This month marks the 26th anniversary of the notorious Battle of Mogadishu, and if all you know about the infamous 18-hour urban firefight in Somalia is from the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down, then there are likely a few gaps in your knowledge about how the traumatic events shaped U.S. military thinking over the past two and a half decades.

On Oct. 3, 1993, elite U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force commandos fast-roped from helicopters to a three-story white building in the Somali capital, with the mission to snatch key lieutenants to Mohammed Farah Aidid, a local warlord.