By TIM MCDONALD
Local Columnist
> SOUTHERN INDIANA —
John 15:13 (New International Version) — “Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.”
“I knew I was going to die that night, but I was confident that I was going to be with God if I did” said Maj. Jeff Struecker. On the evening of Oct. 3, 1993, then Sgt. Jeff Struecker was in combat in Mogadishu, Somalia, in what eventually became known as Black Hawk Down. For 18 hours of that day and into Oct. 4, under fierce combat ambush situation, Struecker and his men were fighting for their very lives.
I listened to Jeff tell me of the evening of the operation, which was only expected to take a total of 30 minutes. Jeff’s squad was to pick up the Rangers who had repelled from helicopters to the roof of a building where their target had been. En route, one of the Rangers had fallen from one of the Blackhawk helicopters and fell 70 feet onto his head. Medics did not feel that the injured Ranger would survive unless returned immediately to the airfield that the Rangers used as a base of operations.
Jeff said that as they turned a corner to head back to the airfield they faced a gauntlet of Somalis in windows and rooftops shooting at them. He placed his best machine gunner, Dominick Pilla, atop the Humvee and in a matter of moments, Ranger Pilla was shot in the forehead by a Somali insurgent. He replaced Ranger Pilla with another gunner and sped back to base. It was there after unloading Pilla’s body and the other injured Ranger that Jeff was ordered back to help in the rescue of the Blackhawk Helicopter that had been shot down.
Jeff and the squad rearmed, refueled and washed Ranger Pilla’s blood from the back of the Humvee. Eventually what was to be only a 30-minute mission ended up in a 13-hour ordeal and Jeff’s squad being ordered out a third time.
After the second mission, Jeff realized the situation was so bad that he fully did not believe he would make it out alive. He prayed simply, “God don’t let another one of my soldiers die.”
Jeff told me that his Christian faith was not a secret to the men with whom he served in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Most did not want to have anything to do with his Christianity. However, returning to base on the morning of Oct. 4, many came to him with tears in their eyes wanting to know more about his faith.
Battle-hardened Rangers came to him with tears in their eyes and a lot of questions like, “Why would God allow this to happen? What happened to my friend who just died? What’s going to happen to me if we go back into that city and I die?”
Like most servant leaders, Jeff always placed the needs of his soldiers above his own. Not that he wasn’t scared, but he always knew that he had to take care of his own.
On Saturday evening, Sept. 11, in the Hoosier Room on the campus of Indiana University Southeast, Maj. Jeff Struecker will speak about the Black Hawk Down incident and the faith that sustained him through that night and continues to do so.
Struecker will be the keynote speaker at the third annual Frank C. Denzinger Scholarship dinner, which honors another servant leader, the late Frank Denzinger. Denzinger and Officer Joel White responded to a call at about 6 p.m. June 18, 2007, and were ambushed by a teenager wielding a high-powered rifle. In an act of heroism, after being hit the first time, Denzinger pushed a family member to the ground for safety and was then hit with a second fatal shot.
Denzinger, White and Struecker acted heroically in the eyes of many. However, Struecker would tell you that men do not commit such acts out of a sense of heroism but rather a stronger sense of love for their fellow man.
We look forward to seeing as many of you that can attend the Denzinger Scholarship Banquet on Saturday evening. Tickets can be purchase by calling Charla Stoneciper at Indiana University Southeast at 812-941-2464
— Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu
