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Written by Michael Durant - Abridged Nonfiction - 5 COMPACT DISCS - 6 hours

Publisher, Simon & Schuster Audioworks (May 2003)

Published on the tenth anniversary of the Somali conflict, the story of Black Hawk pilot Mike Durant, recounts how he was shot down and taken prisoner in Somalia during a crucial gunfight in October 1993, and describes his captivity and the heroic deeds of his fellow comrades.

"Ranger, Ranger, you die Somalia!" shouted the enraged Somali voices surrounding Blackhawk helicopter pilot Michael J. Durant, his bird shot down by a well-placed rocket-propelled grenade. With his devastating injuries, Durant would be lucky to survive the night.

"Mike Durant. . . Mike Durant. . ." came the disembodied voice Michael J. Durant floating above the war-torn streets of Mogadishu, mixed in with the steady drone of a large U.S. Army helicopter. "Mike Durant. . . We will not leave without you!"

Piloting a U.S. Army Special Operations Blackhawk, Durant was shot down and captured on October 3, 1993, in the battle depicted in Mark Bowden's bestselling book Black Hawk Down. Durant became a prisoner of Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid—the man responsible for prolonging starvation in his country by hijacking United Nations food shipments. U.S. policy makers had determined that capturing Aidid was the only way to restore order. The simple snatch-and-grab plan, named Operation Gothic Serpent, turned into the biggest U.S. Firefight since the Vietnam War.

Durant's experience as a prisoner in Somalia grew increasingly bizarre, crystallizing a clash of cultures by turns frightening, melancholy, hilarious, and strangely familiar. Revealing never-before-told stories with the incisive thought and emotion of one who was there, In the Company of Heroes is one man's unforgettable, true story of going to hell and making it back alive.