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. Winds whipped through the fir trees. Thirty Americans perished in the blink of an eye, half of which comprised an entire 'troop' from SEAL Team 6's Gold Squadron. And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist) Jon T. Tumilson, 35, of Rockford, Iowa, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Aaron C. Vaughn, 30, of Stuart, Florida, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Jason R. Workman, 32, of Blanding, Utah, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Jesse D. Pittman, 27, of Ukiah, California, Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL)Nicholas P. Spehar, 24, of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Chief Warrant Officer David R. Carter, 47, of Centennial, Colo. 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. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. In 2006, he was called into Afghanistan, where he turned 25. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. "[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. 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. 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. Early life The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. That night, nearly 10 years after the U.S. had gone to war in Afghanistan, Lee believed they were the best team for this dangerous mission. A body went into the ocean, but Ill bet it wasnt Bin Ladens. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. The guy was incredibly skilled.. I was terrified. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. Senior Chief Robert James Reeves was one of those Americans. Air & Space/Smithsonian contributing editor Ed Darack is the author of The Warriors of Anbar; War Moments; The Final Mission of Extortion 17; Victory Point; and three other books. "[30], On 12 August 2011, Jim Lehrer of the PBS NewsHour announced that he would report the Honor Roll at the end of the program with names and photographs of all 30 men. The reality is, every time a helicopter lifts off the ground in a war zone, it might get shot down, Darack said. You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. [41] At the subsequent hearing in February 2014, Pentagon representative Garry Reid defended the decision to undertake the mission and denied that the Taliban had any advance knowledge of it. 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. 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, Several minutes later, a 20-man Pathfinder team (specializing in downed-aircraft rescue and recovery) arrived at the site. Spec Ops Magazine 2023 All Rights Reserved. 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. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California, Tech. If this was survivable, that was the right crew to have. 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. 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. The pilots and crew of Extortion 17, however, had ideal experience and abilities for the mission that night. Sometimes the enemy succeeds in delivering one of these To whom it may concern projectiles. Find the perfect extortion 17 stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. [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. Are all DEVGRUs saved in a sperm bank? But Tahir and a group of his fighters escaped. Eleven U.S. servicemen aboard Extortion 17 entered the military after the 9/11 attacks, answering the call to arms as so many brave Americans have done throughout the history of our great country. (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 . | READ MORE. The men who serve in the American military are the finest! These are the words of Billy Vaughn. He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. 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. This hearing also serves to We were on goggles the whole time. 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. 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. Though both noted that airborne sensor coverage and closer AH-64 gunship escort should be considered in future operations, nothing could have kept the shooters from firing their RPGs that night. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? 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. 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. Available for both RF and RM licensing. 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,. Editor's Note: On August 6, 2021, 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 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. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. 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. 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. Soldiers killed in Chinook shot down on Saturday came from 24 U.S. states First full list of names, ages and hometowns revealed - 17 were Navy SEALs Eye witnesses to the crash describe seeing. 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. 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. When the Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopter was hit, all 38 onboard were instantly killed. Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan. Advertising Notice [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. Photo by Jake Simkin for Coffee or Die Magazine. 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. 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. Just three months earlier, members of a counterpart SEAL Team 6 squadron successfully raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden. At any moment, they could come under rocket attack. [22][20] Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that eight of the movement's fighters had been killed in the assault on the compound. In order to prevent this, American forces called in for support. 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. The landing zone had been examined for a previous mission but had not yet been used. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. (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. Commanders frequently request CH-47 Chinooks to insert troops. And why was the fire control officer of the AC-130 Gunship flying above denied permission . It also became one of the most devastating death tolls of the U.S. Special Operations Forces. Just as ridiculous as saying [President George W.] Bush was responsible for 9/11, Lee said. 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 the Extortion 17 crash, credible journalism was produced on this subject by Ed Darack in his book, "The Final Mission of Extortion 17." The SEALs who died in the crash belonged to Gold Squadron, while the SEALs who killed bin Laden belonged to Red Squadron. The image released and purported to be Bin Laden was a blended image of an old Bin Laden pic and an image of a different terrorist that was killed in battle. 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. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 . Lightboxes. A senior Afghan government official, speaking anonymously, said that Taliban commander Qari Tahir had fed American forces false information about a meeting of insurgent leaders and fighters waited for the helicopter from both sides of a steep valley: "The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take. [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. NFTs Simplified > Uncategorized > extortion 17 crash photos. Connor Mendez, courtesy of U.S. Army. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, Wash. The workhorse in Army aviation, the tandem rotor, heavy-lift Chinook helicopter is used for carrying troops, equipment, supplies and even the mail. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. 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. They were part of his command. In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. On his first deployment, he felt fortunate to be surrounded by veteran pilots he could learn from. [40], In October 2011, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an investigation following the shootdown concluded "that all operational decisions, linked to the incident, were deemed tactically sound." He presents the Final Flight of EXTORTION 17 (spoken one seven and seventeen), like a Defense Attorney or an investigator. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. The crew of Slasher 02, the AC-130 circling above, flipped the switch on their powerful light. 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. 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.[5][22][15][23]. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. Published Aug 6, 2018 5:05 PM EDT. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. They may have seen Extortion 17 and its landing zone through their own night vision goggles or simply aimed by sound alone. Monitored and controlled by a Joint Terminal Attack Controller at Forward Operating Base Shank via a General Atomics MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, all six were positively confirmed killed by the bomb strike and subsequent attacks by a Lockheed AC-130 gunship and two Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships. The Final Flight of Extortion 17 It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue/Arlington National Cemetery/released). [29], Other reports alleged that the Taliban had laid an elaborate trap for American special-operations forces, luring them in with false information. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. The shoot-down of 'Extortion 17' constitutes the greatest loss of American life from a single battle in the history of the Afghanistan War. Buy images; Sell images; It requires the highest level of skills from the pilots because they are some of the most dangerous operations.. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The official statement from U.S. Central Command stated that a Taliban fighter scored a lucky shot with a rocket-propelled grenade. She had just given birth to their first child. In April 2011, American forces turned over control of Combat Outpost Tangi to Afghan government forces. 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. [26], The U.S. military helicopter carrying special operations forces to a night-raid in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, according to military officials. The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. The SEAL task force was monitoring this activity, and they were soon called upon to deploy quickly into the northern end of the valley to intercept Tahir and capture him and those moving with him. As the Chinook CH-47 transport helicopter (call sign: Extortion 17) carrying 30 U.S. troops, seven Afghan commandos, an Afghan civilian interpreter and a U.S. military dog approached, the. Extortion 17 and 16 werent MH-47s and their crews were not Night Stalkers. #neverforgotten #screwedbygovt #demmandanswers. American, French and Afghan National Police forces carried out a three-day sweep of the area, and the area was then deemed secure. 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. Two fired at roughly the same time. 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. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. 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.