Absolutely incorrect! On a number of accounts (and let's not rehash the American hostage rescue attempt in Iran - it was much closer to being a success then most people think)
You say "beat up"? What exactly are you inferring here? - The fact is their site was overrun by 100 + al Qeade / Taliban fighters - They were engaged and trying to E & E after this initial engagement took place -
"difficult evasion" you suggest - Without a doubt! Thus one of the reason for the Team breaking up - Another quite real possibility is one of the SEALs being wounded during the initial engagement and the others putting him in a hide site and then continuing away from him (drawing fire).
The fact is none of us know exactly what went down and none of us should be questioning any of their judgment! (we were not there!) - These are some of the most skilled warriors in the World, they know their craft inside and out.
To suggest this was any type of clusterfk is simply ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous at this time. The fact is that any of these warriors made it out alive is probably going to be a miracle when all the facts come out (if they do, and that is a big if - the general public still does not know all the facts behind the American hostage rescue attempt in 1980).
Let's continue to pray for the remaining missing SEAL - That we bring him out alive as well - I also hope we did not lose these two other SEALs within the past 24 to 36 hours (because we could not get to them in time).
An additional fact here is that if not for a lucky RPG shot (most likely) the QRF would have probably pulled these SEALs out and none of this entire story would be known.
These SEALs as well as our other U.S. SOF have thousands of successful missions that are never talked about, are never known about. No one should forget this. (or start questioning these same warriors every time a Op doesn't go perfectly).
You do indeed get my drift but I apparently didn't make my "cluster " concern clear. I have all the faith in the world in the guys on the ground---it's the rescue effort that's starting to sound "Carterish". Whoever ordered the rescue had to know whether the squad took fire. They had to know if their camp was on a cliff. They had to know something of the size of the tribe the squad spotted and they had to know, therefore, the 47's would take fire if they came in hi and proud. There's an odd reason we're getting so much press on this incident and I'm still waiting to figure out what that might be.
I suspect it's just a matter of statistics. Conduct enough missions and something will eventually go badly wrong. My guess is that the SEAL team was spotted, perhaps long before they knew it.
We may not know for another 50+ years the full details of what happened and that's fine with me. That being said, I'm interested in knowing about the UAV that reportedly went down. Was it brought down. The reason I wonder about the UAV is because flying at ~20K feet would have put it only ~10K above the area and within range of a MANPAD if detected. Could a lookout on a 12K peak spot a Predator sized UAV at ~20K feet?
Great post. Thanks.