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The crash killed all 38 people on board including 25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter as well as a U.S. military working dog. [1][2][3][4], The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board including 17 US Navy SEALs, two United States Air Force Pararescue, one United States Air Force Combat Control Team member, one pilot and two crewmen of the United States Army Reserve, one pilot and one crewman of the United States Army National Guard, seven members of the Afghan National Security Forces, and one Afghan interpreter. Also if an Afghan soldier member of this team opened fire on this seal team then way was all the bodies Cremated and evidence destroyed?? The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. To remove the risk of rocket-propelled grenades downing helicopters in Afghanistan 100 percent, youd have to remove the opposable thumbs of every fighting-age male in the objective area, and thats not how we win a counter-insurgency., Ed Darack Two of the SEALs were from a West Coast SEAL unit, but the others were from the Gold Squadron of Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, sometimes known as SEAL Team 6, said the NSW source.. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. Why did it happen? The crash killed all 38 people on board including 25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, one Afghan interpreter, and a U.S. military working dog. The military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. All rights reserved. [29], Other reports alleged that the Taliban had laid an elaborate trap for American special-operations forces, luring them in with false information. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. There's also that little issue that came up when 6 Navy SEALs' funerals were conducted by a Muslim Cleric that condemned them to Hell during the service. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue/Arlington National Cemetery/released). He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), Grand Island, Nebraska, Sgt. Extortion 17 - IMDb Sgt. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. He grew up in Tyler, went to Texas A&M;, joined the Corps of Cadets and stared in shock at the news that two planes slammed into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. [9][11], Around 02:38, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters approximately 220m (240yd) south of the helicopter. Robert J. Reeves: A Navy SEAL who died in Extortion 17 - Spec Ops Magazine That's the only route, so they took positions on either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons. A 17-year-old boy died by suicide hours after being scammed. The - CNN 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. Play FALLEN ANGEL Call Sign: Extortion 17. Some news stories reported that investigators couldnt find the helicopters black box, referring to the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. Spencer C. Duncan, 21, of Olathe, Kan. One of the most significant tactical evolutions of the Afghanistan conflict is the ever-heavier use of unmanned aerial systems and other airborne intelligence-gathering systems. 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. Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. A typical combat mission in Afghanistan leaves little margin for error, requiring Chinook pilots to land on tiny, makeshift sites on mountain slopes where any tree, bush or rock could be hiding an enemy fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. It also became one of the most devastating death tolls of the U.S. Special Operations Forces. The 30 American deaths represent the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the decade-long war in Afghanistan that began in 2001. Unidentified Remains Extortion 17 (unknown-2011) - Find a Grave The torque of the spinning rotor assembly, now catastrophically imbalanced, ripped the rear pylon off the Chinooks fuselage. According to officials, the team included 17 SEALs, five Navy special operations troops who support the SEALs, three Air Force airmen, a five-member Army air crew and a military dog, along with. Call Sign Extortion 17 - Wikipedia A Department of Defense official asserted that there were no leaks from the Afghans. On Aug. 6, 2011, insurgent forces in Afghanistan shot down an American aircraft. The group fired 2-3 RPG rounds from a two-story building from a location some 220 meters south of the helicopter. Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six is a 2015 non-fiction expose, written by best-selling author and former U.S. Navy JAG Officer Don Brown, about the 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan of a United States Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter. That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of. And while all military helicopters carry countermeasures for guided missiles, nothing can interdict the dumb luck of an unguided RPG round sailing through the air. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. Captain Marquez claims that had the AC-130 been allowed to fire on the remaining enemy insurgents, Extortion 17 would not have been shot down. He is the founder of Darack Research, a company that innovates unmanned systems, which grew out of his July 2014 Air & Space article Build Your Own Drone. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. [7][20][21], Fifteen of the Navy SEALs that were killed were members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU),[5][22][20] while the other two Navy SEALs were from an unidentified West Coast-based unit. Naval Special Warfare support personnel, two EOD technicians, one MWD Handler, one Cryptologic technician, and one Information systems technician. As they started their descent, Lee heard a loud popping noise. In Memoriam: The 31 Heroes of EXTORTION 17 - American Thinker But we are still sending people to another country to fight, and we need to understand why were doing that, he said. Because unarmed villagers, unaffiliated with the Taliban, could also have been in those trees and among the groups milling about the village, the gunships could not have fired. While classification veils the specifics of these tactics, particularly for special operations raids, manned gunships can detect potential threats through a range of sensors and immediately attack if needed. Aired: 08/01/21 Rating: NR Critics blame Biden for Extortion 17 attack. by FighterSweep Staff Apr 25, 2017 Retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez is claiming the Pentagon hid the truth and lied about the circumstances that led to a Chinook helicopter crash that. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) - IMDb For the last two years, hes been an attorney with the law firm Jackson Walker. We had guys who had flown in Desert Storm, guys who had just come off active duty, Lee said. U.S. Navy Seals At 2:38 a.m. on August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, entered the western opening of Afghanistan's restive Tangi Valley, flying alone. Worst US loss of life in Afghan war as helicopter crash kills 38 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. The Final Mission of Extortion 17 - Google Books Extortion 17: 6 Years Later Retired Air Force Captain Says Pentagon He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. Eleven U.S. servicemen aboard Extortion 17 entered the military after the 9/11 attacks, answering the call to arms as so many brave Americans have done throughout the history of our great country. He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. As Extortion 17 moved into final approach of the target area at 0238 local time, the Rangers on the ground watched in horror as it took a direct hit from an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). A Taliban fighter shot the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade and all aboard were killedthe single greatest loss of American life in the Afghan war. The SEALs who assaulted Osama bin Ladens compound were drawn from Naval Special Warfare Development Groups Red Squadron, according to several sources in the special operations community.. But U.S. forces didnt know about every fighter during the raid, and they lost track of at least twoone of whom fired the deadly shot. The group fired two or three RPG rounds from a two-story building, the second striking one of the helicopter's three aft rotor blades. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a62b75e7a99f5de39e28d378788f7ec9" );document.getElementById("c08a1a06c7").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Content on this website is free to use and share, but please provide a link back to Spec Ops Magazine as a source. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. The helicopter fell from the sky, killing all 38 on board. Through the goggles, the landing zone shone brilliantly. Photo by Sgt. The CH-47 "Chinook" was carrying some of this nation's bravest and most capable military . First, the Obama administration's Defense Department's crash report stated that there were no eyes in the sky over the Chinook . The helicopters are capacious and fast, and they can perform well in Afghanistans performance-degrading high altitudes and heat. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. [43][44], American rules of engagement were tightened by Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2009 in order to improve American counterinsurgency strategy. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos The hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. Are all DEVGRUs saved in a sperm bank? What we saw is that if the enemy knew where you were going to attack, they would back some guys with RPGs off 500 meters or so, to shoot during an ingress, Glover explains. EXTORTION 17 COVER-UP OF SEAL TEAM SIX SHOOT-DOWN | BWCentral This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. At 02:15, one group of three Taliban fighters took a position in a stand of trees; the remaining six or seven men entered a building located some 2km (1.2mi) from the target compound. Or when something went terribly wrong. New documentary investigates events surrounding Extortion 17 helicopter Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. The suspicious August 6th, 2011, CH47-D Chinook helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan which claimed the lives of 38 American military personnel.Of those 38 lost, 22 were members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the Naval Special Warfare unit responsible for the killing of notorious 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden . He was also an instructor at the High Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (see Triple Threat: High, Hot, and Heavy, Aug. 2014), where many U.S. and foreign helicopter pilots train for mountainous and high-altitude flying, often before deployment to Afghanistan. August 6, 2017 marks the 6 year anniversary of the downing of Extortion 17, a bigger scandal than Benghazi in large part due to the fact that America lost 30 of its military personnel, including 17 Navy SEALs, the largest loss of life in the Afghan war.