Oops, this content can't be loadedbecause you're having connectivity problems, Stay always informed and up to date with our breaking news alerts, - The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 5, 2015. It wasnt preventable. A silhouette of a. Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Vaughn was one of the SEAL Team 6 operators who died in the crash. The guy was incredibly skilled.. Led by firebrand Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Congress is to launch an official investigation into the mysterious helicopter crash that killed several members of the Navy SEAL team 6 in Afghanistan in 2011. Chinooks are American forces' preferred helicopters in Afghanistan because they are powerful enough fly over mountains while carrying a full complement of troops. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. It was a good crew, it really was. DevGru is an emblem of U.S. military power, known worldwide. SEAL TEAM SIX - Extortion 17 EXPOSED theunitedwest 15.8K subscribers Subscribe 4.7K 394K views Streamed 9 years ago AUGUST 6, 2015 - Today, on the fourth anniversary of the shoot down of. By late 2010, analysts were able to link the courier to a large, highly-secured compound in Abbottabad, a town about 35 miles north of Islamabad. Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. However, it would be a very lucky shot to hit a moving Chinook with an RPG and they typically fly high to avoid such dangers as well as small arms fire. Since the agencys main task is to eavesdrop on phone and Internet messages, it may have recorded communications related to the attack. August 6, 2011 / 6:08 PM / CBS Boston KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A military helicopter was shot down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the. Three months after bin Ladens death, members of the SEAL Team 6 force -- though apparently not the same ones who carried out the bin Laden raid -- were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. In addition to the 30 Americans, the official said there were seven Afghan army soldiers and an interpreter on the helicopter. In addition to killing the man who was considered the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. forces snagged valuable items from the compound during the raid. Were pleading with the judge to do something, and hes just sitting on it., In one of his motions, Mr. Klayman stated: As this Court must be aware, this is not an ordinary Freedom of Information Act case, it involves obtaining records concerning the deaths of Navy SEAL Team 6 and other special operations forces on a mission with the call sign Extortion 17. The operators from SEAL Team Six were flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the same regiment that flew the bin Laden raid. Lee is 36 now, a civil attorney in Dallas, a world away from Afghanistan. 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. The crash killed 38 people, including 15 Navy SEALs. But some say the official report, which contained no direct criticism of decision-makers that day, did not delve deeply enough. The force included seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., he remains obsessively curious about Texans and the Lone Star State culture. But it's often foreign to those who observe combat from afar. 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. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents. Still, SEAL Team Sixs bold raid to take down bin Laden was an extraordinary operation that most experts regard as a resounding success. 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. Six weeks into his deployment, Lee experienced his worst day as a helicopter pilot to that point. He would eventually do two tours and become commander of a Chinook unit during his second deployment in 2011. Conspiracy theories over the years have alleged that President Barack Obama and presumably then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and now Joe Biden had somehow been responsible for the attack, supposedly in order to silence the Seals for something having to do with the Bin Laden raid three months earlier. Its almost always a miss.. 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. Onboard were 17 members of SEAL Team 6; five naval special warfare operators, including one to intercept communications and another to handle Bart the war dog; five Army flight crewmen, including a National Guard and an Army Reserve pilot; and three Air Force personnel. And thats fine; thats what you signed up for, Lee said. Everyone on board died within a fraction of a second30 Americans, eight Afghans and one American military working dog. Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory said: "We share in the grief of all of the families who lost their loved ones. In interviewing Buddy for background research for my book, The Final Mission of Extortion 17, which chronicles the people, events, and circumstances of the downing of Extortion 17, I realized that this tragedy illustrates Buddy's words more convincingly perhaps than any other incident. The incident comes just months after DevGru's raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The crash sent shock waves throughout U.S. special operations. Special forces are very selective on who they partner with, but any collaboration with Afghans opens up U.S. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. And to this day, people are still debating what really happened. No family members were allowed to testify. A catastrophic crash seemed unavoidable. The team was responding to an Army Ranger unit that was engaged in a protracted firefight with Taliban fighters and needed reinforcements. There were guys in a tower. But at least you should care about them and appreciate what were asking of them.. 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. But why? This was preventable only if they just had not taken off that night, Lee said. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated. Hamburger added. Doug Hamburger, whose son Patrick was killed, called the incident an ambush that could have been prevented. He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. Its planners and pilots must use whatever intelligence is available (which is usually pretty thin information, and comes from earlier attacks) to plan the flight route. The alleged hit on SEAL Team 6 is a reference to the downing of a Chinook transport helicopter by insurgents a few months after the bin Laden raid. Still, the one the president retweeted earlier this week may have been the weirdest yet. U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that they believe that . I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. With Robert O'Neill, Patricia Economo, Enrique Garcia, James Obrien. In all 38 troops died after the helicopter was shot down by what a review determined to be a Taliban RPG over Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011. I will never forget what they did, he said. A US helicopter crashed in Afghanistan yesterday killing 31 special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy Seals unit that killed Osama bin Laden. 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 next day, a DNA test confirmed that the body was indeed that of Osama bin Laden. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data. It was an auspicious day for the two enemy fighters. The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. Finally Sells Japan Tomahawk Missiles. All of us know that going into it.". 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. Forces to the threat of spying. Its lawyers have told the judge that the process of locating relevant documents and removing classified information takes time. While the vast majority of attempts to down helicopters failed, the lucky shot that took down Extortion 17 had a precedent. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. "We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied.". But why? They happened to be in the right place at the right time. Originally published August 6, 2011 at 10:50 am Updated August 6, 2011 at 3:16 pm. The helicopter was in great operational shape. There are no survivors. Flying 250 feet above the valley floor at just under 70 miles per hour, Dave Carter, the pilot to the right of Nichols, guided the helicopter toward a carefully chosen landing zone just over a mile away. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 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. Strange. He was too busy. Special forces routinely use helicopters in raids on homes in Afghanistan. Members of Navy SEAL Team Six formed the core of the IRF, with other American special operations personnel and highly-vetted Afghans playing integral roles. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. It's true that members of SEAL Team 6 died tragically in a helicopter crash not long after the Bin Laden mission, but the particular soldiers who perished weren't part of that operation, says O'Neill. When the shock subsided, questions arose and persisted. A man reads the front page of a newspaper featuring the news that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead deep inside Pakistan in a night-time helicopter raid by US covert forces, ending a decade-long manhunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. The last worst one-day U.S. casuality record in Afghanistan was on June 28, 2005 when 16 U.S. soldiers were killed in Kunar province after a helicopter was shot down by Taliban insurgents. Three of the . At that time, this marked deadliest moment in the war in Afghanistan. Get everything off your social media. 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. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. And needless to say, it was the real Bin Laden who was killed, not an incredible facsimile. The military's public contradictions raise more questions than answers. How SEAL Team 6 . It means being informed. The night her son Aaron died, he was in a helicopter that was built in the 1960s and last retrofitted in 1985. 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. They are also pretty tough; the only comparable loss to this one was a Chinook shot down in 2005. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. On the fourth anniversary of the worst one-day loss of military life in the war on terror, families of the dead say they are aghast that the government will not honor basic requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The chopper's manifest. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents in August 2011; many of those killed were part of the same Navy SEAL Team 6 unit that carried out the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound three months . In combat, its mission is to transport large teams of elite assault troops, including Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, to and from the battlefield. 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.