Regarding the downing of Extortion 17, all of the DEVGRU Operators aboard were members of the Gold Squadron. 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. We were on goggles the whole time. Commanders frequently request CH-47 Chinooks to insert troops. The workhorse in Army aviation, the tandem rotor, heavy-lift Chinook helicopter is used for carrying troops, equipment, supplies and even the mail. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. There are more operations than can be supported by the 160th at any given time," says Major Matthew Brady, a former 160th pilot and company commander. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. He said, "And now, to our honor roll of American Service Personnel killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? The hardest LZ Id ever been into, Lee said. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. Extortion 17 and 16 weren't MH-47s and their crews were not Night Stalkers. 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 He would eventually do two tours and become commander of a Chinook unit during his second deployment in 2011. Photo by Jake Simkin for Coffee or Die Magazine. According to his book, No Easy Day (detailing his participation in Operation Neptune Spear), Mark Owen (the pen name of former SEAL Operator Matt Bissonnette) stated that nearly all of the Operators on that mission were handpicked from Red Squadron. He was probably in the top 1 percent of Army aviators, Lee said. [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. In light of that raids success, the shootdown of Extortion 17 incited a flurry of conspiracy theories: The Taliban were tipped off; it was a trap; it was retribution for the killing. All three airmen were assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Field, North Carolina. Photo: We pay Tribute Chief Petty Officer Nicholas H. Null Operation Extortion 17 August 6, 2011 You may leave a condolence for his family on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/L2lB37qizaI Comebacks Photo Photo: We pay Tribute to Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills Operation Extortion 17 August 6, 2011 Battalion Regiment Warrant Officer As they made their approach, there was a line of thunderstorms nearby. This hearing also serves to unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, which is the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special op-erations personnel. It was reported that the Taliban fighters had no information of the helicopter's flight path and that they had been in the right place at the right time. Early life 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. 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. [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. Cookie Policy At the flight controls were David R. Carter of the Colorado Army National Guard and copilot Bryan J. Nichols, a Kansas-based Army reservist. Oct 26, 2016 - Explore Concerned Citizen's board "EXTORTION 17", followed by 829 people on Pinterest. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. With a keen understanding of the propaganda value of downing Coalition helicopters, the Taliban single them out as targets. Not feelin it! A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. Stock photos, 360 images, vectors and videos 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. 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 crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. Why was the black box missing from the crash site? On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. Lee and his friend Bryan Nichols flew their Chinook into battle several times the first night, dropping off troops at a landing zone (LZ) almost 10,000 feet above sea level. At 23:30, one of the Apache support helicopters engaged in a brief skirmish with a different group of eight Taliban fighters 400m (440yd) north of the compound, killing six. When tactical conditions allow, they initiate operations by calling out enemy forces. But we are still sending people to another country to fight, and we need to understand why were doing that, he said. Ryan Last. 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. 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 . The crash claimed the lives of 38 personnel, including 22 special operations forces in Afghanistan Aug. 6, 2011. A junior, he was ready to fight, but the war would be over, he figured, before he even got out of college. Please take a moment and pause to honor and remember these heroes. When the auto-complete results are available, use the up and down arrows to review and Enter to select. 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. I didnt want to die., He remembered the words of his old flight instructor: Never stop flying the aircraft.. During the Ranger insertion earlier that night, the CH-47D had approached from the south; this time, it approached from the northwest. [26], The U.S. military helicopter carrying special operations forces to a night-raid in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, according to military officials. Courtesy . The article stated that the helicopter crashed after an RPG round impacted the aft rotor assembly. 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. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. Since the shootdown of Extortion 17, the military has continued to gain vital experience and equipment to enable an ever greater understanding of an enemy force, aiming to know every combatant and potential combatant and his weapon system before a raid. For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. A Taliban fighter shot the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade and all aboard were killedthe single greatest loss of American life in the Afghan war. August 6, 2022 marks 11 years since Extortion 17. Some news stories reported that investigators couldnt find the helicopters black box, referring to the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. At 01:00, they decided to engage the group with the SEAL reserves. Air & Space/Smithsonian contributing editor Ed Darack is the author of The Warriors of Anbar; War Moments; The Final Mission of Extortion 17; Victory Point; and three other books. 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. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. When the Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopter was hit, all 38 onboard were instantly killed. 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. They heard a helicopter coming, they grabbed their RPGs, and they fired in quick succession, Darack said. Photo by Sgt. The 30 American deaths represent the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the decade-long war in Afghanistan that began in 2001. 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. Campbell was one of 30. He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. 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. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. [39], Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces in April 2011, Tangi valley became a major staging area for attacks on Kabul (located just 60 miles away). Every mission is potentially life-threatening. The 30 American Servicemen killed in action (KIA) with the downing of Extortion 17. The Taliban shot at the Chinooks all the time with RPGs and rifles, Darack said. Director Franois Garcia Writer Sandeep Panesar Stars Robert O'Neill (archive footage) Patricia Economo Enrique Garcia Play FALLEN ANGEL Call Sign: Extortion 17. Sgt. The helicopter fell from the sky, killing all 38 on board. LZ is ice, transmitted one of the Rangers on the ground, indicating the landing zone was free of enemy activity. Its the worst day in our history by a mile.. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lees closest friends in the Chinook company. Senior Chief Robert James Reeves was one of those Americans. 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? He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment(General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Staff Sgt. Why did it happen? Terms of Use 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 second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. The following passage, published in The Navy Times, seems to support that assertion. Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Vaughn was one of the SEAL Team 6 operators who died in the crash. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion 17. [11], By 16:25, all of the remains were taken from the crash site via ground convoy and transported to Combat Outpost Sayyid Abad. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. Tragically, as Extortion 17 was nearing its landing zone, Taliban fighters, hidden in a building, fired two or three rocket-propelled grenades at close range, leaving the pilot no chance to perform evasive maneuvers. | That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. One AH-64 crew, after identifying the men as enemy combatants, fired on them with their gunships 30mm cannon, killing six. At 31 U.S. military personnel killed, the shoot down of Extortion 17 represents the greatest single-incident loss of U.S. lives in Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan, surpassing the 16. In June 2005, a rocket-propelled grenade connected with the rear transmission of a 160th MH-47E Chinook as it attempted to come to a hover, downing it; all 16 on board were killed. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. Another tactic sometimes employed by gunships, according to Glover, is a show of force, in which pilots and crew fire into an empty field or stand of trees just before a transport helicopter prepares to land, using the sound of a gun alone to keep enemy heads down and fingers off triggers. 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. It was brought down by multiple shots. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue/Arlington National Cemetery/released). In this week in military history, we explore the aerial attack on a U.S. Army helicopter with the call sign "Extortion 17" in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011. August 2011 Attack on U.S. That assault team captured Tahirs compound and some of his men. Don Brown, a former U.S. Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United . Gold Star father Bill Vaughn had a heartfelt message to American "leaders" while discussing a documentary that investigates the Extortion 17 helicopter crash in Afghanistan. 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. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. The previous highest U.S. death toll from a single incident in the war came from a rocket attack on a Chinook helicopter carrying Navy SEALs during Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005. Darack did extensive research of what happened next. The theories suggest that Afghan forces leaked information to the Taliban about the mission. The shootdown was the single, deadliest loss of U.S. forces in the war. The official statement from U.S. Central Command stated that a Taliban fighter scored a lucky shot with a rocket-propelled grenade. First, the Obama administration's Defense Department's crash report stated that there were no eyes in the sky over the Chinook . See more ideas about extortion, navy seals, seal team 6. Why did it happen? Find the perfect extortion 17 stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Extortion 17 could be a bigger scandal and betrayal of Americans than Benghazi. Advertising Notice One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. [34] Kevin Sieff and Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post reported that U.S. officials confirmed the deaths, including 22 SEALs. 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. May God give them the strength to carry on without them. Several minutes later, a 20-man Pathfinder team (specializing in downed-aircraft rescue and recovery) arrived at the site. A source from the Navys special operations community described the reaction as Shock and disbelief. They reached the site at 04:12 and found no survivors. 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 . 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. Ed Darack March 2015 The Chinook's cargo capacity, speed,. On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. 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. The pilots and crew of Extortion 17, however, had ideal experience and abilities for the mission that night. Pinterest. The vast majority miss. It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. 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.[5][22][15][23]. Extortion 17 August 6, 2022 marks 11 years since Extortion 17. 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. American forces continued to carry out operations in the area (mostly via helicopter and using special forces), encountering resistance from Taliban fighters on several occasions. 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. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten. It also became one of the most devastating death tolls of the U.S. Special Operations Forces. All hand picked by Red Squadron really makes your neck hair standup! Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. God sees you, You do see that A-12(1963! The aircraft jerked. American intelligence officials identified this individual as "OBJECTIVE GINOSA." I thought I hit a tree,he said. Bissonnette also said that there was one DEVGRU Operator on the mission who was not a member of Red Squadron and that he was chosen for the mission because of his linguistic abilities. This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. And now, the government wants to make the Taliban legitamet. This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. 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. Sgt. God bless all of them- the bravest of the brave. In March 2002, two MH-47s were downed by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire while close to ground level. 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?? "[30], On 12 August 2011, Jim Lehrer of the PBS NewsHour announced that he would report the Honor Roll at the end of the program with names and photographs of all 30 men. Lees second deployment started in May of 2011. 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. #neverforgotten #screwedbygovt #demmandanswers. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. To address some unanswered questions, the committee received briefings, classified and unclassified, on the operational component leading up to the loss of the 30 servicemen and eight Afghan nationals and the postmortem handling of the 30 American servicemen on Extortion 17. The "had Seal team 6 killed" is a likely reference to what's known as the "Extortion 17" incident, the August 2011 tragedy in which a Chinook military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan,. Extortion 17 and 16 werent MH-47s and their crews were not Night Stalkers. For example, on 8 June 2011 another Chinook helicopter was engaged from five to six locations (i.e., points of origin) with 14 rocket-propelled grenades, forcing the crew to abort their mission. 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. Find the perfect extortion17 stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. According to officials, the team included 17 SEALs, five Navy special operations troops who support the SEALs, three Air Force airmen, a five-member Army air crew and a military dog, along with. The helicopters are capacious and fast, and they can perform well in Afghanistans performance-degrading high altitudes and heat. Theyre going after in very hostile environments, who know the terrain very well, who know the battlescape very well, Darack said. Yesterday, the Pentagon released the names of the 30 troops-- Navy SEALs, soldiers, and airmen, killed in the helicopter downed by Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan last weekend. The forward rotor system then tore off, stressed by the imbalance and the strain of carrying what would normally be a shared load. Chance is still part of the battlefield, says Brady. NFTs Simplified > Uncategorized > extortion 17 crash photos. He knew the pilots and crew members aboard Extortion 17. For the last two years, hes been an attorney with the law firm Jackson Walker. Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. The helicopter carrying the SEALs proceeded to the landing zone alone, without external lighting. The remaining two fighters ducked into a stand of trees and disappeared from the Apaches infrared scanners. Thirty-eight boarded Extortion 17 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilots from the 159th General Support Aviation Battalion. The second round struck one of the three aft rotor blades of the helicopter, destroying the aft rotor assembly. It does not fly in a straight line, and there is no way to know what exact path it will takejust a fairly good idea of its trajectory.. The landing zone had been examined for a previous mission but had not yet been used. 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. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. The United States military continually works to improve protection for transport helicopters and their occupants, according to Glover and Brady. 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 . So the whole team went in one Chinook helicopter Extortion 17. Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan. 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. It is also the most disastrous incident in the. There is a lot of controversy and discussion regarding the operators from the Gold Squadron who died abroad. 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. Enterprise. Winds whipped through the fir trees. Today. She had just given birth to their first child. The shooters origin remains a mystery. The next night, the pair had orders to drop off more troops in the same spot. 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 . [42], In 2017, Air Force captain Joni Marquez, the firing officer on an AC-130 gunship that had accompanied Extortion 17 on the final flight, made a similar claim. As they started their descent, Lee heard a loud popping noise. At 2:36 a.m., Extortion 17 requested an infrared spotlight, visible only through night vision goggles, to illuminate the landing zone. [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. The Joint Combat Assessment Team report further noted that despite a robust deck of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, none identified the location from which the shooters fired prior to the helicopter downing. [9][11], Six minutes later, the Rangers concluded securing the compound, detained several people and began to move on foot toward the crash site. This group grew in number over the course of the night, but American forces were at first too preoccupied to engage. A body went into the ocean, but Ill bet it wasnt Bin Ladens. )/SR-71 blackbird cloud behind the chinook; saying thats safe distance! Privacy Statement There is still a tremendous level of chance for a tragedy of such huge magnitude.. Forces Killed in Helicopter Crash", "30 Americans Killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash", "Pentagon names 30 Americans killed in downed Afghan chopper", "Pentagon releases names of 30 Americans killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash", "22 Navy SEALs among 30 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan as NATO helicopter is shot down", "30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, killed in Afghan copter crash", "Names of Afghan Helicopter Attack Victims Released", "The OBJECTIVE GINOSA strike Payback for the shootdown of Extortion 17", "Military killed Taliban who downed US helicopter", "Afghan soldiers enter a Taliban nest without U.S. troops by their side", "Congress to probe lethal crash that killed SEAL Team 6 members", "A retired Air Force captain says Pentagon covered up real cause of deadly chopper crash", "A Retired Air Force Captain Says Pentagon Covered Up Real Cause of Deadly Chopper Crash", "Rules of Engagement Are a Dilemma for U.S. 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. An official investigation found no evidence of a pre-planned ambush, though it did suggest that other helicopter activity in the area could have tipped off Taliban fighters that more helicopters could be approaching, according to the report. It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005. Planners then chose a new landing zone for the IRF, but it was large enough to accommodate only one Chinook. The helicopter crashed less than 5 seconds later, killing all 38 people on board. The night before he left to go to Fort Hood, where he would board a plane to Afghanistan, the biggest event of the 10-year war occurred: Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan during a raid by Navy SEALs. Immediately after Ryan shared an intimate photo of his own, the cybercriminal demanded $5,000, threatening to make the photo public and send it to Ryan's family and friends. "It's a math problem. Naval Special Warfare support personnel, two EOD technicians, one MWD Handler, one Cryptologic technician, and one Information systems technician. Explore. I am so proud to be an American and I thank all of the families left behind to mourn their loss. [9][11], Meanwhile, the group of Taliban fighters split in two. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Florida, Staff Sgt. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of. Intelligence on August 6th indicated Qari Tahir was in Tangi Valley, just a short helicopter flight from the SEAL base camp. Many of these SEALs were made famous, credited with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Seven Afghan National Army commandos and one Afghan civilian interpreter were also killed in the crash. At 02:15, one group of three Taliban fighters took a position in a stand of trees; the remaining six or seven men entered a building located some 2km (1.2mi) from the target compound. 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. [41] At the subsequent hearing in February 2014, Pentagon representative Garry Reid defended the decision to undertake the mission and denied that the Taliban had any advance knowledge of it. We were supporting special operations, but not to the degree of the 160th. Then they have to stick the landing. 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.

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