Medals of Honor Go to Slain Soldiers’ Widows

President Clinton on Monday presented the Medal of Honor--the nation’s highest military decoration--to the widows of two U.S. soldiers killed in Somalia, calling Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall D. Shughart “real American heroes.”

At a solemn White House ceremony, Clinton presented the medals, the first such honors bestowed since the Vietnam War, to Carmen R. Gordon and Stephanie A. Shughart. The Gordons’ two children, Ian, 6, and Brittany, 3, stood alongside their mother as she received the medal.

Gordon and Shughart were killed Oct. 3 in the abortive U.S. raid on a Mogadishu hotel where top aides to Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid were gathered. Eighteen Army Rangers and about 300 Somalis died in the debacle.

Gordon, 33, was a native of Lincoln, Me. Shughart, 35, grew up in Newville, Pa.

The two tried to rescue crew members from the wreckage of a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter shot down in Mogadishu. Warrant Officer Michael Durant--the 32-year-old co-pilot and the only crew member to survive--credits Gordon and Shughart for saving his life.

They pulled Durant out of the wreckage before being gunned down themselves. Captured, beaten and held for 11 days, Durant returned to a hero’s welcome.

Gordon and Shughart “died in the most courageous and selfless way any human being can act,” Clinton said. “They risked their lives without hesitation. They gave their lives to save others.

“Their actions were clearly above and beyond the call of duty,” Clinton told an audience that included another Medal of Honor winner, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), a Vietnam veteran.

The U.S. Army Band played “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Fanfare for the Common Man” at the brief ceremony that also was attended by congressional and military leaders.

After the Mogadishu raid, the Administration had been accused of failing to provide adequate support for U.S. troops. Clinton eventually withdrew all U.S. forces from Somalia.

“If there are any debates still to be had about our mission in Somalia, let people have those debates where they belong--with the President and the policy-makers,” Clinton told the East Room ceremony.

Clinton said, “But let there be no debate about the professionalism and the valor of those who served there, and the valor of those who died there. We are proud of what they did. We honor them. We thank them.”