Michael J. Durant

The United States Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as the 160th SOAR and also known as Night Stalkers, or within JSOC as Task Force Brown,
AUTHOR, Michael J. Durant retired from the army as a Chief Warrant Officer 4. In addition to participating in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, he saw action in the Persian Gulf, Panama, and Kuwait. His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, three Air Medals, the POW/MIA ribbon, and the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters… (meer)

This a non-fiction work by Michael Durant and Steven Hartov. It shows the struggles and hardships Of
Michael Durant who was a pilot for the 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment). Durant was the Blackhawk pilot who was a POW of the Somalians in Operation Gothic Serpent or the Battle Of Mogadishu. This is his story of how he became a pilot for the Army and how he transferred into special operations flying. He tells of the challenges of the 11 days of Somalian captivity and how he was Rescued.

In the movie Black Hawk Down it is shown as Durant as injured which is true, his femur had a compound fracture and his spine was broken. Also, it portrays two Delta operatives Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon who are real people who saved his life. The book explains plenty of things the movie glosses over like how he was carried across the streets of Mogadishu and how a woman tried to rip off his testicles until a man had to hold her back or the screams of Somalians yelling "Ranger! Ranger! You Die Somalia" when a man found his badge for the Task Force Ranger compound. There is one detail in the book he tries to deny but he finally admits is when he was clubbed with something that him unconscious for the first he remember being clubbed by an arm.… (meer)