They then repeated and emphasized a few related questions: How could this happen? Extortion 17, however, would never reach that landing zone. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. He grew up in Tyler, went to Texas A&M, joined the Corps of Cadets and stared in shock at the news thattwo planes slammed into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Joe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight. Military officers interviewed by investigators said they could not recall an IRF ever being sent for such a mission. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. "We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied.". With David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Jessica Par, Neil Brown Jr.. He has written about soldiers returning home from war and the mental health crisis facing young people. Are such missiles appearing in Afghanistan? Conspiracy theories over the years have alleged that President Barack Obama and presumably then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and now Joe Biden had somehow been responsible for the attack, supposedly in order to silence the Seals for something having to do with the Bin Laden raid three months earlier. 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. Guys on the bush line. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. 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. 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. The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. But why? SEAL Team Six was assigned three pre-invasion missions: two clandestine political missions relating to regime change on the island, and reconnaissance from the sea of the new airfield under construction on the island's southwest coast. Mills, a 13-year veteran of the military . Planners selected a landing zone that had never been used before. One helicopter crashes, but there are no injuries. Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17: Directed by Karl Horstmann, Stephen Spivey. Back in May, the families of the SEALs went public with concerns that the Obama administration was at least partially responsible for the deaths [] 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 ensuing crash killed all 16 on board, eight Army special operations aviators, and eight Navy SEALs. Related: Marcus Luttrell's savior claim's 'Lone Survivor' got it wrong. 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. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. 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. By The Newsroom 6th Aug 2011, 6:30pm ", Ed Darack's The Final Mission of Extortion 17, published by Smithsonian Books, will be available on September 19. As they made their approach, there was a line of thunderstorms nearby. Special forces routinely use helicopters in raids on homes 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 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. The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com. Were pleading with the judge to do something, and hes just sitting on it., In one of his motions, Mr. Klayman stated: As this Court must be aware, this is not an ordinary Freedom of Information Act case, it involves obtaining records concerning the deaths of Navy SEAL Team 6 and other special operations forces on a mission with the call sign Extortion 17. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Charlie Strange, whose Navy cryptologist son, Michael, was on Extortion 17, told The Times last year that it was too much of a coincidence for Taliban to be standing so near the landing zone. On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. Coincidence or not, any Chinook shoot-down is a coup for the Taliban. The incident comes just months after DevGru's raid that killed Osama bin Laden. You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. With Sean Hannity, Raj Kala, Justin Torrence, Vee Bhakta. Strange. 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. I mean, at any time if we would have found these squirters, or they would have found weapons, we were the way I was understanding it, we were going to be clear to engage due to the fact that they had weapons, but we had to [positively identify] them first., He added: So we hadnt started looking at the LZ yet, just due to there was so much more of a threat to the east with the squirters. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. . 4:08 p.m. - The team destroys the chopper that crashed. The Obama administration is violating a judges 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 in Afghanistan, a watchdog group is charging. The hearing as it took place was meant to honor the heroes of Extortion 17 instead of to answer our questions, Mr. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. I would say that was the first time that we really had eyes on the LZ.. 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. 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. 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. The crash killed 38 people, including 15 Navy SEALs. For many families of 9/11 victims, bin Ladens death symbolized justice and retribution. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. 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. Hamburger added. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. They stayed fixed on enemy squirters, or runners, until just a few minutes before landing. An Afghan official, speaking anonymously a few days after the attack, speculated that the Taliban had laid a trap, that they had purposely put out false information about a meeting involving the Taliban commander. "A NATO helicopter crashed last night in Wardak province," Karzai said in the statement. 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. During the event organized by a group called Freedom Watch, family members and former military personnel claimed President Obama turned the SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin Laden raid. In all, 17 members of the SEAL Team 6 counterterrorist force were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Planners had created an absolutely sound mission. 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. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. Almost 10 years after 9/11, here's what led to the death of Osama bin Laden. "In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs," said Doug Hamburger, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. But why? The Taliban silenced him. The chopper's manifest. "Sometimes the enemy just gets that terribly lucky shot. "Chance will always play a role in war," stated Justin "Buddy" Lee, the commander of Extortion Company, who had flown with Dave Carter the night before Extortion 17's demise on a similar raid, and who had co-piloted a number of missions with Bryan Nichols. Each shouldered a rocket propelled grenade launcher, aimed at the dim silhouette of the approaching helicopter then fired. Only the pilots, crew, and special operations ground forces commanders knew about the planned flight path and time. The Justice Department said at least 50 documents in the Pentagon have been identified as relevant, but only one has been turned over. The guy was incredibly skilled.. They have to slow down to land or allow troops to rappel to the ground. Seven Afghan commandos were also reportedly killed. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Every mission is potentially life-threatening. Afghan President Karzai's office released a statement on the incident. 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. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. But why? 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. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. 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. Apparently, someone tipped them off that the SEALs were coming; the helicopter was attacked from three sides in a coordinated ambush. In fact, Chinooks are better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats than from older, more crude ones. 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! Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. ", While not commenting directly on the allegations, he called those who were lost "warriors" who represented "the diversity and talent of America and its military.". 4:10 p.m. - A backup helicopter scoops up remaining team members and leaves the area. A junior, he was ready to fight, but the war would be over, he figured, before he even got out of college. 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). But this might just take the cake. 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. What went so terribly wrong? Although the Taliban have claimed to have shot the helicopter down, U.S. officials have only identified the attackers as insurgents. Osama bin Ladens personal journal was also recovered. They loaded onto Extortion 17, and then Carter and Nichols lifted the Chinook into the night sky. He would eventually do two tours and become commander of a Chinook unit during his second deployment in 2011. As more responsibilities fall on the shoulders of special forces, the risk of more losses like this one will continue to increase. On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. Among the 38 occupants inside the Chinook were some of the most highly trained and battle-seasoned fighters in the U.S. military, including 15 commandos from the Navys SEAL Team 6,the unit that three months earlier had killed Osama bin Laden. 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. 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. 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. 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. But why? 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. Ten computer hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices were retrieved. The loss of a helicopter carrying more than 20 U.S. special forces and as many as 8 other U.S. military service members is an unprecedented one in this war. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. It is not uncommon for commandos to fly some of their missions aboard such aircraft in the war zone, however. But it's often foreign to those who observe combat from afar. 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. 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. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. 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. 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. 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. "We've allowed politics to become more important than the lives and safety of those men and women," he says. Nobody involved had overlooked even the most minute detail. Aerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, made by the CIA. 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. ", Tags: Navy SEALs, Navy, Afghanistan, Allen West, Michele Bachmann. More than 20 Navy Seals died in the helicopter crash that killed 31 in Afghanistan yesterday. Finally Sells Japan Tomahawk Missiles. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. Forces to the threat of spying. The aircraft jerked. On his first deployment, he felt fortunate to be surrounded by veteran pilots he could learn from. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. The Taliban, of course, has taken credit, saying it shot down the helo during a special forces raid on a home. It's certainly possible. My life is in danger. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Could an enemy have specifically targeted the U.S. special forces team that took down bin Laden? The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lee's closest friends in the Chinook company. Up to 30 Dead in Afghanistan Following Failed Prison Heist, Total Iraq and Afghanistan Pricetag: Over $4 Trillion. 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. An initial investigation indicates the helicopter was shot down by insurgents in the volatile Tangi valley of Wardak province, several hours south of Kabul. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. The helicopter plunged tail first. [PHOTOS:Fighting in Afghanistan Continues]. 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. 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. DevGru is an emblem of U.S. military power, known worldwide. 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. Just last week the Afghans arrested an Army officer for aiding Taliban suicide bombers through checkpoints, and doing so under employ by Pakistan. 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. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. 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 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. Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. 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. He spoke out against banning girls education. In fact, the conflict was heating up. The SEALS intentionally . 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. 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. That means more raids, more targets and more reliance on Afghan competenceall of which add up to more special forces casualties. 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. 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. 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. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. There are no survivors. 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 entire operation, which lasted only 40 minutes from start to finish, was the culmination of years of calculated planning and training. Three of the . It just wasnt.. A silhouette of a flight engineer manning an M240 machine gun on the ramp of a CH-47D Chinook in eastern Afghanistan. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Click here for reprint permission. And needless to say, it was the real Bin Laden who was killed, not an incredible facsimile. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. But why? 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. 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. And they sent our guys right into the middle.. On May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the worlds most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. Patrick Hamburger, served among the helicopter's crew. He knew the pilots and crew members aboard Extortion 17. The helicopter was in great operational shape. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. 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. The fighting lasted at least two hours, he said, the New York Times reported. The compounds unusual and extensive security features, along with further intelligence information, prompted suspicion that the residence was Osama bin Ladens hideout. This critical, but completely uncontrollable, aspect of war, is well-known among fighters like Buddy. But why? Ultimately, bin Laden was found and killed within nine minutes, and SEAL Team Six was credited with carrying out a nearly flawless mission. Some news stories reported that investigators couldnt find the helicopters black box, referring to the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. There are more sophisticated threats out there, such as the SA-16. 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 hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. EXPLOSIVE: CIA Whistleblower Exposes Bidens Alleged Role With the Deaths of Seal Team- Claims to have Documented Proof. The Graveyard of Empires: Directed by David Boreanaz. Or when something went terribly wrong. 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.. 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. Hamburger said. They happened to be in the right place at the right time. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. Additional forces were then sent to secure the crash site. U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that they believe that . 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. The conspiracy has a number of moving parts, all of which have surfaced before, but none of which have any truth to them. The quick reaction force included SEAL Team 6 and other special operations personnel. As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. 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 . At this difficult hour, all Americans are united in support of our men and women in uniform who serve so that we can live in freedom and security.". Family members question SEAL Team 6's most deadly incident. All Rights Reserved. Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. 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. 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. Darack, a writer and photographer, is the author of four previous books, including Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalersthe Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. 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. Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, was one of the U.S. Navy SEALS killed in the helicopter crash. 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. 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. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. Its one reason Twitter has put in place safeguards encouraging users to read links before retweeting them. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. The night her son Aaron died, he was in a helicopter that was built in the 1960s and last retrofitted in 1985. ", "The hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to our government than my son's blood," she said. Justin Buddy Lee will never forget that night six years ago. Winds whipped through the fir trees. Lee, now a captain, was placed in command of a Chinook helicopter unit at Forward Operating Base Shank. U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families of those killed are still being notified. 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. Located in a remote and dangerous province in eastern Afghanistan, the base was the target of near-constant rocket attacks from Taliban insurgents.