{"id":115479,"date":"2021-07-14T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=115479"},"modified":"2021-07-13T21:51:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T01:51:07","slug":"jsocs-former-top-enlisted-soldier-is-one-of-60-black-hawk-down-award-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=115479","title":{"rendered":"JSOC\u2019s former top enlisted soldier is one of 60 \u2018Black Hawk Down\u2019 award upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Delta Force operator then-Sgt. 1st Class Chris Faris, center, poses with teammates near a MH-6 Little Bird helo in Somalia. (Courtesy of Chris Faris)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We talked about some of the awards from Operation Gothic Serpent being upgraded<\/a> earlier this month. The names have started to trickle out. One of the men recieving an upgrade for their actions in the Battle of Mogadishu (from the famous book and movie\u00a0Black Hawk Down<\/em>) is retired Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris, a US Army Delta Force operator whose last assignment before retiring was as the Joint Special Operations Command’s senior enlisted advisor.<\/p>\n

Jeff LPH 3 sends in the Army Times story<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Rangers and Delta Force operators faced an onslaught of gunfire as they approached the crashed Black Hawk helicopter on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1993.<\/p>\n

The soldiers dashed for cover along the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, where they would spend the night securing the crash site.<\/p>\n

In need of medicine and ammunition, another Black Hawk arrived, hovering low as aircrew kicked out cases of supplies. Helicopter door gunners opened up with 7.62mm miniguns, and were met with return fire from below.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I had ever heard miniguns being drowned out because there was so much ground fire from AKs up to that helicopter,\u201d retired Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris, a Delta Force veteran, told Army Times. \u201cThat was the first time we realized how many people were actually around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faris, who went on to serve as the top enlisted soldier for the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, is among the 60 soldiers receiving new awards for the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. The awards came after former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy ordered a review of battlefield actions last fall.<\/p>\n

Fifty-eight medals are being upgraded to Silver Stars and two will be upgraded to the Distinguished Flying Cross. Faris is expected to receive a Silver Star in an October ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Faris’ award upgrade from a Bronze Star Medal won’t mess up his ribbon rack too much. He’s still got six other Bronze Stars. Check out his bio here<\/a>. 99% of our posers featured here couldn’t dream up such a list of awards and decorations. As JK Simmons would say, “He knows a thing or two, because he’s seen a thing or two.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We talked about some of the awards from Operation Gothic Serpent being upgraded earlier this month. … JSOC\u2019s former top enlisted soldier is one of 60 \u2018Black Hawk Down\u2019 award upgrades<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,462,389],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-silver-star","category-valor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115481,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115479\/revisions\/115481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}