At the time of the Juy Zarin raid, the battalion had been flying in Afghanistan for about two weeks. 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. 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.
Air Force Officer Speaks Out for First Time About Downing of Extortion American signals intelligence aircraft intercepted these transmissions and subsequently tracked the individual and his accomplice.
DISPATCH: Newly Appointed Taliban Official Claims Role in Extortion 17 The worst of the wounded was one of Lees crew members, who suffered what was later diagnosed as a severe traumatic brain injury. Three hours after disembarking from the Chinooks, the assault force had secured the compound and detained a number of Tahirs men, but they hadnt found Tahir himself. 1h 33m "A U.S. Army helicopter carrying 30 Americans, most members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6 is shot down in Afghanistan. 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. For every one that gets lucky, there are hundreds, even thousands, that zip by you., As weve seen a number of times, theres a point that a lucky shot is going to get you and there is only so much you can do to mitigate it, says Glover, the Marine aviator. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. Cookie Settings, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds. Landing in deserts or mountainsides, the helicopter rotors kick up clouds of sand and dust, causing brownouts that can blind a pilot. While classification veils the specifics of these tactics, particularly for special operations raids, manned gunships can detect potential threats through a range of sensors and immediately attack if needed. Classified reports, published by Wikileaks, teem with notes from pilots and crew of all types of military helicopters who saw RPG attacks throughout the war. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission.
Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six Setting the record straight: Myths and misinformation about Extortion 17 David Tarrant, The Dallas Morning News Are all DEVGRUs saved in a sperm bank? You also want to come in from a different direction for the element of surprise.. What we saw is that if the enemy knew where you were going to attack, they would back some guys with RPGs off 500 meters or so, to shoot during an ingress, Glover explains. 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. At 01:00, they decided to engage the group with the SEAL reserves. [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. Connor Mendez, courtesy of U.S. Army. He pushed hard on the cyclic stick to tilt the helicopter forward. [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.
360 EXTORTION 17 ideas | extortion, navy seals, seal team 6 - Pinterest And now, the government wants to make the Taliban legitamet. 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 downing of Extortion 17 spurred a number of conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the shootdown was revenge for bin Laden's death. Were asking people to do incredible things. At any moment, they could come under rocket attack. Nichols had deployed three times to combat zones, and Carter, with more than 4,000 hours of flight time, was one of the most experienced helicopter pilots in the U.S. military. Thirty members of the American special forces have been killed in Afghanistan in the deadliest day of the 10-year war for US military personnel when the Taliban shot down . Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? 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. Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten.
Robert J. Reeves: A Navy SEAL who died in Extortion 17 - Spec Ops Magazine That's the only route, so they took positions on either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons. We had guys who had flown in Desert Storm, guys who had just come off active duty, Lee said. 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 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. The incident became known as "Extortion 17" after the helicopter . "Over two years after Extortion 17 was shot down, the families still have these unanswered questions," said Klayman. "It's a math problem. [33], The New York Post reported that the Pentagon released 30 names from the crash. And I condemn anyone who would dare denigrate the flag of the greatest country in the world which is made so by the heroic actions of these great men. 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 shootdown was the single, deadliest loss of U.S. forces in the war. 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. That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. 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? So where did it go?? 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. 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. The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. 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. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. No evidence has emerged to support any of these claims. The Museum Executive Team worked with these men. 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. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Geneva G. Brier/Released) 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. Ranger assault helicopters had already engaged the enemy and killed six of eight Taliban fighters, causing the other two to retreat.
[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? The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lees closest friends in the Chinook company.
August 2011 Attack on U.S. Troops in Afghanistan | C-SPAN.org 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. First, the Obama administration's Defense Department's crash report stated that there were no eyes in the sky over the Chinook . Extortion 17 sped alone toward the landing zone.
Downing of Extortion 17: The Single Deadliest Incident of the US War in 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. Editors note: This story originally appeared in October 2017. All rights reserved. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California, Tech. The crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. Why did it happen?
PDF AFGHANISTAN: HONORING THE HEROES OF EXTORTION 17 - GovInfo They reached the site at 04:12 and found no survivors. Extortion 16 flew empty. Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six is a 2015 non-fiction expose, written by best-selling author and former U.S. Navy JAG Officer Don Brown, about the 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan of a United States Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) - IMDb In March 2002, two MH-47s were downed by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire while close to ground level. [11] Going forward, the two AH-64 Apache helicopters would be engaged in tracking those two groups of Taliban, and hence unable to provide surveillance or fire support to the inbound helicopter carrying the SEAL team. "[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. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. Two of the SEALs were from a West Coast SEAL unit, but the others were from the Gold Squadron of Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, sometimes known as SEAL Team 6, said the NSW source.. 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. One of the most significant tactical evolutions of the Afghanistan conflict is the ever-heavier use of unmanned aerial systems and other airborne intelligence-gathering systems. An Afghan official, speaking anonymously a few days after the attack, speculated that the Taliban had laid a trap, that they had purposely put out false information about a meeting involving the Taliban commander. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17.
extortion 17 crash photos - nftcollectionlab.com 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. He would not have hesitated to fly with any of them. [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. 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. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. When tactical conditions allow, they initiate operations by calling out enemy forces. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 . He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. 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.
U.S. Army Helicopter "EXTORTION 17" Shot Down - PBS.org A 17-year-old boy died by suicide hours after being scammed. The - CNN Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. (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. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. We were supporting special operations, but not to the degree of the 160th. During a previous deployment to Iraq, Carters unit flew dozens of similar raids, which he often planned and led, and gained a reputation for working well with special operations troops. American intelligence officials identified this individual as "OBJECTIVE GINOSA." 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. "Before Benghazi there was Extortion 17.. Saturday August 6 th 2011 was a day that changed the lives of my family forever. 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. 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. The pilots and crew of Extortion 17, however, had ideal experience and abilities for the mission that night. One AH-64 crew, after identifying the men as enemy combatants, fired on them with their gunships 30mm cannon, killing six. The landing zone had been examined for a previous mission but had not yet been used. With a keen understanding of the propaganda value of downing Coalition helicopters, the Taliban single them out as targets. Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! In The Final Flight of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy.
The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support 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). There's also that little issue that came up when 6 Navy SEALs' funerals were conducted by a Muslim Cleric that condemned them to Hell during the service.
First images of mangled Chinook crash revealed as Pentagon names all 30 The team boarded Extortion 17 with Dave Carter and Bryan Nichols at the controls. So the whole team went in one Chinook helicopter Extortion 17. Privacy Statement The resulting explosion destroyed the aft 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. Cart. The Taliban shot at the Chinooks all the time with RPGs and rifles, Darack said. Or when something went terribly wrong. 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, 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. 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. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and . Six minutes from their estimated landing time, Extortion 16 broke away from the lead Chinook and orbited at a location close enough to help if needed.
Trump endorses Bin Laden Navy SEAL conspiracy theory - Audacy He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Spc. Photo by Jake Simkin for Coffee or Die Magazine. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant.
On the anniversary of the Extortion 17 tragedy, we remember the heroic men who were felled rushing into battle, as they had done hundreds of times . [35] The Seattle Times and The New York Times also reported this information. At 2:36 a.m., Extortion 17 requested an infrared spotlight, visible only through night vision goggles, to illuminate the landing zone. In April 2011, American forces turned over control of Combat Outpost Tangi to Afghan government forces. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. Capable of loitering overhead for hours undetected, small fleets of unmanned craft passed imagery to mission planners before and during the raid at Juy Zarin, allowing them to recognize individual fighters, learn their habits, pinpoint where they slept, and identify the types of weapons they carried. It just wasnt.. . The squadron that this SEAL belonged to was never mentioned. The helicopter fell from the sky, killing all 38 on board. 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.
The True Story Behind the Recovery of Extortion 17 Copyright 2023 | National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, The Museum is a 501(c)(3) organization. LZ is ice, transmitted one of the Rangers on the ground, indicating the landing zone was free of enemy activity. Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. Oct 26, 2016 - Explore Concerned Citizen's board "EXTORTION 17", followed by 829 people on Pinterest. The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. Humm, to have all the Seal Team 6 members in one place at one time?? The Tangi Valley is a strategic terrain that connects the two primary highways that lead to Kabul. There are no survivors.
"Fallen Angel" - What really happened to Extortion 17? New film probes The SEALs who assaulted Osama bin Ladens compound were drawn from Naval Special Warfare Development Groups Red Squadron, according to several sources in the special operations community.. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. The Afghan soldiers were an essential part of the package; they were trained to move with our forces to the target. Here, in silence, are the names and photographs of all 30 men. Explore. 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. 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?? He presents the Final Flight of EXTORTION 17 (spoken one seven and seventeen), like a Defense Attorney or an investigator. Regarding the downing of Extortion 17, all of the DEVGRU Operators aboard were members of the Gold Squadron. Lee, now a captain, was placed in command of a Chinook helicopter unit at Forward Operating Base Shank. [9][11], Meanwhile, the group of Taliban fighters split in two. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage.
Deadliest Day in Spec Ops History: The Extortion-17 Chinook Crash Not feelin it! At 10:58 p.m., they were inserted by the same CH-47D helicopters that would later conduct the mission to insert the SEAL team.