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More than 20 Navy Seals died in the helicopter crash that killed 31 in Afghanistan yesterday. But this might just take the cake. They then repeated and emphasized a few related questions: How could this happen? 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.. 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. AP sources: Crash kills members of SEAL Team 6 The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. When asked what lessons Americans can draw from the crash of Extortion 17, Lees answer is simple: Americans should care about what happens in Afghanistan because theyve sent Americans to war there. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. Additional forces were then sent to secure the crash site. EXTORTION 17 COVER-UP OF SEAL TEAM SIX SHOOT-DOWN | BWCentral On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. 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. Portraits of Navy SEALs killed in helicopter crash | Fox News 30 Americans Killed Including 22 SEALs When Afghan - ABC News because seals have a habit of writing books once they retire. 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. 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 tempo of the missions did not decrease. 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. Three months after bin Ladens death, members of the SEAL Team 6 force -- though apparently not the same ones who carried out the bin Laden raid -- were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. Flying 250 feet above the valley floor at just under 70 miles per hour, Dave Carter, the pilot to the right of Nichols, guided the helicopter toward a carefully chosen landing zone just over a mile away. Apparently, someone tipped them off that the SEALs were coming; the helicopter was attacked from three sides in a coordinated ambush. 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. I would say that was the first time that we really had eyes on the LZ.. 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. All rights reserved. Seals from team that killed Bin Laden in helicopter crash The event was organized by Freedom Watch, a conservative advocacy group, at the National Press Club. Nobody tipped off the fightersnor could anyone have alerted them. What in the world was that Navy Seals conspiracy that Trump retweeted? The front rotor shattered, and the back pylon sheared off. At that time, this marked deadliest moment in the war in Afghanistan. Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. 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. I was terrified. And we really feel that this put our guys in an unnecessary risk, Hamburger said. 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. It's certainly possible. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. SEAL Team Six Helicopter Crash: Let's Debunk a Myth. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. All Rights Reserved. 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. NATO Crash: Communities Mourn Loss of Troops Killed in Afghanistan The assassination of Osama bin Laden was a significant victory for the U.S. government and the American people at large. "One minuteone minute," transmitted Bryan Nichols, the pilot in command of the helicopter. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. Faces of the Fallen: Helicopter Dead - ABC News 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. 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. Oops, this content can't be loadedbecause you're having connectivity problems, Stay always informed and up to date with our breaking news alerts, - The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 5, 2015. 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. But why? The compounds unusual and extensive security features, along with further intelligence information, prompted suspicion that the residence was Osama bin Ladens hideout. 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. "A NATO helicopter crashed last night in Wardak province," Karzai said in the statement. The actual mission, dubbed Operation Neptune Spear, officially started in the early-morning hours of May 2, Pakistan time (afternoon of May 1, Eastern Daylight Time). By late 2010, analysts were able to link the courier to a large, highly-secured compound in Abbottabad, a town about 35 miles north of Islamabad. The Chinook smashed into the ground, the force ripping off his goggles. Nobody involved had overlooked even the most minute detail. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Does Donald Trump believe that Joe Biden played a part in murdering those Navy Seals? On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. "We have an ideology problem with this war, and we need to address it. The hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. 22 Navy SEALs dead in Afghan chopper crash - CBS News By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. A US helicopter crashed in Afghanistan yesterday killing 31 special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy Seals unit that killed Osama bin Laden. Image:U.S. PresidentDonaldTrumpholds a campaign rally at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 13, 2020. Extortion 17 then plummeted to the ground and erupted in a massive fireball. In the rear of the aircraft, the Chinook's passengers stood and prepared to storm out into moonless night once the wheels touched the ground. During a press conference on Washington Thursday, family and advocates for the fallen troops called into question the rules of engagement that they say prohibited their sons from being able to return fire, and the White House's decision to announce shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden that SEAL Team 6 was responsible for the raid. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst. And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. 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. The insurgents had no way of knowing the helicopter would be coming in, at the speed it was coming and at the altitude, Darack said. U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families of those killed are still being notified. They dont even produce under their own self-imposed deadline, Mr. Klayman told The Washington Times. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. ", "The hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to our government than my son's blood," she said. As reported on by The Daily Beast, Trump retweeted a message posted by an account called Oscar the Midnight Rider 1111, which alleges that Hiden Biden and Obama may have had Seal team 6 killed! Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Reportedly Kills Members of SEAL Team 6 "It's something that a lot of people who have never been in combat have a hard time understanding," he said. He was too busy. 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.. This critical, but completely uncontrollable, aspect of war, is well-known among fighters like Buddy. Obama 'Put a Target on Their Backs', SEAL Team 6 Family Members Say He finished his contract with the Army shortly afterward, and that September enrolled in Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. 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. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and needed backup. 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. Their names and their missions had never been revealed before. These helicopters have been well protected from long-range missile attacks for years, but still have few defenses against a simple RPG fired at short range while the Chinook hovers in place. the seal team 6 crash is just tying up loose ends for their crimes. The Benghazi attack in 2012 plays a part in some other versions of the tale. The Graveyard of Empires: Directed by David Boreanaz. "Sometimes the enemy just gets that terribly lucky shot. Still, the one the president retweeted earlier this week may have been the weirdest yet. They knew. 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. Afghan President Karzai's office released a statement on the incident. Nigerians await election results in competitive race. But Chinooks are at their most vulnerable while hovering in place during raids like the one this team is thought to have been conducting. List of operations conducted by SEAL Team Six - Wikipedia 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 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. It was a good crew, it really was. The crash killed 38 people, including 15 Navy SEALs. 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. You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. The hearing as it took place was meant to honor the heroes of Extortion 17 instead of to answer our questions, Mr. But why? Or when something went terribly wrong. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Some Arab countries and leaders condemned the actions of the United States. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. In fact, Chinooks are better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats than from older, more crude ones. 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. MARTHA RADDATZ, LUIS MARTINEZ and MIKE BOETTCHER, helicopter was shot down today by Afghan insurgents, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The helicopter plunged tail first. 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. [PHOTOS:Fighting in Afghanistan Continues]. President Obama offered his thoughts and prayers to those killed in the crash. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. The story itself is tragic, but tons of war propaganda. They are also pretty tough; the only comparable loss to this one was a Chinook shot down in 2005. September-11-pentagon-attack-survivors-evacuation. This story has been corrected to reflect that only some of the families of the fallen SEALs say their loved ones were deliberately endangered. And Justice unilaterally set a new deadline for the release and then ignored it, Mr. Klayman said. 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. 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. Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. So, to do an infil on the X or Y, you know, having that element of surprise in the beginning of an operation is good, but by the time weve been there for three hours, and the partys up, bringing in another aircraft like that, you know, may not be the most tactically sound decision.. 4:08 p.m. - The team destroys the chopper that crashed. 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. 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. Related: Marcus Luttrell's savior claim's 'Lone Survivor' got it wrong. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. 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. 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. What happened to SEAL Team Six? The most serious scandal of all 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. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. Honestly, sir, I dont think anybody had really looked at the LZ, said the pilot of Gun 1. Could an enemy have specifically targeted the U.S. special forces team that took down bin Laden? But it's often foreign to those who observe combat from afar. He pushed hard on the cyclic stick to tilt the helicopter forward. That means more raids, more targets and more reliance on Afghan competenceall of which add up to more special forces casualties. And needless to say, it was the real Bin Laden who was killed, not an incredible facsimile. 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. The mission itself has proven controversial to some family members. 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. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents. 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. Joining the 15members of SEAL Team 6, two pilots and three-man crew inside Extortion 17: ten other Navy and Air Force personnel, eight Afghansand a combat assault dog named Bart. 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. But why? The pilots, crew and Chinook helicopters of "Extortion Company," the conventional Army aviation unit to which Extortion 17 belonged, had supported over 90 percent of raids conducted by Rangers and SEALs of JSOC in that region; the flight in question was nothing out of the ordinary. The Chinook headed to a different landing zone than the first assault team -- one in the narrowest part of the Tangi Valley. Several Afghans were on board and were killed, but trust is in short supply in Afghanistan. Family members are hoping Freedom Watch, a watchdog legal group led by Larry Klayman, can force new disclosures using the power of the FOIA process. 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. Today, some family members are not just disappointed in the investigation and the FOIA process, but also in how the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security conducted a brief hearing in Feb. 2014. 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.