The loss of a Chinook helicopter carrying members of Navy SEAL Team Six made yesterday the deadliest single day in the entire Afghan War for the U.S., The New York Times reports. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. "Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan," Obama said in a statement. Guys on the bush line. File: A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter in flight. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lee's closest friends in the Chinook company. . The helicopter was shot down by insurgents. She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. A Marine speaks into a radio and troops unload a CH-47D Chinook in Afghanistan's Kunar Province. A man reads the front page of a newspaper featuring the news that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead deep inside Pakistan in a night-time helicopter raid by US covert forces, ending a decade-long manhunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. The assassination of Osama bin Laden was a significant victory for the U.S. government and the American people at large. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. See production, box office & company info, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. Extortion 17, however, would never reach that landing zone. Ohio Republican Secretary of State 'actively' considering Senate run against Sherrod Brown, DeSantis family spends the afternoon at Houston Rodeo ahead of governor's speech, Marianne Williamson launches campaign against Biden, vows to fight 'forces of hatred, injustice and fear', Haley blasts both Democrats and fellow Republicans, including Trump, over exploding national debt. Since filing a lawsuit, Mr. Klayman says, he has been stonewalled by the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the CIA and the National Security Agency. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. Its lawyers have told the judge that the process of locating relevant documents and removing classified information takes time. It was a good crew, it really was. Still, the one the president retweeted earlier this week may have been the weirdest yet. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. 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. Three of the . The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. Nigerians await election results in competitive race. The more likely explanation seems to be that the president, like a lot of us, tweets without thinking, especially if the subject matter is something that praises him or denigrates his political opponents. Each shouldered a rocket propelled grenade launcher, aimed at the dim silhouette of the approaching helicopter then fired. And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. Somebody tipped them off. Hours earlier, pilots Carter and Nichols and crewmembers Specialist Spencer Duncan, Sergeant Pat Hamburger, and Sergeant Alex Bennett, along with pilots and crew of a sister Chinook, Extortion 16, inserted a strike force in the central Tangi Valley. With David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Jessica Par, Neil Brown Jr.. Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17: Directed by Karl Horstmann, Stephen Spivey. A Justice Department spokeswoman said there would be no comment beyond its court filings. They were sitting there, waiting. Darack, a writer and photographer, is the author of four previous books, including Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalersthe Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. He was too busy. A junior, he was ready to fight, but the war would be over, he figured, before he even got out of college. The Chinook was descending on a noisy battlefield where Apache helicopters and a C-130 gunship had been buzzing overhead for three hours, alerting Taliban fighters. The pilots ranked among the most proficient in this type of flying and the Department of Defense. There were guys in a tower. They are also pretty tough; the only comparable loss to this one was a Chinook shot down in 2005. Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. 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.. Its almost always a miss.. It was the largest single loss of life for Seal Team 6, also known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, (DEVGRU) in the unit's history. But why? President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. What in the world was that Navy Seals conspiracy that Trump retweeted? The immediate reaction force (IRF) was assembled hastily for insertion into Tangi Valley to help Army Rangers capture fleeing Taliban. The SEALS intentionally . The Associated Press contributed to this report. And they sent our guys right into the middle.. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. On May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the worlds most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. However, the AP has reported, the Afghan forces never staffed the outpost after American forces left, and the Taliban moved back in. "President Karzai expressed his deep condolences because of this incident and expressed his sympathy to Barack Obama.". JSOC ground forces and those who flew them knew and trusted each other. As they started their descent, Lee heard a loud popping noise. International reactions to bin Ladens death ranged from favorable to mixed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The entire operation, which lasted only 40 minutes from start to finish, was the culmination of years of calculated planning and training. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. Up to 30 Dead in Afghanistan Following Failed Prison Heist, Total Iraq and Afghanistan Pricetag: Over $4 Trillion. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. A chief warrant officer 5, a member of the Colorado National Guard, Carter had over 4,500 flying hours, including more than 1,000 hours during combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. 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. Apparently, someone tipped them off that the SEALs were coming; the helicopter was attacked from three sides in a coordinated ambush. Our families are in danger,' " Vaughn recalled. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. Members of Navy SEAL Team Six formed the core of the IRF, with other American special operations personnel and highly-vetted Afghans playing integral roles. Theyre going after [enemy fighters] in very hostile environments, who know the terrain very well, who know the battlescape very well, Darack said. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Flying low, the pilots have to maneuver a machine weighing up to 50,000 pounds over mountains, under cover of darkness, in swirling wind and dust, wearing night vision goggles. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. Aug. 7, 2011 -- American communities are mourning the loss of 30 U.S. troops who were killed when Afghan insurgents shot down a helicopter carrying the most elite forces in the US military -- Navy . The sheer amount of experience with our pilots, flight engineers and back-seaters and mechanics offered a wealth of knowledge, he said. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers.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. It requires the highest level of skills from the pilots because they are some of the most dangerous operations.. ", "The hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to our government than my son's blood," she said. Market data provided by Factset. "We've allowed politics to become more important than the lives and safety of those men and women," he says. A silhouette of a. The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. The terrorist leader was not only a major player within al-Qaeda but also a figurehead that attracted supporters and recruits from around the world. SEAL TEAM SIX - EXTORTION 17 COVER UP theunitedwest 15.8K subscribers Subscribe 683 53K views Streamed 7 years ago WOW, watch author Don Brown blow the lid off of the official government report. What the men on the Chinook didn't know was that cloaked by darkness, two fighters had emerged from the small village of Hasan Khel, on the south side of the valley. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. The family members, speaking at the National Press Club, tried to reopen the book on the crash, in which 30 Americans were killed, most of them belonging to the same unit as those who carried out the raid on Usama bin Laden earlier that year. However, it would be a very lucky shot to hit a moving Chinook with an RPG and they typically fly high to avoid such dangers as well as small arms fire. Lee had just flown the night before on a similar mission with one of the pilots, David Carter. The event was organized by Freedom Watch, a conservative advocacy group, at the National Press Club. The Benghazi attack in 2012 plays a part in some other versions of the tale. Nothing tests the capabilities of a young helicopter pilot like flying in the extreme conditions of Afghanistan. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? Everyone on board died within a fraction of a second30 Americans, eight Afghans and one American military working dog. That means more raids, more targets and more reliance on Afghan competenceall of which add up to more special forces casualties. Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. That assault team captured Tahirs compound and some of his men. Many military experts at the time, including some of Obamas top military advisers, had questioned the White Houses public praise of SEAL Team 6 and said it put members in danger. This crash is incredibly demoralizing. Strange also blamed top military brass for sending the troops into a situation they were allegedly ill-equipped and unprepared to handle. [PHOTOS:Fighting in Afghanistan Continues]. Not all will end as well as bin Laden's takedown, as PM noted in July. The workhorse in Army aviation, the tandem rotor, heavy-lift Chinook helicopter is used for carrying troops, equipment, supplies and even the mail. Saturday's deaths bring the total number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan to 334 this year, according to the Associated Press. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. 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. The loss of a Chinook helicopter carrying members of Navy SEAL Team Six made yesterday the deadliest single day in the entire Afghan War for the U.S., 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Crash, Russian Cargo Plane Explodes During Pressure Test, better protected from newer, more sophisticated threats, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. These materials provided much-needed intelligence about bin Ladens role within al-Qaeda and the organizations inner-workings. Honestly, sir, I dont think anybody had really looked at the LZ, said the pilot of Gun 1. All of us know that going into it.". One source says the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew. "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. "We simply didn't know those guys with those RPGs were there," he said. The U.S. military claimed that the Chinook was blown to pieces by a shoulder-fired missile, in which everyone on board was burned beyond recognition. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? Every mission is potentially life-threatening. They were part of his command. 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. Get everything off your social media. Were very concerned that the administration had disclosed that the Navy SEALs had carried out a successful attack on bin Ladens compound resulting in his death. 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. There was no conspiracy. Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who served as deputy undersecretary of defense for Intelligence and was a commander in the Army's super-secret "Delta Force," denounced politicized rules of engagement as a "deliberate plot" within the American armed forces that he says puts political correctness above the safety of the troops. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. Hes also sent more than his fair share of curious retweets, often of the accounts of conspiracy theorists and those associated with QAnon and other outlandish conspiracy frameworks. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. The families accept the fact that a single shot brought down the helicopter. But why? The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru)better known by its former name, Team 6-reportedly suffered the bulk of the casualties. Hamburger added. 4:08 p.m. - The team destroys the chopper that crashed. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a protracted firefight with Taliban fighters and needed reinforcements. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents in August 2011; many of those killed were part of the same Navy SEAL Team 6 unit that carried out the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound three months . Insurgents in Iraq have used Russian-made SA-7s, shoulder-fired missiles tipped with infrared homing devices, against U.S. and British aircraft.