commemorating the 33rd Anniversary of Operation Gothic Serpent with our Mogadishu Mile Remembrance & Walk. This annual commemoration honors the heroic actions of Task Force Ranger and remembers the fallen warriors in Somalia on October 3, 1993. The daylight operations began in the afternoon on October 3 and did not end until the final Ranger element departed the city in a running gun battle now known as the Mogadishu Mile on the morning of October 4th. This story is captured and told in Mark Bowden’s best-selling book, “Blackhawk Down,” as well as in the major motion picture, by the same name.
Every act of remembrance matters! Whether it’s a quiet reflection, a shared story, or sponsoring a Ranger to walk. How you honor the fallen is up to you, but if you're healthy and able, we invite you to join us on a 1-mile walk in remembrance of that historic day.
All proceeds directly support active duty and former Rangers, their families, and Operation Warrior Hope.
Downtown Dunedin’s H.O.B. Brewing Company located at 931 Huntly Ave. will open their doors early on October 3rd to welcome you and honor this historic day. Registration check-in will open at 8:45am and the morning kicks-off with our 10am Mogadishu Mile Remembrance Walk and concludes with a delicious catered brunch, decorated military speakers and special military guests, and a special tribute to each life that was lost 33 years ago.
Thank you for your support!
Event details and schedule
History of the Battle:
In the late Summer of 1993, then-President Bill Clinton deployed a Special Operations Task Force (Task Force Ranger) to Mogadishu, Somalia, to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah-Adid. The bulk of that Task Force was composed of American Rangers from the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. On 3-4 October 1993, Task Force Ranger became embroiled with Somalia militiamen in an overnight gun battle, the intensity of which was likened, at the time, to the most intense firefights in Vietnam. (This story is captured and told in Mark Bowden’s best-selling book, “Blackhawk Down,” as well as in the major motion picture, by the same name.)
On the afternoon of 3 October 1993, Task Force Ranger boarded Army helicopters for what was expected to be a “textbook” raid to capture two of Adid’s lieutenants. Using rocket-propelled grenades, Somalia militiamen shot down two US Blackhawk helicopters, turning a planned raid into an unexpected rescue mission. Driving that change of mission was the galvanized commitment of American Rangers to “never leave a fallen comrade.”
When the US and Pakistani relief convoy arrived on the morning of 4 October to relieve the battered Ranger force and return them to the Mogadishu Olympic Stadium, there was only enough room in the armored vehicles for the dead and severely wounded. The walking wounded and the few unscathed Rangers would move from the helicopter crash site to the Olympic Stadium on foot – a distance of about a mile – all the while still under attack from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. At the end of the battle, 18 Americans were dead and 73 were wounded, and one was captured. To those moving by foot on the morning of 4 October, that relatively short but lethal distance between the helicopter crash site and the Olympic Stadium became known as “The Mogadishu Mile.”