Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. Pinterest. To remove the risk of rocket-propelled grenades downing helicopters in Afghanistan 100 percent, youd have to remove the opposable thumbs of every fighting-age male in the objective area, and thats not how we win a counter-insurgency., Ed Darack On his first deployment, he felt fortunate to be surrounded by veteran pilots he could learn from. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. Lee, now a captain, was placed in command of a Chinook helicopter unit at Forward Operating Base Shank. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. 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. THIS COMBAT MARINE SALUTES YOU ALL WE ALL GET A NEW STATION WHEN GOD OKS OUR TRANSFER I AM QUITE CERTAIN THAT GOD LOVES WARRIORS A BIT MORE THAN WE MIGHT REALIZE, I always suspected ObamaTard had something to do with this tragedy. They reached the site at 04:12 and found no survivors. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. She had just given birth to their first child. [11][24] These reports were erroneous; the CH-47D airframe does not contain flight recorders, although the MH-47 variant does have a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. 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. 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. He was too busy. [11] At 22:37 (local time) on the night of 5 August, a platoon of 47 U.S. Army Rangers left a forward operating base in Logar Province via two CH-47D transport helicopters, one of which would later be involved in the accident. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. A typical combat mission in Afghanistan leaves little margin for error, requiring Chinook pilots to land on tiny, makeshift sites on mountain slopes where any tree, bush or rock could be hiding an enemy fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. But what really happened that night? He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. Tragically, as Extortion 17 was nearing its landing zone, Taliban fighters, hidden in a building, fired two or three rocket-propelled grenades at close range, leaving the pilot no chance to perform evasive maneuvers. A few minutes past 2 a.m.on August 6, 2011, at a dusty forward operating base40 miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan, the rotors of two U.S. Army CH-47D Chinooks began to turn. [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 remaining two fighters ducked into a stand of trees and disappeared from the Apaches infrared scanners. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17. And now, the government wants to make the Taliban legitamet. Now deep in the Tangi Valley, their night vision goggles showing the world around them in greenish hues, the IRF team members readied to hit the ground running as the pilots slowed Extortion 17 and descended toward the village. The duo may also have had no ties to Tahir or any of his suspected fighters, and attacked the helicopter on their own. (Smithsonian Books, September 2017). Not feelin it! The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. The guy was incredibly skilled.. The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. 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. God bless all of them- the bravest of the brave. The Taliban shot at the Chinooks all the time with RPGs and rifles, Darack said. 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. Patrick D. Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, Neb. The CH-47 "Chinook" was carrying some of this nation's bravest and most capable military . In that incident, sixteen Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed, and three more SEALs were killed in subsequent fighting on the ground. At 23:30, one of the Apache support helicopters engaged in a brief skirmish with a different group of eight Taliban fighters 400m (440yd) north of the compound, killing six. On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. Faced with the possibility of confronting nine or 10 Taliban fighters, planners increased the reinforcement team from 17 to 32 men, formed around the 15-man SEAL group. Buy images; Sell images; Connor Mendez, courtesy of U.S. Army. Qari Tahir, the man our forces were attempting to capture or kill on August 5, 2011, isone of many Taliban leaders who dedicate their lives to a corrupt agenda that seeks to eliminate freedom, equality, and prosperity in exchange for a medieval society built on violent extremism and wanton destruction. 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 Kabul. Hi there! That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. The official statement from U.S. Central Command stated that a Taliban fighter scored a lucky shot with a rocket-propelled grenade. The quick reaction force included SEAL Team 6 and other special operations personnel. Near the site of the Extortion 17 crash stands a memorial to Taliban fighters killed in the August 2011 battle during which Extortion 17 was shot down. American signals intelligence aircraft intercepted these transmissions and subsequently tracked the individual and his accomplice. All three airmen were assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Field, North Carolina. 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. LZ is ice, transmitted one of the Rangers on the ground, indicating the landing zone was free of enemy activity. But why? [43][44], American rules of engagement were tightened by Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2009 in order to improve American counterinsurgency strategy. unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, which is the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special op-erations personnel. Sgt. 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. The helicopter fell from the sky, killing all 38 on board. 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. The mission was flown by conventional pilots flying unmodified CH-47Ds. One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. AC-130 gunships orbiting overhead directed two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to fire on and kill five enemy fighters. 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. [11], In 2013, Congressman Jason Chaffetz said that he would hold an investigation of the United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security into the matter. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. Why did it happen? 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. Sat 6 Aug 2011 19.08 EDT. The basis of the provocative hit military documentary Fallen Angel Call Sign: Extortion 17. 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. Its almost always a miss.. In March 2009, the U.S. 10th Mountain Division established a base in Tangi Valley after increased Taliban activity in the area. The Chinook smashed into the ground, the force ripping off his goggles. Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan. Aired: 08/01/21 Rating: NR [12][13], Six minutes prior to reaching the landing zone, the empty CH-47D left the formation as planned. 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?? | In the afternoon of 6 August, a flash flood swept through the area, washing away parts of the wreckage. For the last two years, hes been an attorney with the law firm Jackson Walker. I will never forget what they did, he said. Editors note: This story originally appeared in October 2017. The previous highest U.S. death toll from a single incident in the war came from a rocket attack on a Chinook helicopter carrying Navy SEALs during Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005. The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. August 2011 Attack on U.S. "The downing of Extortion 17 was a catastrophic and unprecedented tragedy for our nation," Reid testified. The Joint Combat Assessment Team report further noted that despite a robust deck of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, none identified the location from which the shooters fired prior to the helicopter downing. The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. 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. Hs 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. 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. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. Then they have to stick the landing. Two were still alive." "One. Located in a remote and dangerous province in eastern Afghanistan, the base was the target of near-constant rocket attacks from Taliban insurgents. On 6 August 2011, a U.S. CH-47D Chinook military helicopter operating with the call sign Extortion 17 (pronounced "one-seven") was shot down while transporting a Quick Reaction Force attempting to reinforce a Joint Special Operations Command unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Tangi Valley in Maidan Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. Planners then chose a new landing zone for the IRF, but it was large enough to accommodate only one Chinook. Senior Chief Robert James Reeves was one of those Americans. In her first interview about the incident, Marquez said: "I had the sensor operators immediately shift to the eight insurgents the helicopters had taken out. David Tarrant, The Dallas Morning News During the Ranger insertion earlier that night, the CH-47D had approached from the south; this time, it approached from the northwest. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. That assault team captured Tahirs compound and some of his men. 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. Some 30 seconds later, one of the AH-64 Apache helicopters in the area reported: Fallen Angel.. Naval Special Warfare support personnel, two EOD technicians, one MWD Handler, one Cryptologic technician, and one Information systems technician. Many of these SEALs were made famous, credited with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Extortion 16 flew empty. In less than five seconds, the helicopter crashed, killing all occupants, and approximately 30 seconds later, one of the AH-64 Apache helicopters radioed in the crash. All rights reserved. When the Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopter was hit, all 38 onboard were instantly killed. Photo by Sgt. The US soldiers killed in the 2011 Afghanistan Boeing Chinook shoot-down with the call sign Extortion 17 (Photo: XY) SGT Alexander J. Bennett SPC Spencer Duncan (youngest onboard) CWO Bryan J. Nichols The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. 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. Seconds later, with the Chinook just over 100 feet off the ground and traveling at 58 mph, two or three previously unseen fighters emerged from the tower of a two-story building roughly 220 yards south of the helicopter, shouldering RPG launchers. Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. Explore. Copyright 2023 | National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, The Museum is a 501(c)(3) organization. Sgt. For helicopter crews in Afghanistan, the most dangerous times are landing and taking off. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. He would not have hesitated to fly with any of them. The torque of the spinning rotor assembly, now catastrophically imbalanced, ripped the rear pylon off the Chinooks fuselage. 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. Available for both RF and RM licensing. 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 military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. So where did it go?? As Extortion 17 moved into final approach of the target area at 0238 local time, the Rangers on the ground watched in horror as it took a direct hit from an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . [11], Separately, ISR aircraft continued to observe the unengaged group from the compound. 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. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California, Tech. At that moment, Extortion 17 slowed to 58 mph, at no more than 150 feet, approaching a spot framed by trees and mud-brick huts, and "sparkled" by the infrared designator on an AC-130 gunship. In a new book The Final Mission of Extortion 17 published by Smithsonian Books, journalist and photographer Ed Darack revisits the shootdown of Extortion 17, a Chinook bearing U.S. and . According to Glover, improved systems in place enable U.S. forces to monitor a target for days or even weeks prior to an operation, so they theoretically will know of even well-hidden potential RPG shooters throughout a village before transport helicopters first touch down. Should the Apaches, or the AC-130 overhead, have fired upon the groups of suspected Taliban that gathered in the village after the raid began? It is also the most disastrous incident in the. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 . Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. 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. The Chinook helicopter they were aboard was shot down by . 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. 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. The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. Extortion 17 BRIAN BILL FOUNDATION 31 MILE RUCK FOR THE 31 HEROES OF EXTORTION 17 IN WASHINGTON, DC AUGUST 3, 2019 On 6 August 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. "[5], Subsequent reports stated that on the night during which the helicopter had been delivering reinforcements to personnel of the 75th Ranger Regiment, another special operations unit engaged in a night raid on a compound to kill or capture a senior Taliban leader. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! 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. Restrained by strict rules of engagement in force at the time, the helicopter crews could not have fired without a strong indication of hostile intent. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. [citation needed] Doubts about this story were raised by families and other concerned citizens despite the fact that the Navy SEAL team aboard Extortion 17 was a different squadron than that which had killed Osama bin Laden three months earlier. U.S. Special Operations Command possesses its own specialized ChinooksMH-47sflown by the ultra-secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers. The MH-47s modifications include inflight refueling probes, additional and upgraded sensors, more powerful engines, and more powerful defensive weapons than their conventional counterparts. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. In 2006, he was called into Afghanistan, where he turned 25. In this week in military history, we explore the aerial attack on a U.S. Army helicopter with the call sign "Extortion 17" in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. But no one died. But Tahir and a group of his fighters escaped. 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 The resulting explosion destroyed the aft rotor assembly. At the flight controls were David R. Carter of the Colorado Army National Guard and copilot Bryan J. Nichols, a Kansas-based Army reservist. It was a good crew, it really was. 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 RPG is not a laser. The immediate reaction force Extortion 17 carried should have been flown in two helicopters: Senior JSOC and aviation planners both agreed that the best course of action was to put the entire . Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Vaughn was one of the SEAL Team 6 operators who died in the crash. 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. The helicopter made its last radio transmission stating that it was one minute away from the landing zone, then descended to an altitude of 100150ft (3046m) and slowed to a speed of 50kn (58mph; 93km/h) as it approached the landing zone. As the operation got underway, our airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, including an MQ-9 Predator, detected a group evading the Rangers, moving towards the north. Touch device users can explore by touch or with swipe . Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of. Ranger assault helicopters had already engaged the enemy and killed six of eight Taliban fighters, causing the other two to retreat. Just three months earlier, members of a counterpart SEAL Team 6 squadron successfully raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden. Joining the 15 members of SEAL Team 6, two pilots and three-man crew inside Extortion 17: ten other Navy and Air Force personnel, eight Afghans and a combat assault dog named Bart. All 38 passengers aboard Extortion 17, including 30 U.S. military personnel, eight Afghans and a U.S. military working dog, were killed after the transport helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. [11], By 16:25, all of the remains were taken from the crash site via ground convoy and transported to Combat Outpost Sayyid Abad. 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. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. But U.S. forces didnt know about every fighter during the raid, and they lost track of at least twoone of whom fired the deadly shot. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The downing of a Chinook helicopter gunship (known by its call sign Extortion 17) in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011, has for years been shrouded in mystery, with the . Warnings from her crew to turn the Chinook back or cancel their mission went unheeded. One AH-64 crew, after identifying the men as enemy combatants, fired on them with their gunships 30mm cannon, killing six. Night Stalker pilots and crew rigorously train for nighttime raids, like the one in Juy Zarin. In April 2011, American forces turned over control of Combat Outpost Tangi to Afghan government forces. It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005.