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TwoTen gained insight into the personal battle of Sergeant Jeff Struecker, the squad leader in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, which was portrayed in the movie Black Hawk Down. An excerpt of the article is included below...

“God, I know I’m going to die in the next few minutes and I need your strength.” - Sergeant Jeff Struecker, The Battle of Mogadishu

In the blood-soaked streets of Mogadishu, Jeff Struecker was confronted with the same stark truth that Jesus Christ dealt with in the Garden of Gethsemane: He was going to die, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. He had only minutes before he survived a withering barrage of enemy fire in a city determined to exterminate him and his comrades. He had just witnessed the incredibly violent death of a friend, tearing free a false veil of security. Now he was being charged with the unthinkable: leading his fellow Rangers back into the lead-ridden gauntlet of the insurgent-controlled city. Confronted with a budding family at home waiting for him, a squad of Rangers looking to him for leadership, and the reality of his own mortality, Jeff’s faith in Christ was crystallized and his life’s purpose defined. As he prayed his prayer for strength, the Lord revealed to Sergeant Struecker the only reality that a saved Christian need ever rely upon: that his life was in Jesus’ hands and that no matter what happened to him, his faith alone settled the issue; his soul’s eternity. With his question of faith answered and his Savior by his side, Jeff Struecker led his men back into the fire.

The phenomenal acts of courage displayed by Jeff and his Rangers during the Battle of Mogadishu were well documented in Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down and later adapted to an Oscar-winning feature film. But the impact of the Lord’s guiding hand in Jeff Struecker’s life is a story of Christian courage which has continued to be played out far beyond what Hollywood could ever depict. This is a story of an already bullet-proof faith honed in the crucible of combat, exerted and advanced through the Chaplaincy, and poured out today as a Pastor, author, and mentor. Moreover, this is a story of a man who overcame a paralyzing fear of death and embarrassment; shed the false reality of “cultural Christianity” to become an unapologetic Christian leader who became convicted to allow the Lord’s eternal peace to shine through him in order to seize salvation for souls otherwise subject to Satan’s grasp.

Army Rangers are hard men. Defined by their adherence to a strict warrior code and a singular focus of mission accomplishment, Rangers take great pride in efficiently operating in the worst possible environments and conditions. Embracing the dark, cold, and arduous, Rangers eschew the fears and trepidation that would otherwise paralyze those who would even comprehend the tasks they perform in the course of duty.

"Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.” 
- The Sixth Stanza of the Ranger Creed

By the time that Bravo Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion was called upon to go to Somalia, Jeff Struecker had passed every test that the United States Army and the world had put in front of him. And on that day of October 3, 1993, Jeff Strueker stood with his fellow Rangers; trained, hardened, and ready at the gates of some of the most violent warfare of the 20th century. But unlike many of his peers, Sergeant Jeff Strueker was unafraid.

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