Michael D. Steele
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Michael D. Steele was a Captain and a company commander in the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment who came to fame for his part in the Somalia mission Operation Gothic Serpent, which resulted in the now famous book and movie Black Hawk Down.
[edit] Operation Gothic Serpent
In August 1993, Steele deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia, with his ranger company as part of Task Force Ranger, which was tasked with capturing Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Task Force Ranger also included a deployment package from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Night Stalkers) from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
On the afternoon of 3 October 1993, Task Force Ranger received intelligence that two leaders of Aidid’s militia were at a residence in central Mogadishu. In response, the task force sent 19 aircraft, 12 vehicles, and 160 men to arrest them. During the mission, one of the rangers fast-roping from an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, missed the rope and fell 70 feet to the street below, badly injuring himself. The two leaders were quickly arrested, and the prisoners and the injured ranger were loaded on a convoy of ground vehicles.
At 1542 hours, in Mogadishu, Captain Steele fast-roped into the Bakara Market with 120 Rangers, led by Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight, and approximately 40 Delta Force operators. The raid was to take 30 minutes and was meant to capture Omar Salad and Abdi Hassan Awale, two top advisors to Warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. But with the downing of two Black Hawk helicopters: call sign: Super 61 (CW4 Cliff Wolcott) and a second, call sign: Super 64 (CW3 Mike Durant), the mission changed dramatically and for the worse.
After 15 1/2 hours of intense fighting, the Rangers and Delta operators, including Captain Steele, were rescued and brought to the Pakistani Stadium, just north of the Bakara Market. The outcome of the raid was 18 Rangers, Delta, and 160th SOAR personnel KIA and 89 WIA. Durant was held captive for eleven days. Anywhere from 700-1500 Somali militia were killed. Omar Salad was captured and so was Abdi Hassan Awale but it turned out that he wasn't the right Omar Salad afterall. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor Device for his actions as a commander during the fight.
He currently holds the rank of Colonel and is the commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team/187th Infantry Regiment (Rakkasans) of the 101st Airborne Division, which recently returned from a tour of duty at COB Speicher in Iraq.
Although his portrayal in the movie, "Black Hawk Down" is as a tough-love, hard-nosed commander, men who have worked with Steele have varying opinions. While his dedication and love for his job cannot be second-guessed, his methods often are. Steele has been painted by critics as a maniacal micro-manager whose desire to control every aspect of missions that he is involved in often leads to making them more difficult to pull off, but often it is difficult for subordinates to judge the guidance being given.
[edit] Operation Iraqi Freedom
In March of 2006, soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, took part in Operation Swarmer, which was a joint U.S-Iraqi air assault operation targeting insurgents in the Salah ad Din province, near the central city of Samarra, Iraq. According to the US military, it was the largest air assault in Iraq since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
On 19 June 2006, the US military announced that three soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Private First Class Corey R. Clagett, Specialist William B. Hunsaker and Staff Sergeant Raymond L. Girouard, were charged with murdering three Iraqi detainees during a raid near Samarra on 9 May 2006. The killings took place as part of Operation Iron Triangle, which targeted a suspected al Qaeda training facility northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, in the city of Samarra.
The defendants claim that they acted in self-defense, claiming they were under orders to kill all military-age Iraqi men, whether or not they were armed. Two days later, on 21 June 2006, Specialist Juston R. Graber, who was 20 at the time, was charged with premeditated murder, attempted premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and making a false official statement. Army prosecutors said the four American soldiers detained three Iraqi men and then killed them, unarmed, in cold blood.
Two defense department officials identified by the New York Times disclosed that COL Steele was formally reprimanded in the summer of 2006 by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the former commander in Iraq, for not reporting the deaths and other details of the raid. The reprimand effectively ended COL Steele's military career. [1]
