But no one died. Two investigations of the incident proved inconclusive. Whether enemy fire brought down the Chinook or a tree strike would never be known for sure. For Lee, there was no time to reflect on how close he had come to dying. The tempo of the missions did not decrease. Neither did the risk he and his pilots faced every night. Six weeks later, at around p. But Tahir and a group of his fighters escaped. Darack did extensive research of what happened next.
The Chinook headed to a different landing zone than the first assault team -- one in the narrowest part of the Tangi Valley. So the whole team went in one Chinook helicopter -- Extortion As is routine on such missions, two Apache attack helicopters provided extra cover and security for Extortion 17, while circling above was an AC aircraft, a gunship that also provides surveillance.
Nearby, there were two enemy fighters with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The first grenade missed Extortion Around a. Fallen Angel. The RPG that struck Extortion 17 threw the helicopter into an uncontrollable spin. The shootdown was the single, deadliest loss of U.
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. The helicopter crashed into a creek bed and a flash flood shortly afterward washed away some parts of the wreckage. But the CHD has neither a flight nor voice recorder, only an engine performance data recorder for maintenance. He was too busy.
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. There was a lot of experience in that cockpit, the flight engineers and the door gunners. It was a good crew, it really was. One of the best crews in my company. Lee remained in Afghanistan flying combat missions for another eight months before returning home in the spring of Caring is more than just slapping a bumper sticker on your car, he said.
It means being informed. As for himself, he speaks out about Extortion 17 because he wants to remember the men on that mission. On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet with the names of the five crew members of Extortion David Tarrant. Enterprise writer at The Dallas Morning News.
Telling stories about ordinary people involved in extraordinary events is his passion. He has written about soldiers returning home from war and the mental health crisis facing young people. Additionally, the compound was designed to obscure lines of sight from multiple directions. Using night-vision goggles power on the street had been cut off , the SEALs infiltrated the compound, killing anyone who put up resistance, securing the women and children, clearing weapons stashes and barricades, and taking anything that could contain secret information, including hard drives and cell phones.
The SEALs quickly made their way up to the third floor, where they found the terrorist leader in his bedroom and killed him. Accounts of how this happened differ, depending on the source. SEAL Matt Bissonnette , who entered the room at the same time and wrote about the operation in the book No Easy Day , also claims to have fired shots into bin Laden's fallen body.
In any case, there was no doubt about the outcome of the mission when the SEAL team leader radioed in, "For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo," thus declaring the raid a success. From beginning to end, the operation had taken less than 40 minutes. Using known photos and facial recognition software, as well as measuring the corpse, CIA specialists were able to determine with percent certainty that the body was that of Osama bin Laden. Other specialists in the intelligence community performed initial DNA analysis, which resulted in a virtual percent DNA match of the body against DNA of several bin Laden family members.
Bin Laden was buried at sea. Be sure to get the latest news about the U. Subscribe to Military. Twenty-nine of the forty-four men who have served as our nation's commander-in-chief have military backgrounds themselves Want to train for special operations? Training for the PT test is not enough. Click here for more.
Accessed 14 Oct Bade, Rachel. Borden, Emma. Colt, Jeffrey N. Darack, Ed. War in Afghanistan. Fichera, Angelo. Gowdy, Trey. Former U. Email to FactCheck. Khait, Anna. Hale Spencer, Saranac. Murray, Michael. Noe, Nicholas. Phone interview with FactCheck. Happy birthday USNavy.
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