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. 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. After the crash, the forces that were involved in the firefight "broke contact" with the enemy so they could go provide perimeter security for the crash site, the official said. While the press conference was long on speculation and short on concrete evidence, the family members and their supporters didn't pull any punches. Many military experts at the time, including some of Obamas top military advisers, had questioned the White Houses public praise of SEAL Team 6 and said it put members in danger. 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. She had just given birth to their first child. Market data provided by Factset. He knew the pilots and crew members aboard Extortion 17. NATO Crash: Communities Mourn Loss of Troops Killed in Afghanistan More than 20 Navy Seals died in the helicopter crash that killed 31 in Afghanistan yesterday. "One minuteone minute," transmitted Bryan Nichols, the pilot in command of the helicopter. Hours earlier, pilots Carter and Nichols and crewmembers Specialist Spencer Duncan, Sergeant Pat Hamburger, and Sergeant Alex Bennett, along with pilots and crew of a sister Chinook, Extortion 16, inserted a strike force in the central Tangi Valley. The team began intense training for the operation, which included practicing in a life-sized replica of the compound. 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. They were part of the same Army Reserve unit, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment based in Gardner, Kan. Nichols, with three combat tours of duty, also had plenty of experience flying dangerous missions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Seven Afghan commandos were also reportedly killed. Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, Tex., was reportedly the leader of the Navy SEAL team killed in the Chinook helicopter attack on Aug. 6. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. ", Tags: Navy SEALs, Navy, Afghanistan, Allen West, Michele Bachmann. At the pilots request, the AC-130 flashed an infrared spotlight, which could be seen only through night vision goggles, to light up the landing zone. There were guys in a tower. 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. Insurgents in Iraq have used Russian-made SA-7s, shoulder-fired missiles tipped with infrared homing devices, against U.S. and British aircraft. 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. What went so terribly wrong? Navy SEALs. With Robert O'Neill, Patricia Economo, Enrique Garcia, James Obrien. They have to slow down to land or allow troops to rappel to the ground. And they sent our guys right into the middle.. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. "He said, 'Mom, there's chatter. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Somebody tipped them off. There are no survivors. Could an enemy have specifically targeted the U.S. special forces team that took down bin Laden? Chinooks are American forces' preferred helicopters in Afghanistan because they are powerful enough fly over mountains while carrying a full complement of troops. 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. The Benghazi attack in 2012 plays a part in some other versions of the tale. WASHINGTON The families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan blamed the government for the tragedy, during an emotional press conference in Washington Thursday. The subject of the tweet, per The Beast, is Alan Howell Parrot, a falconer-turned-CIA whistleblower who was once the star of a documentary called Feathered Cocaine.. But no one died. The operation to kill the world's most wanted terrorist was the result of years of planning and training. The compounds unusual and extensive security features, along with further intelligence information, prompted suspicion that the residence was Osama bin Ladens hideout. WASHINGTON - The families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan blamed the government for the tragedy, during an emotional press. How SEAL Team 6 . 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. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. This misinformation persists in part because those unfamiliar with the battlefield aren't taking into account a fundamental part of war: chance. The ensuing crash killed all 16 on board, eight Army special operations aviators, and eight Navy SEALs. A silhouette of a. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. President Trump has also claimed, including in the first presidential debate, that Biden opposed the raid that took out Bin Laden. 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. He has written about soldiers returning home from war and the mental health crisis facing young people. Back in May, the families of the SEALs went public with concerns that the Obama administration was at least partially responsible for the deaths [] Misinformation regarding the skills of the pilots and crew, and nonsensical conspiracy theoriesoften politically motivatedfollowed, much of which unfortunately continues to this day. 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. 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. Since the agencys main task is to eavesdrop on phone and Internet messages, it may have recorded communications related to the attack. With David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Jessica Par, Neil Brown Jr.. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. For many families of 9/11 victims, bin Ladens death symbolized justice and retribution. The mission itself has proven controversial to some family members. 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. Olson himself a former Team 6 leader recalled at his change of command ceremony the men who lost their lives in Saturday's helicopter crash in Afghanistan. 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 . But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. 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. And we really feel that this put our guys in an unnecessary risk, Hamburger said. This critical, but completely uncontrollable, aspect of war, is well-known among fighters like Buddy. I would say that was the first time that we really had eyes on the LZ.. The assassination of Osama bin Laden was a significant victory for the U.S. government and the American people at large. Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. I thought I hit a tree,he said. In the immediate wake of the tragedy, the military initiated two investigations. Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. 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 . For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. If this [operation] was survivable, that was the right crew to have. As they made their approach, there was a line of thunderstorms nearby. Related: Marcus Luttrell's savior claim's 'Lone Survivor' got it wrong. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. "We have an ideology problem with this war, and we need to address it. 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. 4:10 p.m. - A backup helicopter scoops up remaining team members and leaves the area. 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. Patrick Hamburger, served among the helicopter's crew. Add in the fact that more sophisticated foreign intelligence agents are on the ground, with signals intelligence assets and deep pockets, and you have a recipe for a plot. Additional forces were then sent to secure the crash site. What happened to SEAL Team Six? The most serious scandal of all Legal Statement. 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. 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. Some Arab countries and leaders condemned the actions of the United States. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in February signed an order requiring the Obama administration to release documents on a continual basis through the spring and summer. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. The terrorist leader was not only a major player within al-Qaeda but also a figurehead that attracted supporters and recruits from around the world. 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. 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 worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a protracted firefight with Taliban fighters and needed reinforcements. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. The immediate reaction force (IRF) was assembled hastily for insertion into Tangi Valley to help Army Rangers capture fleeing Taliban. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. He finished his contract with the Army shortly afterward, and that September enrolled in Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. RETWEET!, The president went on to follow that last command, although the Oscar the Midnight Rider account has since been suspended by Twitter. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. In addition to the 30 Americans, the official said there were seven Afghan army soldiers and an interpreter on the helicopter. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. The World is a public radio program that crosses borders and time zones to bring home the stories that matter. The Justice Department said at least 50 documents in the Pentagon have been identified as relevant, but only one has been turned over. "No amount of training, skill, or technology will ever defeat chance on the battlefield. He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. An official investigation found no evidence of a pre-planned ambush, though it did suggest that other helicopter activity in the area could have tipped off Taliban fighters that more helicopters could be approaching, according to the report. Planners had created an absolutely sound mission. U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families of those killed are still being notified. The conspiracy has a number of moving parts, all of which have surfaced before, but none of which have any truth to them. Finally Sells Japan Tomahawk Missiles. The Chinook smashed into the ground, the force ripping off his goggles. The Chinook headed to a different landing zone than the first assault team -- one in the narrowest part of the Tangi Valley. But why? A silhouette of a flight engineer manning an M240 machine gun on the ramp of a CH-47D Chinook in eastern Afghanistan. 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. International reactions to bin Ladens death ranged from favorable to mixed. That assault team captured Tahirs compound and some of his men. The police chief of Wardak said the attack occurred around 1 a.m. Saturday after an assault on a Taliban compound in the village of Jaw-e-Mekh Zareen in the Tangi Valley. Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. 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. 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. 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. U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that they believe that . Extortion 17 then plummeted to the ground and erupted in a massive fireball. 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 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. He probably doesnt. 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. There was no conspiracy. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. 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. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Nobody involved had overlooked even the most minute detail. Honestly, sir, I dont think anybody had really looked at the LZ, said the pilot of Gun 1. 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Helicopter Crash - Popular Mechanics [PHOTOS:Fighting in Afghanistan Continues]. 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. 30 Americans Killed Including 22 SEALs When Afghan - ABC News What in the world was that Navy Seals conspiracy that Trump retweeted? Three of the . 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 why? 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. Photo: AP, Thousands of passengers are stranded after Colombias Viva Air grounds flights, The last of Mexicos artisanal salt-makers preserve a 2,000-year-old tradition, I cannot give up: Cambodian rapper says he will sing about injustice despite threats from govt, Ukrainian rock star reflects on a year of war in his country, Ukrainian refugees in Poland will now be charged to stay in state-funded housing, This Colombian town is dimming its lights to attract more tourists to view the night sky, Kneel and apologize!: 76 years after island-wide massacre, Taiwan continues to commemorate and debate the tragedy. JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. Are such missiles appearing in Afghanistan? Men he knew. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. Navy's SEAL Team 6 Recovered 2 Bodies From Afghanistan Crash "In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs," said Doug Hamburger, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. 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. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. 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 Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. 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. A CH-47D Chinook helicopter (the same model as Extortion 17) speeds through the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, near Bridgeport, California, during mountain warfare training exercises. The tempo of the missions did not decrease. 4:05 p.m. - The first helicopter exits the compound. But what if it was a more advanced missile? 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. 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. The story itself is tragic, but tons of war propaganda. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. 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. The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. The Costliest Day in SEAL Team Six History - HISTORY Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, was one of the U.S. Navy SEALS killed in the helicopter crash. Extortion 17, Seal Team Six and What Really Happened on the Deadliest The military's public c 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. Composed primarily of members of the 75th Ranger Regiment, which falls under the authority of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, the team sought to capture or kill a powerful insurgent leader, Qari Tahir, known to coalition forces by his designation "Lefty Grove." 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. After the helicopter crash on August 6, 2011. "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. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents. The crash sent shock waves throughout U.S. special operations. Just last week the Afghans arrested an Army officer for aiding Taliban suicide bombers through checkpoints, and doing so under employ by Pakistan. The Taliban silenced him. While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. Due to the sheer magnitude of loss of life, combined with recent news of SEAL Team Six's successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, global media outlets lionized the tragedy. 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. The investigation of events surrounding the crash of a C H-47D Chinook , call sign Extortion 17, took military command officials just two months to complete. There's always the chance that Iran, which has them, or Pakistan, which conceivably could have bought some on the black market, supplied them to the Taliban. 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. Military Faces Challenge In Rebuilding SEAL Team 6 - NPR.org Landing in deserts or mountainsides, the helicopter rotors kick up clouds of sand and dust, causing brownouts that can blind a pilot. EXTORTION 17 COVER-UP OF SEAL TEAM SIX SHOOT-DOWN | BWCentral Your life is in danger. The guy was incredibly skilled.. The first of the unguided projectiles missed, as the vast majority of rocket propelled grenades shot at helicopters did over the course of the war in Afghanistan. Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com. Enterprise writer at The Dallas Morning News. The Associated Press contributed to this report. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire.

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