I could be wrong but I think that the Chinook going into that valley should have had attack Helo protection as SOP.
They did have an AC-130 overhead for support, but they were ordered not to engage. And that was once again for fear of killing a single person that wasn’t directly carrying an AK-47 at the moment. And every infantry officer in the first week learns not to put all your machine guns on one helicopter.
Nothing but an idiot would deploy an entire platoon of seals into a firefight on an enormous ch-47.
Two or three black hawks would have made a lot more sense
And using expensive Spec Ops in the place of regular infantry is a terrible misuse of SOF forces that are extremely expensive to train.
And in a straight out firefight they are no better than a random marine rifle platoon.
Think of all the months of expensive training they do to learn to parachute, to learn to Halo, to learn scuba on several different types of systems, to learn to operate with extreme skill on relatively unique Radio Systems, photography, assaulting ships underway, intelligence gathering. Small boat navigation and dozens of other things.
None of those skills help you in a firefight and only waste their unique skills.
The murder of those seals lies at the feet of the incompetence of our flag rank Army and navy officers.
Our seals were killed by incompetent leadership.