Black Hawk Down: Randy Shughart's M14
History of the M14
•
11m
Sergeant Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon were both awarded posthumous Congressional Medals of Honor for their actions in Mogadishu in October 1993. As portrayed in the film "Black Hawk Down", the two Delta Force men volunteered (demanded, really) to be dropped onto the wreck of Super 6-4 alone to defend it against a huge number of Somalis, with no idea when backup might arrive. Because of their heroism, pilot Mike Durant survived to make it home.
The Delta Force operators in Task Force Ranger on that mission had wide latitude in choosing their own weapons, and Shughart had chosen to carry a 7.62x51mm rifle; an M14. He fitted it out with an Aimpoint red dot sight and an AIM1 infrared laser. In the film, this rifle is shown without a laser, and with an Aimpoint CompM2 optic - a model that was not introduced until two years after the events in Mogadishu. It is not known exactly which model of Aimpoint Shughart used, as both Aimpoint 3000s and 5000s were available and used by Delta around that time (and they look very similar) - but it was definitely not a CompM2.
That said, those are really the only substantive technical errors with the weapons in the film.
The clone shown in this video was built on an early Springfield M1A with a bunch of original military parts. It uses an Aimpoint 3000, AIM1/D laser, and M21-type scope mount. The desert camo is a simple spray paint job, as done by many of the Delta operators at that time.
Up Next in History of the M14
-
M14: America’s Worst Service Rifle - ...
While the US never adopted a significant variation of the M1 Garand (excluding sniper models), testing continued on new iterations and features throughout the war. By the time the war ended, the US military had some specific ideas about what it wanted in a new service rifle. That being, something...
-
M14 In Ukraine
Over the past couple of months there have been a number of sightings of M14s in Ukraine. In recent weeks they have been seen more frequently, in this video we look at where they may have come from and how they're being used. Be sure to check out our accompanying article for this video here - http...
-
Winchester Proto-M14 Rifle
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States spent 12 years looking for a successor to the M1 Garand rifle. The new standard infantry arm was expected to be select-fire, lightweight, accurate, controllable, and fire a heavy .30-caliber projectile. It would replace not just the M1, but also...
