8/22/1993

After fighting with Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid escalated, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell “recommended they [the U.S. military] send a 400-troop contingent of Rangers and Delta Force soldiers. [President Bill] Clinton…signed off on the order on August 22 [1993], and the elite task force arrived in Mogadishu [Somalia] four days later, accompanied by a new surge in CIA operatives.”

 – Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 237