Black Hawk Down: Former Army Ranger Keni Thomas speaks of raid in Somalia, leadership
MUSKEGON, MI – Keni Thomas wasn’t supposed to be the squad leader when he and his fellow Army Rangers were dropped into Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993.
But when his commanding sergeant was shot and injured by Somali militia, someone needed to take charge.
“My sergeant looked at me and said, ‘Thomas, you’re in charge,'” he recalled. “We find ourselves in those situations. You don’t always have to be happy about how it’s landing on your doorstep, and most the time it isn’t fair, but if you don’t take charge of it, then who’s going to?”
That was Thomas’ message when he spoke Tuesday, May 6 at L.C. Walker Arena as part of a new Leadership Lunch Series launched by the arena, traditionally known as the home of the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
According to organizers, the series will “bring in notable speakers, artists and leaders that will inspire, challenge and motivate Muskegon residents to become all they are meant to be.”
A large crowd filled a section of the arena to listen to Thomas’ first-hand account of the raid in Somalia and his lessons on leadership, sacrifice and the importance of caring for the people around you.
“Leadership isn’t about rank,” Thomas said. “It’s not about what’s on your collar, it’s not what you’re getting paid, and it’s not what grade you’re in. Leadership is about the examples that you set.”
For Thomas, many of those lessons were learned in the military where he served as a sergeant in the 3rd Ranger Battalion of the U.S. Army Rangers.
Thomas shared stories of the men in his squad, beginning with his first lesson in leadership when he failed to help a fellow ranger complete a 12-mile walk which needed to be completed in three hours with 50 pounds on his back.
Thomas had completed the task, but was ridiculed by his platoon sergeant anyway because a member of his team had failed.
“I learned my lesson the hard way,” Thomas said. “He was not the guy who failed; we failed because we left him behind.”
Thomas recounted how the day of the raid, October 3, 1993, was originally intended to be a day off. He then summarized the plan which called for members of the Special Forces unit known as “Delta Force” to enter a building and capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and other high-profile targets inside it while the rangers fast-roped down from Black Hawk helicopters to create a four-corner perimeter around the building.
A convoy then arrived and transported all military personnel out of the city.
The raid itself was successful, but what was originally supposed to take no more than 30 minutes resulted in an 18-hour firefight in which two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, 18 Americans were killed and 73 were wounded.
Sergeant First-Class Earl Robert Fillmore Jr. was one of the men Thomas saw killed while he and his squad moved through the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu to the first Black Hawk crash site.
“It was in those two blocks where there were about 80 of us fighting on both sides of the street,” Thomas said. “There were rounds crisscrossing, bad guys everywhere and helicopters doing gun runs over our heads. It was just nuts.
“We called that moment Hollywood because I had only seen it in the movies, but still, it felt like training up until a certain point … That point was when our guys started getting hit. We had done 40-something missions into that city and never had a casualty; all of sudden someone gets hit and that changes the reality factor.”
After fighting through the night, Thomas and about 35 rangers remaining in the city literally ran to safety because there was no room left in the armored convoy. This has been commonly referred to as the “Mogadishu Mile.”
Thomas said it was during this extraction that the ranger he had once failed to help complete a 12-mile walk saved his life by pushing him out of the way to fire at a Somali with a rocket launcher.
“He did that because he knew we were counting on him,” he said. “He did it because we learned never to give up on him. He knew he was important and had a job to do.”
After his captivating retelling of the firefight, Thomas brought the focus of his speech back to his original point of emphasis — the importance of leadership and caring about those around you.
It’s a lesson that became apparent while fighting in the streets of Mogadishu.
“We all came to peace with it — if I died here, I die here, but I’m not going to let it happen to the guys around me,” he said. “That’s what it became about. We weren’t fighting for the flag, or the nation or freedom. I wasn’t even thinking about my family. All I thought about was that I wasn’t going to let anything happen to the guy on my left and the guy on my right.”
Thomas, who is now an award-winning country music recording artist, closed his presentation by performing his song titled “Hold the Line” before leaving the audience with one final message.
“The greatest gift you have is the person on your left and the person on your right,” he said. “When you walk out those doors, who are you leading? Who are you following? What example are you setting? Ask yourself that on a daily basis and I promise you, you’ll start to live up to it.”
Brandon Champion covers arts and entertainment, business and weather for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at BCHAMPIO@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.