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Naval Special Warfare Development Groups (DEVGRU) Gold Squadron, No Easy Day (detailing his participation in Operation Neptune Spear), Mark Owen, congressional oversight committee held a hearing on February 27, 2014, 7 Afghan National Army Commandos, part of the Afghan National Army. These are the words of Billy Vaughn. 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. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. The military has worked diligently to more tightly integrate gunship escorts with transport craft, according to Brady. August 6, 2017 marks the 6 year anniversary of the downing of Extortion 17, a bigger scandal than Benghazi in large part due to the fact that America lost 30 of its military personnel, including 17 Navy SEALs, the largest loss of life in the Afghan war. Cart. [22][20] Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that eight of the movement's fighters had been killed in the assault on the compound. 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. So where did it go?? 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. Early life In fact, the conflict was heating up. 29 Photos Documentary 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. Copyright 2023 | National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, The Museum is a 501(c)(3) organization. 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 circumstances surrounding the events of Extortion 17 are tragic. It would never return. The helicopters are capacious and fast, and they can perform well in Afghanistans performance-degrading high altitudes and heat. That June, the U.S. military launched Operation Hammer Down to drive out insurgents entrenched in remote strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. As Extortion 17 moved into final approach of the target area at 0238 local time, the Rangers on the ground watched in horror as it took a direct hit from an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). by FighterSweep Staff Apr 25, 2017 Retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez is claiming the Pentagon hid the truth and lied about the circumstances that led to a Chinook helicopter crash that. Faced with the possibility of confronting nine or 10 Taliban fighters, planners increased the reinforcement team from 17 to 32 men, formed around the 15-man SEAL group. "[31][32] NBC News reported that the Pentagon released the names of the 30 Americans killed. BUT the Chief Command and those who elected him will pay for there failure to seek Yahwahs guidance before going to war or to vote for a new president! 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. 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. On this night, Aug. 6, 2011, something went terribly wrong. 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. The missions commanders decided to insert another team to go after Tahir while the Rangers held the compound. He said that insurgents had assumed a strong tactical position without knowledge of the helicopter's flight path. Or when something went terribly wrong. When asked what lessons Americans can draw from the crash of Extortion 17, Lees answer is simple: Americans should care about what happens in Afghanistan because theyve sent Americans to war there. Directors Karl Horstmann Stephen Spivey Writer Stephen Spivey Stars Sean Hannity Raj Kala The Tangi Valley is a strategic terrain that connects the two primary highways that lead to Kabul. The first grenade missed Extortion 17. He was also an instructor at the High Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (see Triple Threat: High, Hot, and Heavy, Aug. 2014), where many U.S. and foreign helicopter pilots train for mountainous and high-altitude flying, often before deployment to Afghanistan. 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. This tactic was highly successful; hundreds of operations were conducted without firing a shot for years. [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. The second round struck one of the three aft rotor blades of the helicopter, destroying the aft rotor assembly. They are not the same SEALs, and these two events are not connected to one another. (Smithsonian Books, September 2017). The Chinook headed to a different landing zone than the first assault team one in the narrowest part of the Tangi Valley. The aircraft jerked. 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel from the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. Intelligence on August 6th indicated Qari Tahir was in Tangi Valley, just a short helicopter flight from the SEAL base camp. 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 crash is referred to as Extortion 17 by the callsign of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter involved in the crash. The second shot hit the rear tail rotor assembly. 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. Are all DEVGRUs saved in a sperm bank? He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Tech. Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. At 01:00, they decided to engage the group with the SEAL reserves. He is the founder of Darack Research, a company that innovates unmanned systems, which grew out of his July 2014 Air & Space article Build Your Own Drone. American intelligence officials identified this individual as "OBJECTIVE GINOSA." Were handing rifles to 20-year-olds and asking them to shoot people. To reach the crash site, one must wind slowly through the ancient, narrow streets of the villages of Logar to reach the Tangi Valley in Wardak. Extortion 17 and its 38 occupants would not return. 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. The helicopter made its last radio transmission stating that it was one minute away from the landing zone, then descended to an altitude of 100150ft (3046m) and slowed to a speed of 50kn (58mph; 93km/h) as it approached the landing zone. Available for both RF and RM licensing. 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. Learnt of this today, very surprising after ladens raid was covered in the media here. I had to learn how to land while browned-out, wearing NVGs, on the side of a mountain or an uneven field, Lee said. Two of the SEALs were from a West Coast SEAL unit, but the others were from the Gold Squadron of Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, sometimes known as SEAL Team 6, said the NSW source.. On board the Chinook CH-47D were 15 members of SEAL Team Six, 15 SEAL Team Six Support personnel, 1 Bomb Dog, 7 . 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. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said. [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). [35] The Seattle Times and The New York Times also reported this information. Winds whipped through the fir trees. We continue our work at the Museum so that theirservice and sacrifice will never be forgotten. The reality is, every time a helicopter lifts off the ground in a war zone, it might get shot down, Darack said. 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]. On the Extortion 17 crash, credible journalism was produced on this subject by Ed Darack in his book, "The Final Mission of Extortion 17." The SEALs who died in the crash belonged to Gold Squadron, while the SEALs who killed bin Laden belonged to Red Squadron. Its crazy how many times I can think of where me or the guys I was with had to do that.. He said, "And now, to our honor roll of American Service Personnel killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and . At that moment, Extortion 17 slowed to 58 mph, at no more than 150 feet, approaching a spot framed by trees and mud-brick huts, and "sparkled" by the infrared designator on an AC-130 gunship. A senior Afghan government official, speaking anonymously, said that Taliban commander Qari Tahir had fed American forces false information about a meeting of insurgent leaders and fighters waited for the helicopter from both sides of a steep valley: "The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take. 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. One of the things I vowed, I will never forget. 1h 33m "A U.S. Army helicopter carrying 30 Americans, most members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6 is shot down in Afghanistan. [11], In 2013, Congressman Jason Chaffetz said that he would hold an investigation of the United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security into the matter. He taught helicopter pilots how to fly in high altitudes at an aviation training site in Colorado. 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. 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. Those killed ranked among the worlds most highly trained and experienced commandos, including 15 men from Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, popularly called SEAL Team 6. Cookie Settings, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds. The helicopter plunged tail first. 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. 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. Terms of Use 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. 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. To find answers to many of the outstanding questions regarding Extortion 17, a congressional oversight committee held a hearing on February 27, 2014. Their target: an Afghan named Qari Tahir and his group of fighters. So many unsettling details are coalescing with the resurgence of Extortion 17. [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. Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Vaughn was one of the SEAL Team 6 operators who died in the crash. He presents the Final Flight of EXTORTION 17 (spoken one seven and seventeen), like a Defense Attorney or an investigator. I thought I hit a tree,he said. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Chinook is often used to assist in disaster relief, delivering food and water after earthquakes and floods. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. All of them were men of courage, integrity, and honor. On such missions, the Chinook pilots nearly always fly at night, wearing night vision goggles, or NVGs. U.S. Navy Seals 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. Extortion 17 BRIAN BILL FOUNDATION 31 MILE RUCK FOR THE 31 HEROES OF EXTORTION 17 IN WASHINGTON, DC AUGUST 3, 2019 On 6 August 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. "[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. One of the engines flew off, and the other caught fire. The co-pilot, Bryan Nichols, was one of Lees closest friends in the Chinook company. [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. The crash occurred in Tangi Joi Zareen, in the district of Sayd Abad in Wardak Province after it was struck by an. Sgt. A hearing was set to get answers to questions surrounding the high-profile shoot-down of an American helicopter in Afghanistan and how the remains of the fallen service members were handled. Naval Special Warfare support personnel: Two, 3 U.S. Army Reserve personnel (Aircrew) from the, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 20:01. While Benghazi resulted in four American deaths, Extortion 17 resulted in 38 deaths, including nearly two dozen Navy SEALs. But the CH-47D has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. [2][38], On 10 August 2011, the U.S. military stated that the insurgent who fired the rocket-propelled grenade had been killed only two days afterward in an F-16 airstrike, saying only that intelligence gained on the ground provided "a high degree of confidence" that the person was among those killed in the airstrike from two days earlier, but providing no other details. He grew up in Tyler, went to Texas A&M;, joined the Corps of Cadets and stared in shock at the news that two planes slammed into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Campbell was one of 30 Americans killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, with the call sign Extortion 17, crashed in Afghanistan. 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. Lees second deployment started in May of 2011. 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. American signals intelligence aircraft intercepted these transmissions and subsequently tracked the individual and his accomplice. unfolded that night are commonly referred to as Extortion 17, which is the call sign for the helicopter transporting the special op-erations personnel. [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 incident became known as "Extortion 17" after the helicopter . There's also that little issue that came up when 6 Navy SEALs' funerals were conducted by a Muslim Cleric that condemned them to Hell during the service. "Over two years after Extortion 17 was shot down, the families still have these unanswered questions," said Klayman. 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. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. The guy was incredibly skilled.. Extortion 17 is a name etched in our minds as one of the worst losses our military has ever experienced. The Chinook smashed into the ground, the force ripping off his goggles. The landing zone was small, and the commanders didnt want to split up the strike force. The helicopter fell from the sky, killing all 38 on board. Lee heard the call, and he knew what it meant. One of the best crews in my company. "All of this raises the distinct possibility of a cover-up as to . The shooters origin remains a mystery. 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. Theyre going after in very hostile environments, who know the terrain very well, who know the battlescape very well, Darack said. August 6, 2017 marks six years since 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter call sign Extortion 17 was shot down in Afghanistan. The Afghan soldiers were an essential part of the package; they were trained to move with our forces to the target. 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. We had guys who had flown in Desert Storm, guys who had just come off active duty, Lee said. It is also the most disastrous incident in the. June 5, 2022 Posted by: Category: Uncategorized; No Comments . Explore. On August 6th, 2011, the helicopter was fired upon and shot down by a previously undetected group of Taliban fighters. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, Wash. [25][original research? 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. The following was transcribed from the above video press conference. 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. 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 . John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Florida, Staff Sgt. Why did it happen? While the goggles are better than nothing, they turn everything green, distort depth perception and limit peripheral vision. He was assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas, Spc. The forward rotor system then tore off, stressed by the imbalance and the strain of carrying what would normally be a shared load. Sat 6 Aug 2011 19.08 EDT. 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 . For the last two years, hes been an attorney with the law firm Jackson Walker. So if there was a added black box installed on this Aircraft there should be a maintenance record? 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. The mission was flown by conventional pilots flying unmodified CH-47Ds. Their target was a Taliban commander responsible for ambushes and other attacks against U.S. and Afghan forces. Landing in deserts or mountainsides, the helicopter rotors kick up clouds of sand and dust, causing brownouts that can blind a pilot. He finished his contract with the Army shortly afterward, and that September enrolled in Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. The IRF commander then made a critical decision: In order to get everyone on the ground as quickly as possible and deny the Taliban time to react, he ordered the entire force to fly in Extortion 17. Hs unit called itself Extortion Company. One of his Chinooks, flying under the call sign Extortion 17 (one-seven), was tasked with the special operations mission the night of Aug. 6. During the Ranger insertion earlier that night, the CH-47D had approached from the south; this time, it approached from the northwest. Get the latest in military news, entertainment and gear in your inbox daily. Cookie Policy extortion 17 crash photos. 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.. 2017 The Dallas Morning News. Justin Buddy Lee will never forget that night six years ago. Monday, 06 August 2012, marks one year since the tragic downing of EXTORTION 17 in Tangi, Afghanistan. The conspiracy theories didnt bother Lee at first. Today. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 . The helicopter carrying the SEALs proceeded to the landing zone alone, without external lighting. . Thirty Americans perished in the blink of an eye, half of which comprised an entire 'troop' from SEAL Team 6's Gold Squadron. 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. 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. It just wasnt.. [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." The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. Photo by Sgt. 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. 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. 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. This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. At any moment, they could come under rocket attack. The shoot-down of 'Extortion 17' constitutes the greatest loss of American life from a single battle in the history of the Afghanistan War. The theories suggest that Afghan forces leaked information to the Taliban about the mission. Instead, two rigorous U. S. military investigations followed every moment of the mission to determine what went wrong on Extortion 17s final flight. For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), Aurora, Colorado, Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Nichols, 31, of Hays, Kan. Tangi valley remained under Taliban control until April 2013, when more than 1,000 Afghan security forces personnel launched an offensive in an effort to clear the area of Taliban fighters. [11][12], As the Rangers approached the target compound, ISR aircraft observed several people leaving the compound. This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since the Afghan War started in 2001. Ed Darack March 2015 The Chinook's cargo capacity, speed,. I will never forget what they did, he said. We were told at that time we were the first unit to make it through a rotation without having anyone killed.. )/SR-71 blackbird cloud behind the chinook; saying thats safe distance! Ill try to reply the best I can. As he did, he felt the craft leveling off. Carter and Nichols continued the descent. Some 30 seconds later, one of the AH-64 Apache helicopters in the area reported: Fallen Angel.. Qari Tahir, the man our forces were attempting to capture or kill on August 5, 2011, isone of many Taliban leaders who dedicate their lives to a corrupt agenda that seeks to eliminate freedom, equality, and prosperity in exchange for a medieval society built on violent extremism and wanton destruction. Burn is on, they radioed. Its like taking a paper towel roll, cutting it in half and strapping it to your eye, Lee said. 2 U.S. Army personnel from the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment, part of the Colorado Army National Guard, PO1 John Douangdara & Navy SEAL Dog Bart, Of the 22 NSW members killed, 17 were SEALs, and five were direct support personnel, according to the source in the NSW community. Why did it happen? 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. The 30 Navy SEALs and other Special Forces personnel, along with the Helicopter flight crew because American Military and Political leaders threw these men under the bus the enemy was driving and then covered it all up with lies and deceit. Please take a moment and pause to honor and remember these heroes. ", "Taliban laid trap for Chinook: official", "Honor Roll: Remembering the 30 U.S. [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]. Its almost always a miss.. 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. The quick reaction force included SEAL Team 6 and other special operations personnel. The Extortion 17 chopper was part of Operation Neptune Spear a few months earlier. The two military investigations, one conducted by United States Central Command and one by the multi-service Joint Combat Assessment Team, pored over the details of the crash with excruciating focus and concluded that no planners or participants bore any fault regarding the circumstances leading to the shootdown of Extortion 17. Rest in peace, gentlemen; you will not be forgotten. 2 U.S. Navy SEALs from a west coast-based SEAL team. A Department of Defense official asserted that there were no leaks from the Afghans. 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. Six weeks into his deployment, Lee experienced his worst day as a helicopter pilot to that point. 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.