Army Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon, 33, of Lincoln, Maine, served with the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta. He was killed on October 3, 1993, during the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia. MSG Gordon repeatedly volunteered to be inserted beside the wreckage of a downed Black Hawk Helicopter. Armed only with sniper rifles and pistols, he and SFC Randall Shughart protected its critically wounded crew against a vastly larger enemy force. Both men were killed, but their actions saved pilot Michael Durant’s life.

MSG Gordon graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. He enlisted in the Army that year at age 18 and initially trained as a combat engineer. He later became a Special Forces engineer with the 10th Special Forces Group and was selected for Delta Force in 1986. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Clinton on May 23, 1994.

Pilot Michael Durant later said, “I was alive because Gary and Randy had removed me from that cockpit.” He described Gordon’s actions as “the bravest that I’ve ever witnessed.”

MSG Gordon was survived by his wife and two children.