Youve got [Apaches] flying around, so theres a lot of noise going on and, basically, this entire valley knows that theres something happening in this area. They start the movie showing George W Bush saying that after 9/11 we will hunt down those responsible. Some of the most highly trained and skilled war fighters in history, the Rangers moved overland to a location where intelligence indicated Lefty Grove and his small cadre of fighters would be holding a meeting. Click here for reprint permission. Family members question SEAL Team 6's most deadly incident. They are also pretty tough; the only comparable loss to this one was a Chinook shot down in 2005. Special forces are very selective on who they partner with, but any collaboration with Afghans opens up U.S. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. That same day he obtained a medical waiver he needed to pursue an Army commission -- to serve an eight-year hitch before going to law school. But one thing that doesnt fade is never forgetting what they did.. they won't view it as wrong, just a "necessary" sacrifice for your country. One of the best crews in my company. He has written about soldiers returning home from war and the mental health crisis facing young people. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. The loss of a Chinook helicopter carrying members of Navy SEAL Team Six made yesterday the deadliest single day in the entire Afghan War for the U.S., 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Crash, Russian Cargo Plane Explodes During Pressure Test, better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, BroadStreet Review and Splice Today. Finally Sells Japan Tomahawk Missiles. Their names and their missions had never been revealed before. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. . With Sean Hannity, Raj Kala, Justin Torrence, Vee Bhakta. The Justice Department said at least 50 documents in the Pentagon have been identified as relevant, but only one has been turned over. By what name was Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) officially released in Canada in English? The alleged hit on SEAL Team 6 is a reference to the downing of a Chinook transport helicopter by insurgents a few months after the bin Laden raid. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. When asked what lessons Americans can draw from the crash of Extortion 17, Lees answer is simple: Americans should care about what happens in Afghanistan because theyve sent Americans to war there. One source says the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. The night before he left to go to Fort Hood, where he would board a plane to Afghanistan, the biggest event of the 10-year war occurred: Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan during a raid by Navy SEALs. The force included seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter. The event was organized by Freedom Watch, a conservative advocacy group, at the National Press Club. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. "Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan,'' President Obama said Saturday. But why? The Associated Press contributed to this report. Since the agencys main task is to eavesdrop on phone and Internet messages, it may have recorded communications related to the attack. It was the largest single loss of life for Seal Team 6, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, (DEVGRU) in the unit's history. These materials provided much-needed intelligence about bin Ladens role within al-Qaeda and the organizations inner-workings. It's unclear how far away the helicopter was from the initial firefight when it went down and unclear how the troops in the firefight got to the crash location, the official said. [PHOTOS:Fighting in Afghanistan Continues]. Hes also sent more than his fair share of curious retweets, often of the accounts of conspiracy theorists and those associated with QAnon and other outlandish conspiracy frameworks. Doug Hamburger, whose son Patrick was killed, called the incident an ambush that could have been prevented. Chinooks are American forces' preferred helicopters in Afghanistan because they are powerful enough fly over mountains while carrying a full complement of troops. Our families are in danger,' " Vaughn recalled. Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The incident comes just months after DevGru's raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Or when something went terribly wrong. In fact, Chinooks are better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats than from older, more crude ones. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and needed backup. In all, 38 people died that night after the chopper was shot down by a Taliban-owned rocket-propelled grenade or RPG over the Wardak Province on Aug. 6, 2011. Virginia-based Navy SEALs in a training exercise. Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. While the vast majority of attempts to down helicopters failed, the lucky shot that took down Extortion 17 had a precedent. Soon after US Navy Cryptologist Michael Strange and the elite SEAL Team 6 capture and kill Bin Laden, they are deployed to Afghanistan, where their Chinook is shot down. Ninty-six days after the death of Osama bin Laden by SEAL Team Six, an old Vietnam era Army Reserve helicopter, call sign "Extortion 17," was shot down in the Wardak Province, Tangi River Valley, Afghanistan on Aug 6, 2011.On board the Chinook CH-47D were 15 members of SEAL Team Six, 15 SEAL Team Six Support personnel, 1 Bomb Dog, 7 unidentified members of the Afghan National Army, and 1 . Legal Statement. Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. The second RPG round had connected with one of Extortion 17's aft rotor blades, severing more than 10 feet of it when it exploded. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. The operation to kill the world's most wanted terrorist was the result of years of planning and training. With Robert O'Neill, Patricia Economo, Enrique Garcia, James Obrien. A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., he remains obsessively curious about Texans and the Lone Star State culture. Its almost always a miss.. The actual mission, dubbed Operation Neptune Spear, officially started in the early-morning hours of May 2, Pakistan time (afternoon of May 1, Eastern Daylight Time). Somebody was leaking to the Taliban, said Mr. Conspiracy theories over the years have alleged that President Barack Obama and presumably then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and now Joe Biden had somehow been responsible for the attack, supposedly in order to silence the Seals for something having to do with the Bin Laden raid three months earlier. You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. "We simply didn't know those guys with those RPGs were there," he said. Information about the incident is still trickling in, but these are a few of the most important questions in the immediate aftermath. How SEAL Team 6 . His father Billy Vaughn recounted Thursday a phone call from his son following the White House decision to credit the highly secretive military unit for the bin Laden raid. This was preventable only if they just had not taken off that night, Lee said. If this [operation] was survivable, that was the right crew to have. "No amount of training, skill, or technology will ever defeat chance on the battlefield. The Benghazi attack in 2012 plays a part in some other versions of the tale. A man reads the front page of a newspaper featuring the news that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead deep inside Pakistan in a night-time helicopter raid by US covert forces, ending a decade-long manhunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. The Pentagon on Thursday identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers.On a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. Still, SEAL Team Sixs bold raid to take down bin Laden was an extraordinary operation that most experts regard as a resounding success. That night, nearly 10 years after the U.S. had gone to war in Afghanistan, Lee believed they were the best team for this dangerous mission. The pilots, crew and Chinook helicopters of "Extortion Company," the conventional Army aviation unit to which Extortion 17 belonged, had supported over 90 percent of raids conducted by Rangers and SEALs of JSOC in that region; the flight in question was nothing out of the ordinary. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. There are no survivors. Flying 250 feet above the valley floor at just under 70 miles per hour, Dave Carter, the pilot to the right of Nichols, guided the helicopter toward a carefully chosen landing zone just over a mile away. Hamburger said. The hearing as it took place was meant to honor the heroes of Extortion 17 instead of to answer our questions, Mr. And the shooters had no reason to know that Extortion 17 or any other helicopter would be flying through their quiet extremity of the valley. On July 25, a Chinook was hit by a rocket propelled grenade fired by the Taliban. It requires the highest level of skills from the pilots because they are some of the most dangerous operations.. While some of those who lost their lives that day were members of Seal Team 6, it was not the same platoon that had carried out the Bin Laden raid, and none of those killed in the crash had been a part of that event. The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. Seven Afghan commandos were also reportedly killed. Per factcheck.org, while Obama and his advisers were deliberating over which mission to authorize for attacking Bin Ladens compound, Biden advised the president to wait for further confirmation that bin Laden was actually in the compound in Pakistan before acting. Biden was not, as implied, altogether opposed to killing Bin Laden. But Tahir and a group of his fighters escaped. And it even led Robert ONeill, the Trump-supporting Navy Seal who claims to have fired the shot that killed Bin Laden, to tweet that the conspiracy theories both about the Bin Laden double and about the Seals from the raid having been killed arent true. 4:05 p.m. - The first helicopter exits the compound. He probably doesnt. She had just given birth to their first child. There was no conspiracy. It's certainly possible. Each shouldered a rocket propelled grenade launcher, aimed at the dim silhouette of the approaching helicopter then fired. Mills, a 13-year veteran of the military . Although the Taliban have claimed to have shot the helicopter down, U.S. officials have only identified the attackers as insurgents. On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. Flying low, the pilots have to maneuver a machine weighing up to 50,000 pounds over mountains, under cover of darkness, in swirling wind and dust, wearing night vision goggles. PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402. A CH-47D Chinook helicopter lands at a small landing zone at Firebase Blessing, in eastern Afghanistans restive Kunar Province at the start of a combat operation. Afghan President Karzai's office released a statement on the incident. The family members, speaking at the National Press Club, tried to reopen the book on the crash, in which 30 Americans were killed, most of them belonging to the same unit as those who carried out the raid on Usama bin Laden earlier that year. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lee's closest friends in the Chinook company. The missions commanders decided to insert another team to go after Tahir while the Rangers held the compound. The US Navy's elite SEAL Team 6 reportedly recovered two bodies and a flight recorder from the site where a US Air Force E-11A aircraft crashed in Afghanistan on Monday. The military's public c Read allOn a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. You also want to come in from a different direction for the element of surprise.. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. But why? U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families of those killed are still being notified. The reality is, every time a helicopter lifts off the ground in a war zone, it might get shot down, Darack said. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. Strange. The guy was incredibly skilled.. The crash killed 38 people, including 15 Navy SEALs. August 6, 2011 / 6:08 PM / CBS Boston KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A military helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The operators from SEAL Team Six were flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the same regiment that flew the bin Laden raid. The Taliban silenced him. The Chinook helicopter was carrying a quick-reaction force to provide back-up to the troops on the ground in the eastern Afghan province of Wardak, a U.S. official said. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17. It's true that members of SEAL Team 6 died tragically in a helicopter crash not long after the Bin Laden mission, but the particular soldiers who perished weren't part of that operation, says O'Neill. He finished his contract with the Army shortly afterward, and that September enrolled in Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. (AP). It was a good crew, it really was. Its one reason Twitter has put in place safeguards encouraging users to read links before retweeting them. Get everything off your social media. He knew the pilots and crew members aboard Extortion 17. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. On a moonless night, an Army helicopter carrying 17 members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, is shot down in Afghanistan. Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, was one of the U.S. Navy SEALS killed in the helicopter crash. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. These missiles add ultraviolet tracking to infrared seekers, making them less susceptible to the flares that Chinooks fire to try to throw incoming missiles off course. Honestly, sir, I dont think anybody had really looked at the LZ, said the pilot of Gun 1. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. The more likely explanation seems to be that the president, like a lot of us, tweets without thinking, especially if the subject matter is something that praises him or denigrates his political opponents. Special forces routinely use helicopters in raids on homes in Afghanistan. Were asking people to do incredible things. The last worst one-day U.S. casuality record in Afghanistan was on June 28, 2005 when 16 U.S. soldiers were killed in Kunar province after a helicopter was shot down by Taliban insurgents. "Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan," Obama said in a statement. Image:U.S. PresidentDonaldTrumpholds a campaign rally at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 13, 2020. This time, they might simply have run out of luck and encountered an RPG-armed enemy who was in the right place at the right time. This crash is incredibly demoralizing. The Joint Combat Assessment Team report identified, through detailed metallurgical analysis, the type of projectile that blew Extortion 17 out of the sky: an antipersonnel unguided ballistic rocket propelled grenade. Special Forces are expected to keep the pressure on the Taliban, working closely with Afghan forces to maintain control as U.S and Coalition troops depart. In the immediate wake of the tragedy, the military initiated two investigations. Among the 38 occupants inside the Chinook were some of the most highly trained and battle-seasoned fighters in the U.S. military, including 15 commandos from the Navys SEAL Team 6,the unit that three months earlier had killed Osama bin Laden. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. Military officers interviewed by investigators said they could not recall an IRF ever being sent for such a mission. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. On April 29, 2011, President Barack Obama authorized a small special operations team, known as SEAL Team Six, to carry out a raid on the compound. Despite the risk, operations like these were taking place with such frequency in Afghanistan they only made news when they produced a spectacular success, like the bin Laden mission. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. Legal Statement. And you know, never before in the history of our county (had) a sitting president released that type of information to the public, especially when he was talking about special forces. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Every mission is potentially life-threatening. This misinformation persists in part because those unfamiliar with the battlefield aren't taking into account a fundamental part of war: chance. Saturday's deaths bring the total number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan to 334 this year, according to the Associated Press. On a moonless night, an Army Chinook helicopter swept low over the Tangi Valley, a strip of forbidding terrain in eastern Afghanistan teeming with Taliban and located just 35 miles south of the capital, Kabul. However, it would be a very lucky shot to hit a moving Chinook with an RPG and they typically fly high to avoid such dangers as well as small arms fire. Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. The night her son Aaron died, he was in a helicopter that was built in the 1960s and last retrofitted in 1985. Members of Navy SEAL Team Six formed the core of the IRF, with other American special operations personnel and highly-vetted Afghans playing integral roles. But the Team Six connection makes it a major symbolic victory for them. Helicopter raids are dangerous and unpredictable. To minimize the danger as much as possible, pilots will land Chinooks out of range of any weapons they know they enemy to have, and an Apache or a UAV will fly overhead to check for threats before the Chinooks drop off any soldiers. They have to slow down to land or allow troops to rappel to the ground. He was too busy. Market data provided by Factset.
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