** MEDIA ALERT **
Second Annual Mogadishu Mile Team Fitness Competition to be Held October 1st
What: Kentucky Wounded Heroes and Queenslake Farm present the 2nd annual Mogadishu Mile four-man outdoor team fitness competition. The event is held in honor of the men of Task Force Ranger, the inspiration behind Black Hawk Down.
Mogadishu Veteran Pilot CW4 Jeff Niklaus (Retired), Pilot of “Super 67” will be a guest speaker at the event. Additionally, several U.S. Military Active Duty and Reserve Units will be participating in the competition, including:
3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment (Fort Benning, GA),
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) “Nightstalkers” (Fort Campbell, KY),
5th Special Forces Group (Fort Campbell, KY), and
U.S. Air Force 123rd Special Tactics Squadron (Louisville, KY).
Where: Queenslake Farm, 292 Soards Road, Georgetown, KY 40324
When: Saturday, October 1st 10am – 6pm
Registration: $100 entry fee per team. Teams can register at www.kentuckywoundedheroes.net. 100% of proceeds donated to charity.
Additional Notes: Free to watch the event; $5 to park. Additional details about the competition course are available upon request.
Media Contact: Emma McKinstry, [email protected], is the point of contact for media inquiries. Troey Stout, 859-494-4786, is the event point of contact.
Media RSVP is required. Please let us know if you plan to attend.
About the “Mogadishu Mile”: On October 3rd, 1993, members of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force), supported by pilots from the 160th Aviation Regiment (Nightstalkers) and other SF units, went into the city of Mogadishu, Somalia to execute Operation ‘Gothic Serpent’, an attempt to apprehend key players in Mohammed Farrah Aidid’s dictatorship.
While the initial mission went smoothly, things took a turn for the worse when two aircraft were shot down, forever coining the phrase ‘Blackhawk Down’. Determined not to leave a man behind, and also facing the task of securing the crash sites, Rangers and Deltas, scattered at several locations throughout the city, under heavy fire, most of them wounded and low on supplies, held their positions until the morning hours of October 4th.
As help from the 10th Mountain Division finally arrived, the armored vehicles could not accommodate all of the soldiers. At this point, some of them began their exit to a rally point on foot, under heavy fire, dehydrated and sleep deprived, all of them wounded in one way or another. This has become known as the “Mogadishu Mile”.
