extortion 17 crash photos extortion 17 crash photos

The 30 American deaths represent the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the decade-long war in Afghanistan that began in 2001. See more ideas about extortion, navy seals, seal team 6. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. At any moment, they could come under rocket attack. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. The vast majority miss. First, the Obama administration's Defense Department's crash report stated that there were no eyes in the sky over the Chinook . The hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. Mission commanders, believing that Tahir was likely among one of the groups, deployed an Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) to interdict them while the Rangers held the compound. The first round sailed past the helicopter. These are the words of Billy Vaughn. Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. [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. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. 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. Many of these SEALs were made famous, credited with the killing of Osama bin Laden. At the time of the Juy Zarin raid, the battalion had been flying in Afghanistan for about two weeks. He is the founder of Darack Research, a company that innovates unmanned systems, which grew out of his July 2014 Air & Space article Build Your Own Drone. I will never forget what they did, he said. [22][20] Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that eight of the movement's fighters had been killed in the assault on the compound. 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. This is the Group Burial for unidentified remains of casualties of the Chinook helicopter (CH-47D 89-00175) which crashed in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. When the two Chinooks had first touched down in the village, a group of eight fighters armed with AK-47 rifles and RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers bolted from the compound. 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. [39], During the same Pentagon news conference in which he announced that the F-16 airstrike had incapacitated "less than 10" of the insurgents involved, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander in Afghanistan John R. Allen said that the military investigation would also review whether small-arms fire or other causes might have contributed to the downing. The military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! Thirty-eight boarded Extortion 17 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilots from the 159th General Support Aviation Battalion. Find the perfect extortion 17 stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Theres no precedent for this. 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. [43][44], American rules of engagement were tightened by Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2009 in order to improve American counterinsurgency strategy. Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. He said: "They wanted to attack our Mujahideen who were in a house, but our Mujahideen resisted and destroyed a helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. But even a precisely aimed shot fired from an unguided weapon by a seasoned fighter is subject to the ballistics-altering whims of atmospheric variation, subtle and undetected flaws in launcher or projectile, and uncontrollable environmental factors such as wind gusts, large temperature variations, or even particulates in the air. The Tangi Valley is a strategic terrain that connects the two primary highways that lead to Kabul. Also very suspicious that the only member of Seal Team Six that is still alive and in the public sphere happened to be the guy that killed Bin Laden?? Early media reports suggested that the Army had been tardy to recover flight recorders from the downed Chinook, and, as a consequence, the recorders had been swept away by the flood. The Afghan soldiers were an essential part of the package; they were trained to move with our forces to the target. U.S. Navy Seals 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. By The shooters origin remains a mystery. Published Aug 6, 2018 5:05 PM EDT. The Chinook is often used to assist in disaster relief, delivering food and water after earthquakes and floods. What are the odds? So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. Photo: We pay Tribute Chief Petty Officer Nicholas H. Null Operation Extortion 17 August 6, 2011 You may leave a condolence for his family on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/L2lB37qizaI Comebacks Photo Photo: We pay Tribute to Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills Operation Extortion 17 August 6, 2011 Battalion Regiment Warrant Officer While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . NFTs Simplified > Uncategorized > extortion 17 crash photos. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. The helicopter carrying the SEALs proceeded to the landing zone alone, without external lighting. He said, "And now, to our honor roll of American Service Personnel killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Photo by Jake Simkin for Coffee or Die Magazine. "It's a math problem. Lee remained in Afghanistan flying combat missions for another eight months before returning home in the spring of 2012. A hearing was set to get answers to questions surrounding the high-profile shoot-down of an American helicopter in Afghanistan and how the remains of the fallen service members were handled. The two may have been those who escaped Apache cannon fire, or they may have split away from either of the groups that formed after the start of the raid. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The IRF commander then made a critical decision: In order to get everyone on the ground as quickly as possible and deny the Taliban time to react, he ordered the entire force to fly in Extortion 17. The helicopter crashed less than 5 seconds later, killing all 38 people on board. As is routine on such missions, two Apache attack helicopters provided extra cover and security for Extortion 17, while circling above was an AC-130 aircraft, a gunship that also provides surveillance. He presents the Final Flight of EXTORTION 17 (spoken one seven and seventeen), like a Defense Attorney or an investigator. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and . The article stated that the helicopter crashed after an RPG round impacted the aft rotor assembly. [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. A Black Hawk Down of the war in Afghanistan, the deadliest day for the U.S. in 12 years of that conflictand a military investigation that covered up evidence of an inside job by the Taliban. Cookie Policy Operating with no lights save for the faint green glow of night vision goggles and cockpit instrument panels, the two helicopters, call signs Extortion 17 (one-seven) and Extortion 16, lifted into the darkness and accelerated toward a destination less than 20 miles west. All topics Extortion 17 Documentary 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. 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. 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. [12][13], Six minutes prior to reaching the landing zone, the empty CH-47D left the formation as planned. He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. 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. All three airmen were assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Field, North Carolina. According to one Army report, in the three months prior to the Juy Zarin raid, as many as 17 RPGs were fired at helicopters over Wardak and Logar provinces, a relatively small part of the country. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Buy images; Sell images; For helicopter crews in Afghanistan, the most dangerous times are landing and taking off. 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. [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]. 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. Terms of Use Daniel L. Zerbe, 28, of York, Pennsylvania. Oct 26, 2016 - Explore Concerned Citizen's board "EXTORTION 17", followed by 829 people on Pinterest. Extortion 16 flew empty. The torque of the spinning rotor assembly, now catastrophically imbalanced, ripped the rear pylon off the Chinooks fuselage. In March 2009, the U.S. 10th Mountain Division established a base in Tangi Valley after increased Taliban activity in the area. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. Austin Williams visits the gravesite of U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher C. Campbell in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. In June 2005, a rocket-propelled grenade connected with the rear transmission of a 160th MH-47E Chinook as it attempted to come to a hover, downing it; all 16 on board were killed. In July 2010, an RPG-wielding fighter put a round into the tail boom of a Marine AH-1W Super Cobra, downing it and killing both pilots. And why was the fire control officer of the AC-130 Gunship flying above denied permission .