Veterans across the U.S. are honoring living and fallen soldiers who died during the deadly "Black Hawk Down" battle in Somalia 20 years ago, though one ceremony was forced to move due to the government shutdown, CBS News reported.
Between Oct. 3 and 4, 1993, U.S. troops arrived in Somalia to capture lieutenants that worked for Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed. However, their arrival in the country's war-torn capital was met with swarms of Somali gunmen that ended up killing 18 American soldiers and injuring 73 others, in addition to shooting down two Black Hawk helicopters.
In Plano, Texas, family and friends remembered Army Ranger Casey Joyce who was sent on the mission just two years after graduating high school.
"He loved every bit of his job," said DeAnna Joyce-Beck, the soldier's former wife.
Joyce-Beck, who has since remarried, recalled the hours leading up to the death of her former husband, who was shot and killed in the fight.
"We knew something was going on and, by that night, I had heard on CNN that 11 soldiers had been killed," she said. "Woke up that next morning and got a knock at the door."
At the memorial, which was forced to relocate from Fort Bragg due to the government shutdown, a fellow solider from the attack approached the former army wife and told her he owes his life to her former husband, who pulled him to safety from the helicopter wreck.
In Pennsylvania, Staff Sgt. Randall Shughart was remembered near his hometown of Newville on Thursday as well. Shugart was one of the Army Special Operations troops who provided gunfire from the lead chopper during the battle.
After Shugart and his troops reached the ground -- just armed with M-14s and sidearms -- he still managed to grab the rifle of a dead solider and hand it to a wounded one, who was captured but survived. After he ran out of ammunition, he continued to fight hand-to-hand with Somalis until he was shot and killed. He was 35.
"He is an icon," said Tom Kelley, president of the Special Operations Association of Carlisle, at his gravesite in Westminster Cemetery. "He represents who we are."
Although the U.S. mission was carried out to assist a United Nations operation, the will to provide humanitarian aid assistance was severely damaged for America, especially after an unknown terrorist leader named Osama bin Laden boasted the death toll of the "minor battle."
