In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. This would not be the first time that an Afghan military member has been an undercover Taliban Terrorist and shot our US Military! 29 Photos Documentary 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.
Unidentified Remains Extortion 17 (unknown-2011) - Find a Grave [2][38], On 10 August 2011, the U.S. military stated that the insurgent who fired the rocket-propelled grenade had been killed only two days afterward in an F-16 airstrike, saying only that intelligence gained on the ground provided "a high degree of confidence" that the person was among those killed in the airstrike from two days earlier, but providing no other details. But no one died. [39], Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces in April 2011, Tangi valley became a major staging area for attacks on Kabul (located just 60 miles away). Patrick D. Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, Neb. Air Force C-17 Crashes Just After Takeoff in Alaska | Dangerous Aerobatics (With Real Video) TheFlightChannel 2.1M views 1 year ago Feature History - Chinese Civil War Feature History 1.9M views. The shootdown was the single, deadliest loss of U.S. forces in the war. On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. 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 landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Chance is still part of the battlefield, says Brady.
Extortion 17: Bodies of the 22 slain SEAL Team 6 members cremated Why was the black box missing from the crash site? The helicopter carrying the SEALs proceeded to the landing zone alone, without external lighting.
Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) - IMDb There remained many mysteries about the Extortion 17 shoot down. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. Regarding the downing of Extortion 17, all of the DEVGRU Operators aboard were members of the Gold Squadron. 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. 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. While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. (Photo Credit: Senior Airman Anthony Nin Leclerec / U.S. Air Force / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) There were a total of 38 individuals onboard Extortion 17. 2017 The Dallas Morning News. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. [1][5][6][7][8] At 30 American military personnel killed, the shootdown of Extortion 17 represents the greatest single-incident loss of American lives in Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan, surpassing the 16 lost in the downing of Turbine 33, a 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) MH-47 helicopter, during Operation Red Wings on 28 June 2005.[2]. Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. "All of this raises the distinct possibility of a cover-up as to . [9][11], Meanwhile, the group of Taliban fighters split in two. Thirty-eight boarded Extortion 17 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilots from the 159th General Support Aviation Battalion. [43][45], 2011 Afghanistan Boeing Chinook shootdown, United States Air Force Combat Control Team, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Tangi Valley, Wardak province, Afghanistan, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Naval Special Warfare Development Group's, Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians, United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six, List of aviation accidents and incidents in the war in Afghanistan, "Elite Force Died in Bid to Save Comrades", "Taliban shot that brought down American Chinook killing 30 US commandos was 'lucky', officials believe", "Taliban shoot down US helicopter in Afghanistan; 38 killed", "Worst US loss of life in Afghan war as helicopter crash kills 38", "US military helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills 38", Executive Summary (Crash of CH-47D Aircraft in Wardak Province, Afghanistan on 6 August 2011), "Families suspect SEAL Team 6 crash was inside job on worst day in Afghanistan", "DOD Identifies Service Members Killed in CH-47 Crash", "Tragedy devastates special warfare community", "Friends remember three area soldiers killed in Afghan crash", "Chinook Crewmembers Line of Duty Deaths", "US special forces Afghan helicopter downed by Taliban", "Chopper crash kills 31 U.S. troops, 7 Afghans", "Copter Downed by Taliban Fire; Elite U.S. Unit Among Dead", "Impact on special forces of Navy Seals helicopter loss", "SEAL Team 6 Families Believe the 2011 Chinook Shootdown in Afghanistan was Planned | Navy SEALs Blog by USNavySEALs.com", "Army delayed Chinook helicopter's black box until it was too late", "Obama stonewalls SEAL Team 6 helicopter crash probe, watchdog says", "US helicopter shot down in Afghanistan was sent in after night raid went awry", "US military probes deadly Afghan helicopter crash", "What happened on night of deadly Afghanistan helicopter crash? There are more operations than can be supported by the 160th at any given time," says Major Matthew Brady, a former 160th pilot and company commander. Its a math problem. The first round sailed past the helicopter. Burn is on, they radioed. 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.
Extortion 17 and the Truth The Havok Journal So much of the war is fought in areas where these helicopters have to fly at high altitudes, where the thin air can strain the performance of the engines and rotor blades, said Ed Darack, author of the recently published book, The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six and the Deadliest Day of the U.S. War in Afghanistan. Upon learning of Tahirs possible location, a U.S. Army Rangers and Afghan Special Forces team was deployed into the valley from the south. The sheer amount of experience with our pilots, flight engineers and back-seaters and mechanics offered a wealth of knowledge, he said. In order to prevent this, American forces called in for support. As the ground assault force rushed toward Tahirs compound, Extortion 17 and 16 sped back to base, where they were refueled, and awaited word to extract the team, evacuate wounded, or race reinforcing troops to Juy Zarin. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. 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. [42], In 2017, Air Force captain Joni Marquez, the firing officer on an AC-130 gunship that had accompanied Extortion 17 on the final flight, made a similar claim. "The downing of Extortion 17 was a catastrophic and unprecedented tragedy for our nation," Reid testified. The remaining two fighters ducked into a stand of trees and disappeared from the Apaches infrared scanners. Yesterday, the Pentagon released the names of the 30 troops-- Navy SEALs, soldiers, and airmen, killed in the helicopter downed by Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan last weekend. [43][44], American rules of engagement were tightened by Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2009 in order to improve American counterinsurgency strategy. The torque of the spinning rotor assembly, now catastrophically imbalanced, ripped the rear pylon off the Chinooks fuselage.
The True Story Behind the Recovery of Extortion 17 He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. August 6, 2022 marks 11 years since Extortion 17. 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. All rights reserved. The downing of the Seal Team Six chinook with all of those team members who participated in the Bin Laden raid and the subsequent request by President Obama to destroy the images that were released only adds to the suspicion around the events.
Memorial for anniversary of Extortion 17 helicopter crash Extortion17 hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. We were supporting special operations, but not to the degree of the 160th. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and . Following a scorched earth tactic may have killed the two shootersand possibly a greater number of innocentsprior to Extortion 17s return that night, but counterinsurgency doctrine dictates that such tactics lead to potentially far worse long-term consequences.
PDF AFGHANISTAN: HONORING THE HEROES OF EXTORTION 17 - GovInfo [9][10], After American intelligence services discovered in 2011 that senior Taliban leader Qari Tahir was possibly in Tangi Valley, Wardak province, Afghanistan, local American forces launched a mission to apprehend or kill him. [11], At 02:00, the special operations task force commander and the Immediate Reaction Force commander decided to add additional (non-SEAL) reinforcements, increasing the size of the team to 33. See more ideas about extortion, navy seals, seal team 6. In mid-2011, combined with a U.S. Army aviation battalion, they had spent weeks conducting operations nearly every other night in Wardak and surrounding provinces south of Kabul to capture or kill Taliban forces, disrupt attack plots, and deny them sanctuary on this strategic approach to Kabul City. We didnt do fast-rope inserts, building insertions, or anything like that. Subsequent to their Iraq deployment, the unit flew the SEALs of Team 6 on practice raids around Fort Carson, Colorado, and during nighttime urban training in Denver, further cementing the 2-135ths reputation with special operations units.
Navy SEAL Foundation - Extortion 17 Tragedy Assistance. Honor and One of the best crews in my company. They reached the site at 04:12 and found no survivors. And now, the government wants to make the Taliban legitamet. 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. Instead, two rigorous U. S. military investigations followed every moment of the mission to determine what went wrong on Extortion 17s final flight.