The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. 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. I find it quite disturbing that the government is not willing to give us the answers we deserve. Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said. In addition to killing the man who was considered the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. forces snagged valuable items from the compound during the raid. 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. Still, SEAL Team Sixs bold raid to take down bin Laden was an extraordinary operation that most experts regard as a resounding success. Hamburger added. He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. The chopper's manifest. 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. If this [operation] was survivable, that was the right crew to have. The front rotor shattered, and the back pylon sheared off. With Robert O'Neill, Patricia Economo, Enrique Garcia, James Obrien. "A NATO helicopter crashed last night in Wardak province," Karzai said in the statement. You also want to come in from a different direction for the element of surprise.. 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 . I am afraid that with this FOIA case that the government is purposely delaying turning over documents because they need the time to redact and to delete things they do not want the American public to become aware of.. Following a helicopter crash, the SEAL Team must proceed with the mission as hostiles bear down on them and an injured and impaired Jason goes after their target alone. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. Nigerians await election results in competitive race. Military officers interviewed by investigators said they could not recall an IRF ever being sent for such a mission. He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Helicopter Crash - Popular Mechanics Extortion 17, however, would never reach that landing zone. U.S. Central Commands official investigation concluded that a rocket-launched grenade from a Taliban fighter standing near the landing zone clipped a rotary wing, sending the Ch-47 Chinook into a violent downward spin. Mr. Klayman said the NSA has agreed to provide some information. Extortion 17, Seal Team Six and What Really Happened on the Deadliest A junior, he was ready to fight, but the war would be over, he figured, before he even got out of college. The had Seal team 6 killed is a likely reference to whats known as the Extortion 17 incident, the August 2011 tragedy in which a Chinookmilitary helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, killing 38 people, 25 of them Navy Seals, in the deadliest day for the U.S. in the entire Afghanistan war. On board were 22 members of the elite Seal Team Six, two U.S. Air Force Para-rescue men, three Army reserve personnel, a U.S. Air Force Combat Controller, the pilot and co-pilot, a U.S . 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. There is still a tremendous level of chance for a tragedy of such huge magnitude.. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. 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. 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. Extortion 17 then plummeted to the ground and erupted in a massive fireball. They fail to mention it was Saudis who orchestrated 9/11, yet he elected to go after Iraq and Afghanistan. Soon after US Navy Cryptologist Michael Strange and the elite SEAL Team 6 capture and kill Bin Laden, they are deployed to Afghanistan, where their Chinook is shot down. 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. 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. Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. Aerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, made by the CIA. Landing in deserts or mountainsides, the helicopter rotors kick up clouds of sand and dust, causing brownouts that can blind a pilot. No family members were allowed to testify. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru)better known by its former name, Team 6-reportedly suffered the bulk of the casualties. 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. 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. Navy SEALs. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. The helicopter was in great operational shape. International reactions to bin Ladens death ranged from favorable to mixed. But one thing that doesnt fade is never forgetting what they did.. 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. Its lawyers have told the judge that the process of locating relevant documents and removing classified information takes time. JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. What went so terribly wrong? 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. 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. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that insurgents had been gathering at the compound, adding that eight of them had been killed in the fighting. 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.. Three of the . 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 CH-47D that embarked on the mission that day had been built in the 1960s, she said, and last retrofitted in the 1985. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. It had been loaded well within its limits. President Obama offered his thoughts and prayers to those killed in the crash. 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. One helicopter crashes, but there are no injuries. Winds whipped through the fir trees. . Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. There are no survivors. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. In addition to the 30 Americans, the official said there were seven Afghan army soldiers and an interpreter on the helicopter. 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The helicopter plunged tail first. That means more raids, more targets and more reliance on Afghan competenceall of which add up to more special forces casualties. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. The missions commanders decided to insert another team to go after Tahir while the Rangers held the compound. However, the AP has reported, the Afghan forces never staffed the outpost after American forces left, and the Taliban moved back in. 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.