Posted on 08/06/2021 4:42:02 AM PDT by OwenKellogg
On the tenth anniversary of the deadliest helicopter loss in the history of U.S. special operations, a new documentary examines the unresolved questions about what really happened aboard the CH-47 whose callsign was Extortion 17.
"The families of the fallen want to know why their loves ones were lost," the film's director, Stephen Spivey, told Just the News. "They deserve answers. The American people deserve answers."
Spivey hopes that the documentary, "Fallen Angel," will honor the 30 Americans — most of them Navy SEALs — who died, and will prompt Americans to demand an investigation.
The CH-47 Chinook military helicopter went down in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011. The helicopter's mission was to ferry reinforcements for an already treacherous mission. The 40,000 pound aircraft carried 30 Americans, eight Afghans, and one military working dog.
One Pentagon official in 2014 described for Congress how the crash unfolded.
"Tragically, as Extortion 17 was nearing its landing zone, Taliban fighters, hidden in a building, fired two or three rocket-propelled grenades at close range, leaving the pilot no chance to perform evasive maneuvers," said Garry Reid, who served in the office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. "One rocket struck a rotor blade, causing the aircraft to crash almost instantly."
Everyone aboard was killed, including the dog.
The recovery operation commenced immediately, and spanned four days. The bodies of the fallen and most of the wreckage was recovered.
The crash sent shock waves throughout U.S. special operations. The SEAL Team 6 community was devastated.
"The downing of Extortion 17 was a catastrophic and unprecedented tragedy for our nation," Reid testified.
When the shock subsided, questions arose — and persisted. Where was the Chinook's black box cockpit recorder? According to Reid, the aircraft did not have such a flight data recorder. Others claimed that it did, and that the vital piece of equipment had been washed away in a flash flood. Additional questions raised increasingly sinister scenarios. Were bullets found in the SEALs' bodies? What did the autopsies reveal about how the fallen had died?
The trailer to "Fallen Angel" delves into those questions and others, including, was the fire control officer of a nearby AC-130 gunship denied permission to engage the enemy? And if so, why?
"Rules of engagement play a big role in the film," Spivey said. "That's a very big part of it. The documentary covers the inherent dangers when the ROE move too far from the law of war."
Aside from examining troubling mysteries, Spivey said, the documentary pays tribute to those who lost their lives that night in Afghanistan.
"We must honor the fallen," Spivey said. "We need to remember their names and stand for what they fought for."
Part of that process is to insist that American warriors are supported while in the thick of combat.
"If we are going to train our military to defend freedom, we must trust it to accomplish the mission, within the law of war," Spivey said. "Poor rules of engagement get our men and women killed. It's time for a change."
In terms of Extortion 17, the filmmaker said, the military should continue to look into what happened aboard the ill-fated aircraft. Investigators should look inside conex containers; inspect radiographs; and examine the remaining weapons from the mission.
"People feel unsettled by what happened," Spivey said. "It merits examination. It's heartbreaking for the families, and frustrating for the Department of Defense."
The trailer and full version of "Fallen Angel" can be viewed here.
Ping
This is what happened:
Obama was presented with 2 or 3 different times when they could have gotten bin laden. He stopped it each time.
In frustration, Panetta asked him under what circumstances they would have the go ahead, and elicited specific responses from him.
Then Panetta made sure those circumstances were in place, and started the operation.
When it was too late to stop it they called Obama on the golf course and let him know. He came back and tried to stop it. Panetta cornered him and said he would go public if he stopped it again. So he sat there like a petulant child (obvious in the photos) while the adults in the room did their job.
When it was successful, he took credit for it, proudly overstating his role in the matter “Yay for me, when I GAVE THE ORDER they were ready”
It was Panetta who gave the order.
To appease the muzzie brotherhood that he was trying to help establish, he gave up the seal team.
The crash of Extortion 17 was not the Pakistan raid on Bin Laden’s compund.
Military abuse of special forces as a crutch for extremely poor tactics. The ROE forbade almost all supporting arms unless they could guarantee no unarmed afghan was hurt. So when contract was made, no AC-130 was allowed, no arty if they even had any left. The response was to send a flying clown car stuffed with SEALs and SF into the valley. They were bunched up. And despite several hit movies, SF is not a substitute for infantry in the proper numbers and configuration.
We currently suffer from the poorest high level military leadership we have ever had.
Obama is black...... that’s all
A crusty cynic might have come to the conclusion that perfumed princes in concert with progressive globalist leaders set about to destroy special ops warriors through misuse, lack of supporting arms and fatal ROEs. Uniformity is the goal of diversification.
At least that’s what a cynic might think....
Blessed is the cynic, for he is never disappointed.
your response makes no sense
To appease the muzzie brotherhood that he was trying to help establish, he gave up the seal team.He's saying Seal Team 6 was sacrificed because they took out bin Laden.
I believe Mr K knows that...
Sitting solemnly near the memorial was Nick's grandfather.
He was visibly distraught so I spoke briefly with him.
He informed me in no uncertain terms that he believed that Obama had his grandson killed.
Lawyers run the military and the ROE.
Perhaps some of you heard author Don Brown on the Coast to Coast radio show last night. He mentioned that the overstuffed Vietnam-era Chinook hovered in place for seven long minutes immediately before being shot down. And then there’s the missing black box and the mysterious “coalition group” that visited the crash site before anyone else could get there, then disappeared. Who were they? Did they nab the black box? The story that it was swept away in a flash flood is an obvious lie. Brown seemed to hint that the Afghans onboard — terrible soldiers who resented the Seals and shared the same tribal loyalties of their fellow Afghans — may have had something to do with the downing. We’ll probably never know the truth.
A truthfully informed public is essential for representative government to function.
There are nefarious groups of people who do not want representative government to function, who do not want the public to be truthfully informed, who, whether or not they are aware of it, want the law of the jungle to prevail.
This is the law of the jungle: the strongest survive; the weakest are destroyed.
We live either under the rule of law or under the law of the jungle.
War is the law of the jungle.
Western Civilisation is in an advanced state of decay. American society is decadent. Contempt for truth is the evil most fundamental to the decadence; note tagline.
Millions of people do not comprehend what's going on, either because they lack the wit or are wilfully blind to it; some are afraid of truth. They prove the adage: A fool is more dangerous than a scoundrel. Benevolent people who bring disinformation or who refuse to bring truth to the public fall into this category.
I don't know what the truth is--about this incident or other matters of vital public importance--but I do know this: We cannot trust our political leaders or our major sources of information to inform us truthfully, and truth--truth for its own sake--is our greatest ally, our greatest safety, and what we need most.
The Information Age has the potential to bring truth to all the people of the world. It also has a dark side: It can bring them untruth, disinformation, and propaganda, and it can support the law of the jungle.
The most important single thing that benevolent people can do is demand truth--truth for its own sake--whatever that may be, wherever it may reveal itself, regardless of the consequences.
Most people are fundamentally benevolent and will behave benevolently if they are truthfully informed.
And why didn’t they have Apache or Cobra gunship cover on a mission like this, I always thought is was SOP.
There is a fifth column operating in the USA today. It is strong, powerful, well financed, and resourceful, and millions of Americans serve it as its useful idiots.
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