extortion 17 crash photos
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. The forward rotor system then tore off, stressed by the imbalance and the strain of carrying what would normally be a shared load. This group grew in number over the course of the night, but American forces were at first too preoccupied to engage. Their deaths are the greatest single loss of life ever suffered by the U.S. Special Operations community in the 24-year history of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Photo by Sgt. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. It also became one of the most devastating death tolls of the U.S. Special Operations Forces. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of. So the whole team went in one Chinook helicopter Extortion 17. The following was extracted from The Navy Times: If one is to believe the account of Matt Bissonnette, the only possibility of a participant of the bin Laden raid perishing on Extortion 17 is if the one SEAL specifically noted not to be a member of Red Squadron was a member of Gold Squadron and a passenger aboard the ill-fated Chinook. The men who serve in the American military are the finest! Naval Special Warfare support personnel: Two, 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel (Aircrew) from the, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 20:01. The crash killed all 38 people on board including 25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, one Afghan interpreter, and a U.S. military working dog. The mission had begun about four hours prior to the shootdown, when the two helicopters touched down side by side in Juy Zarin, a village in the bare rock-walled Tangi Valley of Wardak Province. With 38 people killed on board, it was the largest single-day loss of life in naval special warfare history and the largest single-day loss of life during the war in Afghanistan. Should the Apache pilots have fired into the stand of trees after the two fighters ducked out of sight? The Museum Executive Team worked with these men. "Before Benghazi there was Extortion 17.. Saturday August 6 th 2011 was a day that changed the lives of my family forever. When tactical conditions allow, they initiate operations by calling out enemy forces. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 . But no one died. Afghanistan has long been a counter-insurgency campaign: The United States strategy has been to win Afghan trust through cooperation and aid. The IRF also included two SEALs from another team, five Navy special operations support personnel, three Air Force special tactics airmen, seven Afghan National Army commandos, a translator, and a combat assault dog. To lose even one precious life is too many, and the United States lost 38 soldiers that day. Today. Around 02:23, the two helicopters departed the forward base. Since the shootdown of Extortion 17, the military has continued to gain vital experience and equipment to enable an ever greater understanding of an enemy force, aiming to know every combatant and potential combatant and his weapon system before a raid. He knew the pilots and crew members aboard Extortion 17. The Tangi Valley is a strategic terrain that connects the two primary highways that lead to Kabul. 2 U.S. Army personnel from the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment, part of the Colorado Army National Guard, PO1 John Douangdara & Navy SEAL Dog Bart, Of the 22 NSW members killed, 17 were SEALs, and five were direct support personnel, according to the source in the NSW community. At 01:00, they decided to engage the group with the SEAL reserves. | Prior to the mission, the deadliest incident was June 2005's Operation . The military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. extortion 17 crash photos. To reach the crash site, one must wind slowly through the ancient, narrow streets of the villages of Logar to reach the Tangi Valley in Wardak. The group fired two or three RPG rounds from a two-story building, the second striking one of the helicopter's three aft rotor blades. I find it extremely suspicious that, after the alleged killing of Osama Bin Laden, there was a very suspicious burial at sea for a covered corpse that was alleged to be Bin Laden. But why? Courtesy . The "had Seal team 6 killed" is a likely reference to what's known as the "Extortion 17" incident, the August 2011 tragedy in which a Chinook military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan,. We were supporting special operations, but not to the degree of the 160th. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. LZ is ice, transmitted one of the Rangers on the ground, indicating the landing zone was free of enemy activity. Our area of operation was the entire country of Iraq, and every mission was at night, says David Pat Gates, a pilot with Carters unit , the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (2-135th), a Colorado Army National Guard unit based in Aurora, Colorado. 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. The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. On this day 11 years ago, 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter-call sign Extortion 17-was shot down in Afghanistan. | READ MORE. The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. Six weeks into his deployment, Lee experienced his worst day as a helicopter pilot to that point. Aired: 08/01/21 Rating: NR Landing in deserts or mountainsides, the helicopter rotors kick up clouds of sand and dust, causing brownouts that can blind a pilot. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. Campbell was one of 30. By All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. The crew of Slasher 02, the AC-130 circling above, flipped the switch on their powerful light. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. The 30 Navy SEALs and other Special Forces personnel, along with the Helicopter flight crew because American Military and Political leaders threw these men under the bus the enemy was driving and then covered it all up with lies and deceit. And while all military helicopters carry countermeasures for guided missiles, nothing can interdict the dumb luck of an unguided RPG round sailing through the air. A Taliban fighter shot the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade and all aboard were killedthe single greatest loss of American life in the Afghan war. Winds whipped through the fir trees. ], Four years after the downing of Extortion 17, there were many theories about a possible government coverup. At 31 U.S. military personnel killed, the shoot down of Extortion 17 represents the greatest single-incident loss of U.S. lives in Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan, surpassing the 16. Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. The Afghan soldiers were an essential part of the package; they were trained to move with our forces to the target. There are no survivors. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. [9][11], Meanwhile, the group of Taliban fighters split in two. Many of these SEALs were made famous, credited with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Are all DEVGRUs saved in a sperm bank? The Final Flight of Extortion 17 It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. The group fired 2-3 RPG rounds from a two-story building from a location some 220 meters south of the helicopter. Captain Marquez claims that had the AC-130 been allowed to fire on the remaining enemy insurgents, Extortion 17 would not have been shot down. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten. The Chinook smashed into the ground, the force ripping off his goggles. It was the day we learned our son Aaron and other American warriors had lost their lives in a helo crash in Afghanistan. One of the most significant tactical evolutions of the Afghanistan conflict is the ever-heavier use of unmanned aerial systems and other airborne intelligence-gathering systems. Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. Flying to the Tangi Valley for the second time, Extortion 17 and 16 took a different route, approaching from the northwest instead of the south. As two U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, an Air Force AC-130 gunship, and a small fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft orbited overhead, a platoon of the 75th Ranger Regiment and members of an Afghan special operations unit stormed down the rear ramps of the Chinooks and into the night. Your Privacy Rights In April 2011, American forces turned over control of Combat Outpost Tangi to Afghan government forces. Find the perfect extortion17 stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. But Tahir and a group of his fighters escaped. And why was the fire control officer of the AC-130 Gunship flying above denied permission . | He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. "[31][32] NBC News reported that the Pentagon released the names of the 30 Americans killed. David Tarrant, The Dallas Morning News The call sign for the Chinook was Extortion 17. Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six is a 2015 non-fiction expose, written by best-selling author and former U.S. Navy JAG Officer Don Brown, about the 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan of a United States Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter. by FighterSweep Staff Apr 25, 2017 Retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez is claiming the Pentagon hid the truth and lied about the circumstances that led to a Chinook helicopter crash that. Oct 26, 2016 - Explore Concerned Citizen's board "EXTORTION 17", followed by 829 people on Pinterest. As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. The two military investigations, one conducted by United States Central Command and one by the multi-service Joint Combat Assessment Team, pored over the details of the crash with excruciating focus and concluded that no planners or participants bore any fault regarding the circumstances leading to the shootdown of Extortion 17. Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. On August 6, 2011, the final flight of Extortion 17 resulted in the single deadliest incident for the US military during the War in Afghanistan. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. [45] McChrystal cited a previous "overreliance on firepower and force protection" and the need to reduce civilian casualties and win the cooperation of the local population. Planners then chose a new landing zone for the IRF, but it was large enough to accommodate only one Chinook. The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six, and the Deadliest Day of the U.S. War in Afghanistan Hardcover - September 19, 2017 by Ed Darack (Author) 223 ratings Editors' pick Best History See all formats and editions Kindle $13.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover They were part of his command. There are a lot of bullets out there that say To whom it may concern,says Major Doug Glover, a U.S. Marine F/A-18D weapons and sensors operator who was a senior watch officer for the Marine air operations center in southern Afghanistan. He was too busy. [9][11], Six minutes later, the Rangers concluded securing the compound, detained several people and began to move on foot toward the crash site. Why did it happen? To find answers to many of the outstanding questions regarding Extortion 17, a congressional oversight committee held a hearing on February 27, 2014. Available for both RF and RM licensing. With a keen understanding of the propaganda value of downing Coalition helicopters, the Taliban single them out as targets. So if there was a added black box installed on this Aircraft there should be a maintenance record? He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. [11], The 30 American deaths represent the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the war in Afghanistan that began in 2001. . Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a62b75e7a99f5de39e28d378788f7ec9" );document.getElementById("c08a1a06c7").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Content on this website is free to use and share, but please provide a link back to Spec Ops Magazine as a source. Forces Killed in Helicopter Crash", "30 Americans Killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash", "Pentagon names 30 Americans killed in downed Afghan chopper", "Pentagon releases names of 30 Americans killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash", "22 Navy SEALs among 30 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan as NATO helicopter is shot down", "30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, killed in Afghan copter crash", "Names of Afghan Helicopter Attack Victims Released", "The OBJECTIVE GINOSA strike Payback for the shootdown of Extortion 17", "Military killed Taliban who downed US helicopter", "Afghan soldiers enter a Taliban nest without U.S. troops by their side", "Congress to probe lethal crash that killed SEAL Team 6 members", "A retired Air Force captain says Pentagon covered up real cause of deadly chopper crash", "A Retired Air Force Captain Says Pentagon Covered Up Real Cause of Deadly Chopper Crash", "Rules of Engagement Are a Dilemma for U.S. Privacy Statement Extortion 17 was the call sign of a special operations mission in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011, that responded to an Army Ranger unit engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and in need of backup. Extortion 17 August 6, 2022 marks 11 years since Extortion 17. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. A source from the Navys special operations community described the reaction as Shock and disbelief. The mission was flown by conventional pilots flying unmodified CH-47Ds. 2 U.S. Navy SEALs from a west coast-based SEAL team. Less than five seconds after the RPG round hit, the helicopter spun uncontrollably, plummeting into a dry creek bed and erupting in a ball of fire that killed all on board. But one thing that doesnt fade is never forgetting what they did.. Lieutenant Commander (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport, Louisiana, Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J. Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, California, Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Arkansas, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Kraig M. Vickers 36, of Kokomo, Hawaii, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Brian R. Bill, 31, of Stamford, Connecticut, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) John W. Faas, 31, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Kevin A. Houston, 35, of West Hyannisport, Massachusetts, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Matthew D. Mason, 37, of Kansas City, Missouri, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, Texas, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Chief Petty Officer(Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist/Diver) Nicholas H. Null, 30, of Washington, West Virginia, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Robert J. Reeves, 32, of Shreveport, Louisiana, Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Heath M. Robinson, 34, of Detroit, Michigan, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Darrik C. Benson, 28, of Angwin, California, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Parachutist) Christopher G. Campbell, 36, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, Information Systems Technician Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Jared W. Day, 28, of Taylorsville, Utah, Master-at-Arms Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) John Douangdara, 26, of South Sioux City, Nebraska, Cryptologist Technician(Collection)Petty Officer 1st Class(Expeditionary Warfare Specialist) Michael J. They may have seen Extortion 17 and its landing zone through their own night vision goggles or simply aimed by sound alone. Extortion 17 is a name etched in our minds as one of the worst losses our military has ever experienced. Intelligence had revealed Tahir to be the senior Taliban chief of the Tangi Valley region, with probable ties to upper-echelon Taliban leadership in Pakistan. Sat 6 Aug 2011 19.08 EDT. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Geneva G. Brier/Released) The SEAL commander assembled his force: 17 Navy SEALs, five Navy combat support specialists, three U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Airmen, seven Afghan Special Forces operators, an Afghan interpreter, and a military working dog. Available for both RF and RM licensing. The RPG is not a laser. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. First, the Obama administration's Defense Department's crash report stated that there were no eyes in the sky over the Chinook . One AH-64 crew, after identifying the men as enemy combatants, fired on them with their gunships 30mm cannon, killing six. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. August 6, 2017 marks six years since 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter call sign Extortion 17 was shot down in Afghanistan. However, the Afghan government forces did not occupy the base, which was seized by the Taliban shortly after the departure of American forces. Regarding the downing of Extortion 17, all of the DEVGRU Operators aboard were members of the Gold Squadron. Theres no precedent for this. The group probably contained the commander and a few of his bodyguards, while the remaining Taliban fighters offered resistance in an effort to buy the group enough time to escape. 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. "All of this raises the distinct possibility of a cover-up as to . The CH-47 "Chinook" was carrying some of this nation's bravest and most capable military . NFTs Simplified > Uncategorized > extortion 17 crash photos. At the flight controls were David R. Carter of the Colorado Army National Guard and copilot Bryan J. Nichols, a Kansas-based Army reservist. At 02:15, one group of three Taliban fighters took a position in a stand of trees; the remaining six or seven men entered a building located some 2km (1.2mi) from the target compound. 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. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. August 6, 2017 marks the 6 year anniversary of the downing of Extortion 17, a bigger scandal than Benghazi in large part due to the fact that America lost 30 of its military personnel, including 17 Navy SEALs, the largest loss of life in the Afghan war. [25][original research? Originally just two people, the group eventually swelled to a total of nine or ten fighters, and the special operations task force commander and the Immediate Reaction Force commander became concerned that it might include Tahir. Some sources state that at the shootdown, the two AH-64 Apache helicopters were engaged in tracking another Taliban group and were thus unable to provide surveillance (of the landing zone and infiltration route) and fire support the inbound CH-47D helicopter carrying the Navy SEAL team. What are the odds? At 10:58 p.m., they were inserted by the same CH-47D helicopters that would later conduct the mission to insert the SEAL team. There remained many mysteries about the Extortion 17 shoot down. Those killed ranked among the worlds most highly trained and experienced commandos, including 15 men from Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, popularly called SEAL Team 6. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lees closest friends in the Chinook company. The events that unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special operations personnel. Having studied and directly observed the counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, Ive watched commanders and individual American troops consistently lean far to the side of restraint to encourage Afghans to side with American interests long after U.S. forces have left. The crash killed all 38 people on board including 25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter as well as a U.S. military working dog. The five other Navy casualties were NSW (Naval Special Warfare) support personnel; in addition to these, three AFSOC operators, one Combat Controller and two Pararescuemen, all members of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, died in the crash.
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