Really don't get your point about witnesses. I've known and partied with SEALs and know that if there was some grand conspiracy to kill their brothers, they would talk, at least the bachelors would. After re-reading the Washington Times article of May 2011, I'm certain the ROE (Obambi directed) was partially the reason that Chinook went down because they didn't have "gunship" support while going into an obvious hot LZ.
Remember, the Rangers were in an intense firefight. The enemy had the high ground and that's why backup was called in. Why so many SpecOps on one bird I will never understand.
The families are claiming that the more armoured MH-47 Chinook could have saved their SEAL's. That's not correct, because if you hit one of the top rotors, the aircraft goes down - hard. In this case it was a duel top rotor Chinook helo. Don't bother to argue that because I was an aviation rotorhead in my Navy years on LPH-11 (helo amphibious assault ship). I worked with Chinooks, Hueys, Cobras, Sea Stallions, and even VTOL Harriers.
I tend to believe it was the Aftganis who alerted the ragheads in the valley that backup was on the way for the Rangers. Or some stupid bastard got a luck shot because their were so many of them in the rocks. It happens. Remember "Black Hawk Down"? Those Somali savages brought down 2 of our Black Hawks with RPG's.
Ask a wounded warrior at Walter Reed hospital or near you how their buddies got killed or wounded. Most times they will tell you it was road mine or an ambush that couldn't be foreseen. Ask a Viet Nam air pilot how often our Hueys were shot down by lucky shots.
People try to make sense of war, and although I've never been on the ground I know many who have and the first thing they will tell you is to expect the expected. It's called, "Fog of War". Shit absolutely happens every day in combat. I don't believe that Obambi tipped off the Taliban to shoot this Chinook down. There would be too many in the chain-of-command who would be screaming it to high heaven, even with him firing so many flag officers of late. The further down the chain you go, the more non-political the military is.
Just accept the fact that commanders make mistakes; the enemy gets lucky; the CiC makes political wrong ROE; and shit happens even in training exercises. We experience more deaths and injuries in training than most people realize. They don't get reported because they're not in a war zone.
Bless our men and women in the Armed Forces. And let our leadership stop sending them to arms in a the savage area of the Middle East.
It's nothing more than a Zippo lighter with more fuel in it, and the only things left would be the engines, gearboxes, and rotor hubs when they crash since they are mostly made of magnesium.