He was a company commander in the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment during the Battle of Mogadishu (1993) in Somalia during Operation Gothic Serpent, which resulted in the now famous book and film Black Hawk Down, wherein he was portrayed by actor Jason Isaacs.

On the afternoon of 3 October 1993, Task Force Ranger received intelligence that two leaders of Aidid's militia were at a residence in central Mogadishu.

The raid was to take 30 minutes and was meant to capture Omar Salad and Abdi Hassan Awale, two top advisors to Aidid.

The Delta operators and Rangers, under the command of Captain Steele, provided security around the crash site of Super 61 and fought off thousands of armed insurgents through the night.

The Rangers then provided security around the convoy and fought their way out to the safety of the United Nations forces base at the Pakistani Stadium, north of the Bakara Market.

In November 2006, Steele successfully completed his command with the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division and was assigned as the Deputy G3, Training, United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) at Fort McPherson, Georgia, where he coordinated the training for CONUS based Army forces.

[3] He was investigated in connection with the incident and stated that he did not use "specific language" to order his soldiers to kill all military-age males, and that "we don't shoot people with their hands up.

"[2] He was not charged, but was later formally reprimanded by (then) Lieutenant General Peter W. Chiarelli, commander of the Multi-National Corps – Iraq.