Reserve soldiers, actually, and yes, I agree with your assessment of the situation. A CH-47D at low altitude, low airspeed landing to a pinnacle makes for a juicy target. The Taliban could have hit it with a rock. An RPG hit was a piece of cake.
Brain cramp. You are correct, the crew were USAR soldiers. They fly over my farm frequently.
Yeah, which begs the question as to who made the decision to fly all of these special operators on a single low altitude slow aircraft, and not split them up? As with many things in this administration it stinks...