#346 James Lechner - Army Ranger Recounts the Battle of Mogadishu: Black Hawk Down

Shawn Ryan (0:00)

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SPEAKER_2 (1:36)

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Shawn Ryan (2:04)

Jim Lechner. Welcome to the show.

James Lechner (2:08)

Thanks. Great to be here.

Shawn Ryan (2:09)

It's good to have you. So our mutual friend, Mike Durant recommended you. And so I'm excited about this. You've got one hell of a career.

James Lechner (2:19)

Yeah, thank you. Me too. And Mike's a great guy. We got a long history together. We may talk about it, but he and I worked together for three years before Mogadishu and then he was my pilot in Mogadishu.

Shawn Ryan (2:30)

So what a good dude.

James Lechner (2:32)

Yeah.

Shawn Ryan (2:32)

Do you guys keep in touch?

James Lechner (2:34)

A little bit, not as much as we'd like to, but I talked to him a couple of times a year. And then there's different veterans things. That's how we got reconnected on this. We were working on a Medal of Honor project that's going on up in Knoxville.

And we're both involved in it. So, you know, we were on a meeting with that and talked afterwards, and I got connected to this through that.

Shawn Ryan (2:55)

So, all right, Jim, well, let me start you out for the introduction here. Lieutenant Colonel Jim Lechner, you're a 27-year US. Army veteran and former Army Ranger with deployments spanning Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

As a young Ranger officer, you fought with Task Force Ranger in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, where you were wounded in combat and later received the Purple Heart.

You later served as Deputy Brigade Commander during the Battle of Ramadi and served in assignments involving Socom and the CIA. Most recently, you went to Ukraine. First as a war correspondent and later training and advising Ukrainian forces, including service with the International Legion. Today you work in the drone and counter drone defense space and are an adjunct professor at Liberty University, teaching American and military history. And you are also the author of With My Shield.

James Lechner (3:54)

That's right. Yeah.

Shawn Ryan (3:55)

Welcome to the show.

James Lechner (3:56)

Thanks. Great to be here.

Shawn Ryan (3:57)

So a couple of things to knock out here right before we start. Everybody gets a gift.

James Lechner (4:02)

Oh, great.

Shawn Ryan (4:02)

I got you a couple of gifts. First, we have Vigilance Elite Gummy Bearers. Made the USA legal in all 50 states.

James Lechner (4:11)

Fantastic. Love gummies. Yeah.

Shawn Ryan (4:13)

And second, we got a buddy over at SIG. His name's Jason. Wow. And they just developed this brand new handgun, which isn't even out yet.

James Lechner (4:23)

Wow. Thank you very much.

Shawn Ryan (4:25)

We're coming on.

James Lechner (4:27)

Appreciate it.

Shawn Ryan (4:27)

You want me to give that to you?