Who betrayed Navy SEAL Team 6? - Spec Ops Magazine The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. For now, let's assume the Chinook was shot down, and by a rocket. The compounds unusual and extensive security features, along with further intelligence information, prompted suspicion that the residence was Osama bin Ladens hideout. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. It is not uncommon for commandos to fly some of their missions aboard such aircraft in the war zone, however. The reality is, every time a helicopter lifts off the ground in a war zone, it might get shot down, Darack 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. Today, some family members are not just disappointed in the investigation and the FOIA process, but also in how the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security conducted a brief hearing in Feb. 2014. The US Navy's elite SEAL Team 6 reportedly recovered two bodies and a flight recorder from the site where a US Air Force E-11A aircraft crashed in Afghanistan on Monday. The second RPG round had connected with one of Extortion 17's aft rotor blades, severing more than 10 feet of it when it exploded. His father Billy Vaughn recounted Thursday a phone call from his son following the White House decision to credit the highly secretive military unit for the bin Laden raid. 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. They start the movie showing George W Bush saying that after 9/11 we will hunt down those responsible. And we really feel that this put our guys in an unnecessary risk, Hamburger said. The mission continues, uninterrupted.3:39 p.m. Osama bin Laden is located on the third floor of the compound and is shot in the head, above the left eye.Sometime during the operation, three other men (including one of bin Ladens sons) and a woman in the compound are also killed.3:53 p.m. President Obama receives preliminary word that bin Laden is identified and dead.3:55 p.m. SEAL team members move bin Ladens body to the first floor of the compound and place it in a body bag.3:39 p.m.-4:10 p.m. The team locates and retrieves multiple items from the compound for intelligence investigation.4:05 p.m. The first helicopter exits the compound.4:08 p.m. The team destroys the chopper that crashed.4:10 p.m. A backup helicopter scoops up remaining team members and leaves the area.5:53 p.m. The choppers with SEAL team members return to Afghanistan.7:01 p.m. President Obama receives further intelligence information that the body killed in the raid is likely that of bin Laden.11:35 p.m. President Obama addresses the nation about the raid.12:59 a.m. Osama bin Ladens body is buried at sea within 24 hours to comply with Islamic law. And the shooters had no reason to know that Extortion 17 or any other helicopter would be flying through their quiet extremity of the valley. 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. A typical combat mission in Afghanistan leaves little margin for error, requiring Chinook pilots to land on tiny, makeshift sites on mountain slopes where any tree, bush or rock could be hiding an enemy fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. No one is planting victory gardens, and were not rationing. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Conspiracy theories started almost immediately. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. This misinformation persists in part because those unfamiliar with the battlefield aren't taking into account a fundamental part of war: chance. Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said. Its one reason Twitter has put in place safeguards encouraging users to read links before retweeting them. The first of the unguided projectiles missed, as the vast majority of rocket propelled grenades shot at helicopters did over the course of the war in Afghanistan. Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17: Directed by Karl Horstmann, Stephen Spivey. Lees wife, Christy, hoped the news would bring a sudden end to the war. Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. Navy SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Tears Into Conspiracy Trump Boosted 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. The families hope to raise awareness of the incident, which they say the government has largely forgotten since the official report was released in October 2011. But Chinooks are at their most vulnerable while hovering in place during raids like the one this team is thought to have been conducting. Somebody was leaking to the Taliban, said Mr. David Tarrant. 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. Osama bin Ladens personal journal was also recovered. Is Russias Only Aircraft Carrier Cursed? When they arrived at the compound, however, the strike force couldn't locate Tahir, and some of his fighters dispersed. In fact, the conflict was heating up. It's unclear how far away the helicopter was from the initial firefight when it went down and unclear how the troops in the firefight got to the crash location, the official said. A junior, he was ready to fight, but the war would be over, he figured, before he even got out of college. As more responsibilities fall on the shoulders of special forces, the risk of more losses like this one will continue to increase. This is all, needless to say, completely unsubstantiated if not outright false. A CH-47D Chinook helicopter (the same model as Extortion 17) speeds through the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, near Bridgeport, California, during mountain warfare training exercises. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17. 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. They then repeated and emphasized a few related questions: How could this happen? Over time, certain memories will fade, certain details will fade. The route had been carefully planned, and gunships maintained continuous watch over the intended landing zone during Extortion 17's approach. SEAL Team Six was assigned three pre-invasion missions: two clandestine political missions relating to regime change on the island, and reconnaissance from the sea of the new airfield under construction on the island's southwest coast. 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 . Chinooks are American forces' preferred helicopters in Afghanistan because they are powerful enough fly over mountains while carrying a full complement of troops. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that supported the raid, including a Predator drone, and a variety of highly specialized spy planes, had kept continuous watch over the region during the operation. And you know, never before in the history of our county (had) a sitting president released that type of information to the public, especially when he was talking about special forces. 3 Questions About the SEAL Team Six Helicopter Crash - Popular Mechanics A CH-47D Chinook helicopter lands at a small landing zone at Firebase Blessing, in eastern Afghanistans restive Kunar Province at the start of a combat operation. Were asking people to do incredible things. The Associated Press contributed to this report. How SEAL Team 6 . At 2:38 a.m. on August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, entered the western opening of Afghanistan's restive Tangi Valley, flying alone. 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. The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. By what name was Fallen Angel: Call Sign - Extortion 17 (2021) officially released in Canada in English? Throughout, he said, Justice lawyers have refused to take his phone calls. Aaron Vaughn's mother, Karen, also demanded an explanation for why her son and his team were not using a special operations aircraft, such as the Chinooks flown by special operations pilots, which have specialized defenses designed to fly commandos deep behind enemy lines. Their names and their missions had never been revealed before. 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 SEALS intentionally . As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. President Trump has been known, over the years, to tweet some bizarre things. The second probe, led by Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt, explained in excruciating detail what all those familiar with military operations and helicopter aviation in Afghanistan already knew: chance and chance alone, took down Extortion 17. Navy SEAL responds to Trump: I killed the real Bin Laden, not a body 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. A Justice Department spokeswoman said there would be no comment beyond its court filings. The tempo of the missions did not decrease. U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families of those killed are still being notified. Guys on the bush line. The Chinook helicopter was carrying a quick-reaction force to provide back-up to the troops on the ground in the eastern Afghan province of Wardak, a U.S. official said. 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. Some congressional lawmakers demonstrated their support for the group, including former Florida Republican Rep. Allan West -- an Iraq war vet -- and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. The conspiracy has a number of moving parts, all of which have surfaced before, but none of which have any truth to them. The hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. 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. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. That is why, they say, a fighter just happened to be stationed in a turret within 150 yards of a landing zone that had never been used before. . Charles Strange, whose son Michael, 25, died in the attack said Obama personally promised him a thorough investigation of what happened but has failed to deliver. . Still, SEAL Team Sixs bold raid to take down bin Laden was an extraordinary operation that most experts regard as a resounding success. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. Family members are hoping Freedom Watch, a watchdog legal group led by Larry Klayman, can force new disclosures using the power of the FOIA process. WASHINGTON The families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan blamed the government for the tragedy, during an emotional press conference in Washington Thursday. See GlobalPost: Navy SEALs had "kill" order on Osama bin Laden, report claims. 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. Its almost always a miss.. This time, they might simply have run out of luck and encountered an RPG-armed enemy who was in the right place at the right time. The Costliest Day in SEAL Team Six History - HISTORY The immediate reaction force (IRF) was assembled hastily for insertion into Tangi Valley to help Army Rangers capture fleeing Taliban. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. Families of Navy SEALs killed in 2011 attack say government is to blame "It's something that a lot of people who have never been in combat have a hard time understanding," he said. Stephen M. Mills, 35, of Fort Worth, was one of the U.S. Navy SEALS killed in the helicopter crash. Navy SEALs. The extreme G-forces killed everyone on board within a fraction of a second, Darack said. It was a good crew, it really was. Legal Statement. He probably doesnt. For many families of 9/11 victims, bin Ladens death symbolized justice and retribution. An official report was released in October 2011 but family members say it did little to fill in the details and left more questions than answers. Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. Portraits of Navy SEALs killed in helicopter crash The families of these deceased heroes have been stonewalled by the Obama Department of Defense and the Obama National Security Agency in disrespect over their sons unexplained tragic deaths. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. the seal team 6 crash is just tying up loose ends for their crimes. Doug Hamburger, whose son Patrick was killed, called the incident an ambush that could have been prevented. 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. On April 29, 2011, President Barack Obama authorized a small special operations team, known as SEAL Team Six, to carry out a raid on the compound. He pushed hard on the cyclic stick to tilt the helicopter forward. Some of those Seals were members of Seal Team 6 that took part in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, the AP reported today; although they were not actual participants in the Pakistan raid, according to the New York Times. 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 guy was incredibly skilled.. "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 Obama administration is violating a judges order to turn over documents in the Aug. 6, 2011, shootdown of a U.S. helicopter call sign Extortion 17 that killed members of SEAL Team 6 in Afghanistan, a watchdog group is charging. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. The insurgents had no way of knowing the helicopter would be coming in, at the speed it was coming and at the altitude, Darack said. No family members were allowed to testify. Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed former Al. He would not have hesitated to fly with any of them. They dont even produce under their own self-imposed deadline, Mr. Klayman told The Washington Times. The Pentagon on Thursday identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and. Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. On board were 22 Navy SEALs, rushing to support troops in firefight. The helicopter plunged tail first. And needless to say, it was the real Bin Laden who was killed, not an incredible facsimile. There are no survivors. More than 20 Navy Seals died in the helicopter crash that killed 31 in Afghanistan yesterday. They fail to mention it was Saudis who orchestrated 9/11, yet he elected to go after Iraq and Afghanistan. Add in the fact that more sophisticated foreign intelligence agents are on the ground, with signals intelligence assets and deep pockets, and you have a recipe for a plot. Karen Vaughn says she wants to know why her son Aaron and his team were not using special operations aircraft which have defenses in place to help allow helicopters to go deep behind enemy lines. The entire operation, which lasted only 40 minutes from start to finish, was the culmination of years of calculated planning and training. Our families are in danger,' " Vaughn recalled. Military officers interviewed by investigators said they could not recall an IRF ever being sent for such a mission. As is routine on such missions, two Apache attack helicopters provided extra cover and security for Extortion 17, while circling above was an AC-130 aircraft, a gunship that also provides surveillance. The investigation of events surrounding the crash of a C H-47D Chinook , call sign Extortion 17, took military command officials just two months to complete. They were part of his command. It was a hard landing, but it would have been worse if they had landed tail first. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 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. Every mission is potentially life-threatening. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved, the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. Michael Savage: SEAL Team 6 was assassinated, executed 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. 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. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. On July 25, a Chinook was hit by a rocket propelled grenade fired by the Taliban. 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 . List of operations conducted by SEAL Team Six - Wikipedia The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Almost 10 years after 9/11, here's what led to the death of Osama bin Laden. "President Karzai expressed his deep condolences because of this incident and expressed his sympathy to Barack Obama.". Mr. Klayman said the NSA has agreed to provide some information. NATO Crash: Communities Mourn Loss of Troops Killed in Afghanistan As reported on by The Daily Beast, Trump retweeted a message posted by an account called Oscar the Midnight Rider 1111, which alleges that Hiden Biden and Obama may have had Seal team 6 killed! Nigerians await election results in competitive race. JSOC and aviation commanders, prepared for virtually any outcome, quickly formulated a plan: they would send a team on one helicopter to bolster the Ranger-led force. 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 . She also said the team was hindered by rules of engagement that prohibited their firing on potential targets unless they could see a weapon. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. In addition to the 30 Americans, the official said there were seven Afghan army soldiers and an interpreter on the helicopter. He was too busy. Extortion 17's pilots and crew ranked among the very best military helicopter pilots in the world (Carter had amassed more than 4,000 hours of cockpit time), and the helicopter, a CH-47D, the fastest and one of the most powerful and nimble in the U.S. military, had been maintained to the highest standards. 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. And it even led Robert ONeill, the Trump-supporting Navy Seal who claims to have fired the shot that killed Bin Laden, to tweet that the conspiracy theories both about the Bin Laden double and about the Seals from the raid having been killed arent true. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said.