He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment(General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Staff Sgt. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California, Tech. Night Stalker pilots and crew rigorously train for nighttime raids, like the one in Juy Zarin. There are more operations than can be supported by the 160th at any given time," says Major Matthew Brady, a former 160th pilot and company commander. A senior Afghan government official, speaking anonymously, said that Taliban commander Qari Tahir had fed American forces false information about a meeting of insurgent leaders and fighters waited for the helicopter from both sides of a steep valley: "The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take. The shooters origin remains a mystery. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. Approaching to land or having just taken off, the craft is flying slow and low, so it presents a tempting target. Lees second deployment started in May of 2011. While Benghazi resulted in four American deaths, Extortion 17 resulted in 38 deaths, including nearly two dozen Navy SEALs. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. (Photo Credit: Senior Airman Anthony Nin Leclerec / U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) There were a total of 38 individuals onboard Extortion 17. The SEAL task force was monitoring this activity, and they were soon called upon to deploy quickly into the northern end of the valley to intercept Tahir and capture him and those moving with him. On Aug. 6, 2011, on the deadliest day in special operations history, 30 Americans, including 17 Navy SEALs, died when a Chinook helicopter crashed. The Extortion 17 chopper was part of Operation Neptune Spear a few months earlier. American intelligence officials identified this individual as "OBJECTIVE GINOSA." The helicopters are capacious and fast, and they can perform well in Afghanistans performance-degrading high altitudes and heat. As is routine on such missions, two Apache attack helicopters provided extra cover and security for Extortion 17, while circling above was an AC-130 aircraft, a gunship that also provides surveillance. Directors Karl Horstmann Stephen Spivey Writer Stephen Spivey Stars Sean Hannity Raj Kala In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. On the anniversary of the Extortion 17 tragedy, we remember the heroic men who were felled rushing into battle, as they had done hundreds of times . And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. [citation needed] Doubts about this story were raised by families and other concerned citizens despite the fact that the Navy SEAL team aboard Extortion 17 was a different squadron than that which had killed Osama bin Laden three months earlier. The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. Early life The second slammed into one of the Chinooks rear rotor blades and exploded, severing 10 feet of it. [45] McChrystal cited a previous "overreliance on firepower and force protection" and the need to reduce civilian casualties and win the cooperation of the local population. Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . But over time, they became more disturbing, including one that suggested the Taliban had been tipped off by someone inside the Afghan government as revenge for bin Ladens killing. The tempo of the missions did not decrease. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. The mission was flown by conventional pilots flying unmodified CH-47Ds. The landing zone had been examined for a previous mission but had not yet been used. Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said. Bissonnette also said that there was one DEVGRU Operator on the mission who was not a member of Red Squadron and that he was chosen for the mission because of his linguistic abilities. Lightboxes. There are a lot of bullets out there that say To whom it may concern,says Major Doug Glover, a U.S. Marine F/A-18D weapons and sensors operator who was a senior watch officer for the Marine air operations center in southern Afghanistan. Burn is on, they radioed. The crew of Slasher 02, the AC-130 circling above, flipped the switch on their powerful light. The helicopter crashed less than 5 seconds later, killing all 38 people on board. The Taliban shot at the Chinooks all the time with RPGs and rifles, Darack said. He would eventually do two tours and become commander of a Chinook unit during his second deployment in 2011. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. On the Extortion 17 crash, credible journalism was produced on this subject by Ed Darack in his book, "The Final Mission of Extortion 17." The SEALs who died in the crash belonged to Gold Squadron, while the SEALs who killed bin Laden belonged to Red Squadron. However, the Afghan government forces did not occupy the base, which was seized by the Taliban shortly after the departure of American forces. 5 U.S. These are the words of Billy Vaughn. They reached the site at 04:12 and found no survivors. It was the day we learned our son Aaron and other American warriors had lost their lives in a helo crash in Afghanistan. American, French and Afghan National Police forces carried out a three-day sweep of the area, and the area was then deemed secure. Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, Wash. Director Franois Garcia Writer Sandeep Panesar Stars Robert O'Neill (archive footage) Patricia Economo Enrique Garcia David Tarrant, The Dallas Morning News On board the Chinook CH-47D were 15 members of SEAL Team Six, 15 SEAL Team Six Support personnel, 1 Bomb Dog, 7 . The mission had begun about four hours prior to the shootdown, when the two helicopters touched down side by side in Juy Zarin, a village in the bare rock-walled Tangi Valley of Wardak Province. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Six weeks later, at around 10:40 p.m., an assault team of Army Rangers and Afghan special operations forces were dropped into an LZ on a mission to capture or kill a Taliban commander named Qari Tahir, who had been responsible for a series of attacks and ambushes in the Tangi Valley, not far from Shank. Regarding the downing of Extortion 17, all of the DEVGRU Operators aboard were members of the Gold Squadron. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. The sheer amount of experience with our pilots, flight engineers and back-seaters and mechanics offered a wealth of knowledge, he said. Photo by Sgt. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The downing of the Seal Team Six chinook with all of those team members who participated in the Bin Laden raid and the subsequent request by President Obama to destroy the images that were released only adds to the suspicion around the events. The squadron that this SEAL belonged to was never mentioned. Senior Chief Robert James Reeves was one of those Americans. Privacy Statement [2][38], On 10 August 2011, the U.S. military stated that the insurgent who fired the rocket-propelled grenade had been killed only two days afterward in an F-16 airstrike, saying only that intelligence gained on the ground provided "a high degree of confidence" that the person was among those killed in the airstrike from two days earlier, but providing no other details. 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. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. [7][27][28] During the battle, American forces observed a small group of Taliban trying to flee the scene. The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. In a new book The Final Mission of Extortion 17 published by Smithsonian Books, journalist and photographer Ed Darack revisits the shootdown of Extortion 17, a Chinook bearing U.S. and . The SEAL commander assembled his force: 17 Navy SEALs, five Navy combat support specialists, three U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Airmen, seven Afghan Special Forces operators, an Afghan interpreter, and a military working dog. (Smithsonian Books, September 2017). Extortion 17 BRIAN BILL FOUNDATION 31 MILE RUCK FOR THE 31 HEROES OF EXTORTION 17 IN WASHINGTON, DC AUGUST 3, 2019 On 6 August 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! In this week in military history, we explore the aerial attack on a U.S. Army helicopter with the call sign "Extortion 17" in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. It just wasnt.. [36][37], After the shootdown of Extortion 17, the insurgent responsible used a two-way radio to brag to others about the act. Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. Ryan Last. Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. In April 2011, American forces turned over control of Combat Outpost Tangi to Afghan government forces. Two fired at roughly the same time. Mission commanders, believing that Tahir was likely among one of the groups, deployed an Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) to interdict them while the Rangers held the compound. Intelligence had revealed Tahir to be the senior Taliban chief of the Tangi Valley region, with probable ties to upper-echelon Taliban leadership in Pakistan. The IRF commander then made a critical decision: In order to get everyone on the ground as quickly as possible and deny the Taliban time to react, he ordered the entire force to fly in Extortion 17. Lee earned his wings at Fort Rucker, Ala., then deployed to Pakistan, where he did humanitarian missions, learning to fly into and out of mountainous terrain. [12][13], Six minutes prior to reaching the landing zone, the empty CH-47D left the formation as planned. Following a scorched earth tactic may have killed the two shootersand possibly a greater number of innocentsprior to Extortion 17s return that night, but counterinsurgency doctrine dictates that such tactics lead to potentially far worse long-term consequences. Having studied and directly observed the counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, Ive watched commanders and individual American troops consistently lean far to the side of restraint to encourage Afghans to side with American interests long after U.S. forces have left. He would not have hesitated to fly with any of them. On the night of 8 August 2011, an F-16 dropped four GBU-54 "Laser JDAM" bombs on the man, his accomplice and four associates in the Chak Valley, which lies to the west of the Tangi Valley. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. Lee remained in Afghanistan flying combat missions for another eight months before returning home in the spring of 2012. The immediate reaction force Extortion 17 carried should have been flown in two helicopters: Senior JSOC and aviation planners both agreed that the best course of action was to put the entire . At the time of the Juy Zarin raid, the battalion had been flying in Afghanistan for about two weeks. Cookie Policy This tactic was highly successful; hundreds of operations were conducted without firing a shot for years. [41] At the subsequent hearing in February 2014, Pentagon representative Garry Reid defended the decision to undertake the mission and denied that the Taliban had any advance knowledge of it. Spencer C. Duncan, 21, of Olathe, Kan. In the afternoon of 6 August, a flash flood swept through the area, washing away parts of the wreckage. It was brought down by multiple shots. Forces Killed in Helicopter Crash", "30 Americans Killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash", "Pentagon names 30 Americans killed in downed Afghan chopper", "Pentagon releases names of 30 Americans killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash", "22 Navy SEALs among 30 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan as NATO helicopter is shot down", "30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, killed in Afghan copter crash", "Names of Afghan Helicopter Attack Victims Released", "The OBJECTIVE GINOSA strike Payback for the shootdown of Extortion 17", "Military killed Taliban who downed US helicopter", "Afghan soldiers enter a Taliban nest without U.S. troops by their side", "Congress to probe lethal crash that killed SEAL Team 6 members", "A retired Air Force captain says Pentagon covered up real cause of deadly chopper crash", "A Retired Air Force Captain Says Pentagon Covered Up Real Cause of Deadly Chopper Crash", "Rules of Engagement Are a Dilemma for U.S.
Categories: what kind of math is used in your car?
extortion 17 crash photos