Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. "The downing of Extortion 17 was a catastrophic and unprecedented tragedy for our nation," Reid testified. Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) - IMDb Could an enemy have specifically targeted the U.S. special forces team that took down bin Laden? House panel probing chopper crash that killed SEAL Team 6 members One of the best crews in my company. While the press conference was long on speculation and short on concrete evidence, the family members and their supporters didn't pull any punches. Some congressional lawmakers demonstrated their support for the group, including former Florida Republican Rep. Allan West -- an Iraq war vet -- and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. 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. They are also pretty tough; the only comparable loss to this one was a Chinook shot down in 2005. Here are the . Just after entering the Tangi, as Extortion 17 continued to descend and decelerate toward its landing zone, the helicopter passed through the narrowest portion of the valley. 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. By the time the third sped away from its launcher, however, no target remained. Three of the . Throughout, he said, Justice lawyers have refused to take his phone calls. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Legal Statement. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The Pentagons witness stuck to a theme that no mistakes were made that night, though the investigative file contained testimony from a number of witnesses saying the mission was riddled with missteps. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. But why? Charles Strange, whose son Michael, 25, died in the attack said Obama personally promised him a thorough investigation of what happened but has failed to deliver. Lees second deployment started in May of 2011. What the men on the Chinook didn't know was that cloaked by darkness, two fighters had emerged from the small village of Hasan Khel, on the south side of the valley. Following a helicopter crash, the SEAL Team must proceed with the mission as hostiles bear down on them and an injured and impaired Jason goes after their target alone. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. I thought I hit a tree,he said. A Marine speaks into a radio and troops unload a CH-47D Chinook in Afghanistan's Kunar Province. I find it quite disturbing that the government is not willing to give us the answers we deserve. I would say that was the first time that we really had eyes on the LZ.. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. The compounds unusual and extensive security features, along with further intelligence information, prompted suspicion that the residence was Osama bin Ladens hideout. One of the other things that we did talk about kind of what youre hitting on, sir, is about the fact that, you know, for three hours we had been burning holes in the sky, the officer told investigators. She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. Forces to the threat of spying. The Justice Department said at least 50 documents in the Pentagon have been identified as relevant, but only one has been turned over. 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. Karen Vaughn says she wants to know why her son Aaron and his team were not using special operations aircraft which have defenses in place to help allow helicopters to go deep behind enemy lines. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Strange also blamed top military brass for sending the troops into a situation they were allegedly ill-equipped and unprepared to handle. One helicopter crashes, but there are no injuries. 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. This is all, needless to say, completely unsubstantiated if not outright false. He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. 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. Nobody tipped off the fightersnor could anyone have alerted them. Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. The Benghazi attack in 2012 plays a part in some other versions of the tale. One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. 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. because seals have a habit of writing books once they retire. 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., The New York Times reports. The Obama administration is violating a judge's order to turn over documents in the Aug. 6, 2011, shootdown of a U.S. helicopter call sign Extortion 17 that killed members of SEAL Team 6 . SEAL TEAM SIX - Extortion 17 EXPOSED - YouTube 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. Strange. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that supported the raid, including a Predator drone, and a variety of highly specialized spy planes, had kept continuous watch over the region during the operation. Donald Trump Retweeted A Conspiracy Theory that Biden Had Seal Team 6 "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. It marked the greatest single incident loss of American life in the war in Afghanistan, the deadliest moment in the history of SEAL Team Six and the entirety of the Navy SEALs, and the deadliest single incident in the history of U.S. Special Operations Command. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. After Vice President Joe Biden revealed that SEAL Team 6 carried out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Strange said the members of his son's team gave startling indications to their families they were about to meet their demise. How SEAL Team 6 . 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. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. The crash killed 38 people, including 15 Navy SEALs. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. ", "The hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to our government than my son's blood," she said. 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. Military Faces Challenge In Rebuilding SEAL Team 6 - NPR.org Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. SEAL TEAM SIX - Extortion 17 EXPOSED theunitedwest 15.8K subscribers Subscribe 4.7K 394K views Streamed 9 years ago AUGUST 6, 2015 - Today, on the fourth anniversary of the shoot down of. 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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. Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalersthe Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion, Navy SEAL's Savior Claims 'Lone Survivor' Got It Wrong. It's a scary thought. But why? Furthermore, according to the lore, due to the alleged Iran angle, the Iran nuclear agreement in 2015 was in fact a payoff to Iran for whatever role they played in the earlier conspiracy. All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, although military officials said none of the crash victims was on that mission in Pakistan against the al . 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. I was terrified. Joe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight. Planners selected a landing zone that had never been used before. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. Extortion 17's pilots and crew ranked among the very best military helicopter pilots in the world (Carter had amassed more than 4,000 hours of cockpit time), and the helicopter, a CH-47D, the fastest and one of the most powerful and nimble in the U.S. military, had been maintained to the highest standards. But this might just take the cake. The aircraft jerked. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. That means more raids, more targets and more reliance on Afghan competenceall of which add up to more special forces casualties. NATO Crash: Communities Mourn Loss of Troops Killed in Afghanistan The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. And they sent our guys right into the middle.. In all 38 troops died after the helicopter was shot down by what a review determined to be a Taliban RPG over Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011.