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At the pilots request, the AC-130 flashed an infrared spotlight, which could be seen only through night vision goggles, to light up the landing zone. 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. 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. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California, Tech. In March 2002, two MH-47s were downed by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire while close to ground level. For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. Around 02:23, the two helicopters departed the forward base. Approaching to land or having just taken off, the craft is flying slow and low, so it presents a tempting target. Sat 6 Aug 2011 19.08 EDT. 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. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment(General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Staff Sgt. So where did it go?? As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. 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. Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan. No evidence has emerged to support any of these claims. 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. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. The Final Flight of Extortion 17 It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. Hi there! When tactical conditions allow, they initiate operations by calling out enemy forces. The article stated that the helicopter crashed after an RPG round impacted the aft rotor assembly. 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. On August 6, 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. unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, which is the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special op-erations personnel. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. But one thing that doesnt fade is never forgetting what they did.. 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. 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. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. Pinterest. On board the Chinook CH-47D were 15 members of SEAL Team Six, 15 SEAL Team Six Support personnel, 1 Bomb Dog, 7 . The five other Navy casualties were NSW (Naval Special Warfare) support personnel; in addition to these, three AFSOC operators, one Combat Controller and two Pararescuemen, all members of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, died in the crash. Extortion 17 sped alone toward the landing zone. [11], The mission was deemed high risk; two AH-64 Apache helicopters, an AC-130 gunship, and other additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft supported the troop transports on their approach and remained with the ground forces afterwards. The helicopter carrying the SEALs proceeded to the landing zone alone, without external lighting. Spec Ops Magazine 2023 All Rights Reserved. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. Courtesy . Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of. In fact, the conflict was heating up. The suspicious August 6th, 2011, CH47-D Chinook helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan which claimed the lives of 38 American military personnel. Air Force C-17 Crashes Just After Takeoff in Alaska | Dangerous Aerobatics (With Real Video) TheFlightChannel 2.1M views 1 year ago Feature History - Chinese Civil War Feature History 1.9M views. There remained many mysteries about the Extortion 17 shoot down. 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. One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. The following passage, published in The Navy Times, seems to support that assertion. About a dozen of the 33 troops in the back of the helicopter suffered broken bones, heavy bruises and scrapes. 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. You also want to come in from a different direction for the element of surprise.. Editors note: This story originally appeared in October 2017. Learnt of this today, very surprising after ladens raid was covered in the media here. [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. Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. The forward rotor system then tore off, stressed by the imbalance and the strain of carrying what would normally be a shared load. The sheer amount of experience with our pilots, flight engineers and back-seaters and mechanics offered a wealth of knowledge, he said. Senior Chief Robert James Reeves was one of those Americans. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. We were supporting special operations, but not to the degree of the 160th. Oct 26, 2016 - Explore Concerned Citizen's board "EXTORTION 17", followed by 829 people on Pinterest. They may have seen Extortion 17 and its landing zone through their own night vision goggles or simply aimed by sound alone. Photo by Sgt. Directors Karl Horstmann Stephen Spivey Writer Stephen Spivey Stars Sean Hannity Raj Kala Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. 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. [9][11], Six minutes later, the Rangers concluded securing the compound, detained several people and began to move on foot toward the crash site. "Over two years after Extortion 17 was shot down, the families still have these unanswered questions," said Klayman. On this day 11 years ago, 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicoptercall sign Extortion 17was shot down in Afghanistan. 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. 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. 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 . His father Billy Vaughn recounted Thursday a phone call from his son following the White House . We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten. Early life Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . 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. 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?? 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. 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. [1][5][6][7][8] At 30 American military personnel killed, the shootdown of Extortion 17 represents the greatest single-incident loss of American lives in Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan, surpassing the 16 lost in the downing of Turbine 33, a 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) MH-47 helicopter, during Operation Red Wings on 28 June 2005.[2]. 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. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. The crash sent shock waves throughout U.S. special operations. This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. [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? 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. Enterprise. "It's a math problem. The military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. [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. The crash claimed the lives of 38 personnel, including 22 special operations forces in Afghanistan Aug. 6, 2011. | Privacy Statement She had just given birth to their first child. They were part of his command. American, French and Afghan National Police forces carried out a three-day sweep of the area, and the area was then deemed secure. We had guys who had flown in Desert Storm, guys who had just come off active duty, Lee said. At 2:36 a.m., Extortion 17 requested an infrared spotlight, visible only through night vision goggles, to illuminate the landing zone. The SEAL commander assembled his force: 17 Navy SEALs, five Navy combat support specialists, three U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Airmen, seven Afghan Special Forces operators, an Afghan interpreter, and a military working dog. 5 U.S. Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said. Im a 25 year veteran involved in many support missions and I find this downing of Ext 17 very suspect indeed! It means being informed. Having studied and directly observed the counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan, Ive watched commanders and individual American troops consistently lean far to the side of restraint to encourage Afghans to side with American interests long after U.S. forces have left. At the flight controls were David R. Carter of the Colorado Army National Guard and copilot Bryan J. Nichols, a Kansas-based Army reservist. 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 . In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. Chance is still part of the battlefield, says Brady. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and . Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. Why did it happen? Ill try to reply the best I can. 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. 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. As they started their descent, Lee heard a loud popping noise. The RPG is not a laser. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American and coalition special operations troops. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. There are no survivors. Justin Buddy Lee will never forget that night six years ago. Its the worst day in our history by a mile.. This would not be the first time that an Afghan military member has been an undercover Taliban Terrorist and shot our US Military! A body went into the ocean, but Ill bet it wasnt Bin Ladens. It was brought down by multiple shots. Baseless Claim That Biden Ordered 'Extortion 17' Three months after the raid that killed bin Laden, Taliban fighters shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying 30 U.S. service members, including. Sgt. [11] Seventeen U.S. Navy SEALs remained in reserve at the forward operating base. The suspicious August 6th, 2011, CH47-D Chinook helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan which claimed the lives of 38 American military personnel.Of those 38 lost, 22 were members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the Naval Special Warfare unit responsible for the killing of notorious 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden . 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 group fired two or three RPG rounds from a two-story building, the second striking one of the helicopter's three aft rotor blades. [11], By 16:25, all of the remains were taken from the crash site via ground convoy and transported to Combat Outpost Sayyid Abad. See more ideas about extortion, navy seals, seal team 6. Two were still alive." It just wasnt.. 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 . 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. We continue our work at the Museum so that theirservice and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Around 2:40 a.m., an Apache pilot flying in support came on the radio and shouted: Fallen Angel. "All of this raises the distinct possibility of a cover-up as to . 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 . Theres no precedent for this. The reality is, every time a helicopter lifts off the ground in a war zone, it might get shot down, Darack said. 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. Night Stalker pilots and crew rigorously train for nighttime raids, like the one in Juy Zarin. 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. NFTs Simplified > Uncategorized > extortion 17 crash photos. Touch device users can explore by touch or with swipe . The torque of the spinning rotor assembly, now catastrophically imbalanced, ripped the rear pylon off the Chinooks fuselage. On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. With a keen understanding of the propaganda value of downing Coalition helicopters, the Taliban single them out as targets. 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. On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. The theories suggest that Afghan forces leaked information to the Taliban about the mission. Thirty-eight boarded Extortion 17 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilots from the 159th General Support Aviation Battalion. [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. The helicopter plunged tail first. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Extortion 17 is a name etched in our minds as one of the worst losses our military has ever experienced. This was preventable only if they just had not taken off that night, Lee said. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. American intelligence officials identified this individual as "OBJECTIVE GINOSA." 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. [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. Winds whipped through the fir trees. The second slammed into one of the Chinooks rear rotor blades and exploded, severing 10 feet of it. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. The IRF also included two SEALs from another team, five Navy special operations support personnel, three Air Force special tactics airmen, seven Afghan National Army commandos, a translator, and a combat assault dog. 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. 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 crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. I will never forget what they did, he said. Lee earned his wings at Fort Rucker, Ala., then deployed to Pakistan, where he did humanitarian missions, learning to fly into and out of mountainous terrain. (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. [34] Kevin Sieff and Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post reported that U.S. officials confirmed the deaths, including 22 SEALs. 2017 The Dallas Morning News. 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. In mid-2011, combined with a U.S. Army aviation battalion, they had spent weeks conducting operations nearly every other night in Wardak and surrounding provinces south of Kabul to capture or kill Taliban forces, disrupt attack plots, and deny them sanctuary on this strategic approach to Kabul City. (Smithsonian Books, September 2017). [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." Connor Mendez, courtesy of U.S. Army. On the night of 8 August 2011, an F-16 dropped four GBU-54 "Laser JDAM" bombs on the man, his accomplice and four associates in the Chak Valley, which lies to the west of the Tangi Valley. So if there was a added black box installed on this Aircraft there should be a maintenance record? The second round struck one of the three aft rotor blades of the helicopter, destroying the aft rotor assembly. 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. So the whole team went in one Chinook helicopter Extortion 17. What are the odds? The shootdown was the single, deadliest loss of U.S. forces in the war. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a62b75e7a99f5de39e28d378788f7ec9" );document.getElementById("c08a1a06c7").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Content on this website is free to use and share, but please provide a link back to Spec Ops Magazine as a source. All topics Extortion 17 Documentary Soon after US Navy Cryptologist Michael Strange and the elite SEAL Team 6 capture and kill Bin Laden, they are deployed to Afghanistan, where their Chinook is shot down. Burn is on, they radioed. I am so proud to be an American and I thank all of the families left behind to mourn their loss. Many of these SEALs were made famous, credited with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Photo by Jake Simkin for Coffee or Die Magazine. . The missions commanders decided to insert another team to go after Tahir while the Rangers held the compound. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? 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. But what really happened that night? AC-130 gunships orbiting overhead directed two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to fire on and kill five enemy fighters. And why was the fire control officer of the AC-130 Gunship flying above denied permission . The following was extracted from The Navy Times: If one is to believe the account of Matt Bissonnette, the only possibility of a participant of the bin Laden raid perishing on Extortion 17 is if the one SEAL specifically noted not to be a member of Red Squadron was a member of Gold Squadron and a passenger aboard the ill-fated Chinook. Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos. 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 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. At the time of the Juy Zarin raid, the battalion had been flying in Afghanistan for about two weeks. 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. Following a scorched earth tactic may have killed the two shootersand possibly a greater number of innocentsprior to Extortion 17s return that night, but counterinsurgency doctrine dictates that such tactics lead to potentially far worse long-term consequences. Extortion 17 and its 38 occupants would not return. Its almost always a miss.. Advertising Notice The Tangi Valley is a strategic terrain that connects the two primary highways that lead to Kabul. "[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. In March 2009, the U.S. 10th Mountain Division established a base in Tangi Valley after increased Taliban activity in the area. Sgt. 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. Extortion 17 was the call sign of a special operations mission in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011, that responded to an Army Ranger unit engaged in a firefight with the Taliban and in need of backup. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. Sometimes the enemy succeeds in delivering one of these To whom it may concern projectiles. 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. He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. The pilots and crew of Extortion 17, however, had ideal experience and abilities for the mission that night. [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. After some time, another group of about 10 Taliban fighters was spotted that we suspected could be Qari Tahir himself fleeing the scene. 130 Extortion 17 ideas | extortion, seal team 6, navy seals Extortion 17 119 Pins 9y K Collection by Kim&Pauly Us Soldiers Troops Fallen Soldiers Military Personnel Military Men American Soldiers American Heroes Naval Special Warfare Fallen Heroes The two may have been those who escaped Apache cannon fire, or they may have split away from either of the groups that formed after the start of the raid. I was terrified. God bless all of them- the bravest of the brave. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. [7][20][21], Fifteen of the Navy SEALs that were killed were members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU),[5][22][20] while the other two Navy SEALs were from an unidentified West Coast-based unit. Because unarmed villagers, unaffiliated with the Taliban, could also have been in those trees and among the groups milling about the village, the gunships could not have fired. During the Ranger insertion earlier that night, the CH-47D had approached from the south; this time, it approached from the northwest. Missions like this one to insert or remove an assault force are the military equivalent of a perfect 10 in the Olympics equal parts skill, experience and daring.