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. Theyre going after [enemy fighters] in very hostile environments, who know the terrain very well, who know the battlescape very well, Darack said. 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.On board the Chinook CH-47D were 15 members of SEAL Team Six, 15 SEAL Team Six Support personnel, 1 Bomb Dog, 7 unidentified members of the Afghan National Army, and 1 . And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. You never want to use the same landing zone twice, Darack said. Lees second deployment started in May of 2011. Extortion 17, however, would never reach that landing zone. 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. On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. Located in a remote and dangerous province in eastern Afghanistan, the base was the target of near-constant rocket attacks from Taliban insurgents. Navy SEAL Team Six, the heroic unit that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011, is in grave danger due to the reckless actions of the Obama administration. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. I would say that on the three-minute call is when Gun 2 started looking at the LZ, giving an LZ brief op. By what name was Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) officially released in Canada in English? Joe Pappalardo is a contributing writer at Popular Mechanics and author of the new book, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight. Virginia-based Navy SEALs in a training exercise. 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. The families accept the fact that a single shot brought down the helicopter. Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. 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. The military's public c Read allOn 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. All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, although military officials said none of the crash victims was on that mission in Pakistan against the al . The tragedy took some of the glow off SEAL Team 6s grand achievement just three months earlier: A team penetrated Pakistan airspace, infiltrated a compound in Abbottabad and killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 4:08 p.m. - The team destroys the chopper that crashed. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. It had been loaded well within its limits. Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, was one of the U.S. Navy SEALS killed in the helicopter crash. The families of some of the 17 SEAL Team 6 commandos who were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan during a helicopter flight to help Army Rangers pinned down by Taliban gunmen accused the. "We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied. The team began intense training for the operation, which included practicing in a life-sized replica of the compound. His 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. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. 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. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? Aerial view of Osama bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, made by the CIA. All of us know that going into it.". As more responsibilities fall on the shoulders of special forces, the risk of more losses like this one will continue to increase. Afghan President Karzai's office released a statement on the incident. Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond. Composed primarily of members of the 75th Ranger Regiment, which falls under the authority of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, the team sought to capture or kill a powerful insurgent leader, Qari Tahir, known to coalition forces by his designation "Lefty Grove." It alleges thatthe 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, which took place when Biden was vice president, did not actually kill the al-Qaeda leader, but rather a body double, and that Iran had been part of the conspiracy as well. The helicopter was in great operational shape. Per factcheck.org, while Obama and his advisers were deliberating over which mission to authorize for attacking Bin Ladens compound, Biden advised the president to wait for further confirmation that bin Laden was actually in the compound in Pakistan before acting. Biden was not, as implied, altogether opposed to killing Bin Laden. These helicopters have been well protected from long-range missile attacks for years, but still have few defenses against a simple RPG fired at short range while the Chinook hovers in place. The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board including 17 US Navy SEALs, two United States Air Force Pararescue, one United States Air Force Combat Control Team member, one pilot and two crewmen of the United States Army Reserve, one pilot and one crewman of the United States Army National Guard, seven members of the Afghan National Security Throughout, he said, Justice lawyers have refused to take his phone calls. See production, box office & company info, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. 4:05 p.m. - The first helicopter exits the compound. Aug. 6, 2011 -- A helicopter was shot down today by Afghan insurgents as it was rushing to aid troops in a firefight, killing 30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, most of whom belonged to Team 6, the unit whose members were involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said. Although the Taliban have claimed to have shot the helicopter down, U.S. officials have only identified the attackers as insurgents. 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. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. Nobody involved had overlooked even the most minute detail. To minimize the danger as much as possible, pilots will land Chinooks out of range of any weapons they know they enemy to have, and an Apache or a UAV will fly overhead to check for threats before the Chinooks drop off any soldiers. For now, let's assume the Chinook was shot down, and by a rocket. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. It has now been four years since Extortion 17 was shot down, said Doug Hamburger, whose Army air crew son, Patrick, was one of the 30 Americans killed. But we are still sending people to another country to fight, and we need to understand why were doing that, he said. Everyone on board died within a fraction of a second30 Americans, eight Afghans and one American military working dog. The Graveyard of Empires: Directed by David Boreanaz. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. Mills, a 13-year veteran of the military . Family members question SEAL Team 6's most deadly incident. 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. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Related: Marcus Luttrell's savior claim's 'Lone Survivor' got it wrong. Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, BroadStreet Review and Splice Today. A Defense Department special operations official told a House subcommittee last year that there is no indication the mission was compromised by the Afghans. After the crash, the forces that were involved in the firefight "broke contact" with the enemy so they could go provide perimeter security for the crash site, the official said. It's a scary thought. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. While some of those who lost their lives that day were members of Seal Team 6, it was not the same platoon that had carried out the Bin Laden raid, and none of those killed in the crash had been a part of that event. "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. During a press conference on Washington Thursday, family and advocates for the fallen troops called into question the rules of engagement that they say prohibited their sons from being able to return fire, and the White House's decision to announce shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden that SEAL Team 6 was responsible for the raid. Chinooks are American forces' preferred helicopters in Afghanistan because they are powerful enough fly over mountains while carrying a full complement of troops.