Humanitarian· Mogadishu Embassy NEO (Op EASTERN EXIT)
Op EASTERN EXIT (Mogadishu NEO)
Operation EASTERN EXIT was a daring long-range rescue of Americans and other foreign nationals trapped in the United States Embassy at Mogadishu as Somalia collapsed into civil war and armed factions overran the capital.
With the embassy compound threatened by looters and gunmen, a Marine special-purpose force was assembled from ships in the Arabian Sea and flown to the rescue, helicopters making an extraordinary long-distance, aerially refueled flight to reach the besieged compound. The Marines and Navy SEALs secured the embassy, organized the evacuation of diplomats and civilians of many nationalities, and lifted them out to the waiting ships, holding off the surrounding chaos until the last evacuees were away. The operation was carried out without combat losses despite the danger, an improvised and technically demanding mission accomplished under severe constraints of distance and time. It stood as a textbook noncombatant evacuation from a disintegrating state.
Record no. 733