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The families of these deceased heroes have been stonewalled by the Obama Department of Defense and the Obama National Security Agency in disrespect over their sons unexplained tragic deaths. The chopper's manifest. 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. Its lawyers have told the judge that the process of locating relevant documents and removing classified information takes time. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. Since the agencys main task is to eavesdrop on phone and Internet messages, it may have recorded communications related to the attack. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. The Taliban shot at the Chinooks all the time with RPGs and rifles, Darack said. Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. But the Team Six connection makes it a major symbolic victory for them. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Navy SEALs. There was no conspiracy. Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory said: "We share in the grief of all of the families who lost their loved ones. For now, let's assume the Chinook was shot down, and by a rocket. Aerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, made by the CIA. or redistributed. "No amount of training, skill, or technology will ever defeat chance on the battlefield. The ensuing crash killed all 16 on board, eight Army special operations aviators, and eight Navy SEALs. He would eventually do two tours and become commander of a Chinook unit during his second deployment in 2011. 4:10 p.m. - A backup helicopter scoops up remaining team members and leaves the area. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. While the vast majority of attempts to down helicopters failed, the lucky shot that took down Extortion 17 had a precedent. In fact, the conflict was heating up. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Around 2007, U.S. intelligence officials discovered the name of one of bin Ladens closest couriers, whom they speculated may have been involved in supporting or harboring the terrorist. ", "The hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to our government than my son's blood," she said. Misinformation regarding the skills of the pilots and crew, and nonsensical conspiracy theoriesoften politically motivatedfollowed, much of which unfortunately continues to this day. The immediate reaction force (IRF) was assembled hastily for insertion into Tangi Valley to help Army Rangers capture fleeing Taliban. President Trump has also claimed, including in the first presidential debate, that Biden opposed the raid that took out Bin Laden. The mission continues, uninterrupted.3:39 p.m. Osama bin Laden is located on the third floor of the compound and is shot in the head, above the left eye.Sometime during the operation, three other men (including one of bin Ladens sons) and a woman in the compound are also killed.3:53 p.m. President Obama receives preliminary word that bin Laden is identified and dead.3:55 p.m. SEAL team members move bin Ladens body to the first floor of the compound and place it in a body bag.3:39 p.m.-4:10 p.m. The team locates and retrieves multiple items from the compound for intelligence investigation.4:05 p.m. The first helicopter exits the compound.4:08 p.m. The team destroys the chopper that crashed.4:10 p.m. A backup helicopter scoops up remaining team members and leaves the area.5:53 p.m. The choppers with SEAL team members return to Afghanistan.7:01 p.m. President Obama receives further intelligence information that the body killed in the raid is likely that of bin Laden.11:35 p.m. President Obama addresses the nation about the raid.12:59 a.m. Osama bin Ladens body is buried at sea within 24 hours to comply with Islamic law. But some say the official report, which contained no direct criticism of decision-makers that day, did not delve deeply enough. 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. During an attempted reinforcement effort during Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005, high on the slopes of a mountain called Sawtalo Sar in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province, a lucky shot took down an Army Special Operations Chinook, call sign "Turbine 33." Led by firebrand Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Congress is to launch an official investigation into the mysterious helicopter crash that killed several members of the Navy SEAL team 6 in Afghanistan in 2011. Extortion 17, however, would never reach that landing zone. The families of some of the 17 SEAL Team 6 commandos who were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan during a helicopter flight to help Army Rangers pinned down by Taliban gunmen accused the. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. My life is in danger. The fighting lasted at least two hours, he said, the New York Times reported. Lee and his friend Bryan Nichols flew their Chinook into battle several timesthe first night, dropping off troops at a landing zone (LZ) almost 10,000 feet above sea level. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. Several Afghans were on board and were killed, but trust is in short supply in Afghanistan. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. Ultimately, bin Laden was found and killed within nine minutes, and SEAL Team Six was credited with carrying out a nearly flawless mission. May 1 (EDT)1:25 p.m. President Obama, along with other top officials, formally approve the execution of Operation Neptune Spear.1:51 p.m. Stealth Black Hawk helicopters take off from Afghanistan, carrying a group of 25 Navy SEALs.3:30 p.m. The choppers land on the compound in Abbottabad. In fact, Chinooks are better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats than from older, more crude ones. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. However, the AP has reported, the Afghan forces never staffed the outpost after American forces left, and the Taliban moved back in. The entire operation, which lasted only 40 minutes from start to finish, was the culmination of years of calculated planning and training. While the press conference was long on speculation and short on concrete evidence, the family members and their supporters didn't pull any punches. Your life is in danger. SEAL TEAM SIX - EXTORTION 17 COVER UP theunitedwest 15.8K subscribers Subscribe 683 53K views Streamed 7 years ago WOW, watch author Don Brown blow the lid off of the official government report. Here are the . 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. Virginia-based Navy SEALs in a training exercise. They fail to mention it was Saudis who orchestrated 9/11, yet he elected to go after Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of those Seals were members of Seal Team 6 that took part in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, the AP reported today; although they were not actual participants in the Pakistan raid, according to the New York Times. .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Russian Cargo Plane Explodes During Pressure Test, Air Force's IRON Wireless Network Protects Nukes, Watch Opposition Group Land Drone on Russian Jet, Pentagon's Mysterious Aircraft Won't Need a Runway, The Secret War to Take out Iran's F-14 Fighters, Meet the E-7 Wedgetail, the Air Forces New Plane, Report: Pilot Error Ruined a $112 Million F-35 Jet, Air Force Grounds Jets: Their Tails May Fall Off, The Messy Battle to Build the F-35's Next Engine, Russia Dredges Up Ancient BTR-50 Vehicles. They then repeated and emphasized a few related questions: How could this happen? The missions commanders decided to insert another team to go after Tahir while the Rangers held the compound. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. I will never forget what they did, he said. The World is a public radio program that crosses borders and time zones to bring home the stories that matter. Its planners and pilots must use whatever intelligence is available (which is usually pretty thin information, and comes from earlier attacks) to plan the flight route. This was preventable only if they just had not taken off that night, Lee said. JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. They knew. Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond. In interviewing Buddy for background research for my book, The Final Mission of Extortion 17, which chronicles the people, events, and circumstances of the downing of Extortion 17, I realized that this tragedy illustrates Buddy's words more convincingly perhaps than any other incident. "We have an ideology problem with this war, and we need to address it. 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. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. How SEAL Team 6 . I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Each shouldered a rocket propelled grenade launcher, aimed at the dim silhouette of the approaching helicopter then fired. The ensuing crash killed all 16 on board, eight Army special operations aviators, and eight Navy SEALs. 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. The Chinook was descending on a noisy battlefield where Apache helicopters and a C-130 gunship had been buzzing overhead for three hours, alerting Taliban fighters. Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. Ten computer hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices were retrieved. MARTHA RADDATZ, LUIS MARTINEZ and MIKE BOETTCHER, helicopter was shot down today by Afghan insurgents, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Things like Benghazi and the NSA. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. 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. That left it to .css-3wjtm9{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#1c6a65;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-3wjtm9:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Navy SEALs to undertake a dangerous raid in a notorious insurgent area to stem the Taliban's advance. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Some of those Seals were members of Seal Team 6 that took part in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, the AP reported today; although they were not actual participants in the Pakistan raid, according to the New York Times. They have to slow down to land or allow troops to rappel to the ground. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 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. The Taliban, of course, has taken credit, saying it shot down the helo during a special forces raid on a home. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. See production, box office & company info, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. It has now been four years since Extortion 17 was shot down, said Doug Hamburger, whose Army air crew son, Patrick, was one of the 30 Americans killed. "We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied.". In 2006, he was called into Afghanistan, where he turned 25. However, a shoot down does not necessarily mean insurgents have changed their tactics or hardware. Extortion 17: Directed by Franois Garcia. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. He has written about soldiers returning home from war and the mental health crisis facing young people. On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. The Chinook headed to a different landing zone than the first assault team -- one in the narrowest part of the Tangi Valley. At that time, this marked deadliest moment in the war in Afghanistan. His unit called itself Extortion Company. One of his Chinooks, flying under the call sign Extortion 17 (one-seven), was tasked with the special operations mission the night of Aug. 6. The team began intense training for the operation, which included practicing in a life-sized replica of the compound. Honestly, sir, I dont think anybody had really looked at the LZ, said the pilot of Gun 1. A silhouette of a. Almost 10 years after 9/11, here's what led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Joe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight. Ohio Republican Secretary of State 'actively' considering Senate run against Sherrod Brown, DeSantis family spends the afternoon at Houston Rodeo ahead of governor's speech, Marianne Williamson launches campaign against Biden, vows to fight 'forces of hatred, injustice and fear', Haley blasts both Democrats and fellow Republicans, including Trump, over exploding national debt. It's a scary thought. 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 co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. They stayed fixed on enemy squirters, or runners, until just a few minutes before landing. The tragedy took some of the glow off SEAL Team 6s grand achievement just three months earlier: A team penetrated Pakistan airspace, infiltrated a compound in Abbottabad and killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Aug. 7, 2011 -- American communities are mourning the loss of 30 U.S. troops who were killed when Afghan insurgents shot down a helicopter carrying the most elite forces in the US military -- Navy . ", Tags: Navy SEALs, Navy, Afghanistan, Allen West, Michele Bachmann. Nobody involved had overlooked even the most minute detail. 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. They were sitting there, waiting. But Chinooks are at their most vulnerable while hovering in place during raids like the one this team is thought to have been conducting. It requires the highest level of skills from the pilots because they are some of the most dangerous operations.. Many of these family members are undergoing psychological care over what has become a double tragedy: the deaths of their sons and the cover-up for which these family members feel betrayed by their own government.. The story itself is tragic, but tons of war propaganda. She had just given birth to their first child. The conspiracy has a number of moving parts, all of which have surfaced before, but none of which have any truth to them. The Associated Press is reporting that a rocket attack took down the Chinook (probably a MH-47) , quoting an unnamed source in Washington D.C., but this has yet to be confirmed officially. 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. There is still a tremendous level of chance for a tragedy of such huge magnitude.. The navigator on the AC-130 gunship said there was simply too much gun and engine noise to think that the Chinook could make an undetected entrance. I would say that was the first time that we really had eyes on the LZ.. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. 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. An initial investigation indicates the helicopter was shot down by insurgents in the volatile Tangi valley of Wardak province, several hours south of Kabul. But why? 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. Originally published August 6, 2011 at 10:50 am Updated August 6, 2011 at 3:16 pm. Market data provided by Factset. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. The two Apaches, Gun 1 and Gun 2, on scene were never emphatically told to move near the landing zone to scan for threats. 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. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. A chief warrant officer 5, a member of the Colorado National Guard, Carter had over 4,500 flying hours, including more than 1,000 hours during combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. 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. I am afraid that with this FOIA case that the government is purposely delaying turning over documents because they need the time to redact and to delete things they do not want the American public to become aware of.. 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. It is not uncommon for commandos to fly some of their missions aboard such aircraft in the war zone, however. One helicopter crashes, but there are no injuries. Chance, however, a component of war intimately understood by war fighters, can never be completely mitigated. Strange. The SEALS intentionally . Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com. But what if it was a more advanced missile? Hamburger said. The tempo of the missions did not decrease. Every mission is potentially life-threatening. 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. The U.S. military claimed that the Chinook was blown to pieces by a shoulder-fired missile, in which everyone on board was burned beyond recognition. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. 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. The Graveyard of Empires: Directed by David Boreanaz. It launched in the belly of the aircraft which made a hard landing and only two soldiers were injured in that attack but this time all on board were killed. 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. 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. The force included seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. Missions like this one to insert or remove an assault force are the military equivalent of a perfect 10 in the Olympics -- equal parts skill, experience and daring. That is why, they say, a fighter just happened to be stationed in a turret within 150 yards of a landing zone that had never been used before. The Chinook had no Apache escort, as did the Ranger team that enjoyed the element of surprise when it touched down hours earlier. But why? Aaron Vaughn's mother, Karen, also demanded an explanation for why her son and his team were not using a special operations aircraft, such as the Chinooks flown by special operations pilots, which have specialized defenses designed to fly commandos deep behind enemy lines. The second probe, led by Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt, explained in excruciating detail what all those familiar with military operations and helicopter aviation in Afghanistan already knew: chance and chance alone, took down Extortion 17.
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