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Authors: Don Brown
Call Sign Extortion 17
Call Sign Extortion 17
The Shoot-ÂDown of SEAL Team Six
Don Brown
An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
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Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
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Copyright © 2015 by Don Brown
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All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
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Library of Congress Cataloging-Âin-ÂPublication Data
Brown, Don, 1960-
Call Sign Extortion 17 : the shoot-down of SEAL Team Six / Don Brown.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4930-0746-2
1. Afghan War, 2001âAerial operations, American. 2. United States. Navy. SEALsâHistoryâ21st century. 3. United States. Naval Special Warfare Development GroupâHistory. 4. Chinook (Military transport helicopter) 5. Special operations (Military science)âUnited States. 6. Afghan War, 2001âCampaigns. I. Title. II. Title: Shoot-down of SEAL Team Six.
DS371.412.B74 2015
958.104'745âdc23
2015002084
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ISBN 978-1-4930-1732-4 (e-Âbook)
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesâPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
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Chapter 1:
Forward Operating Base “Shank”
Chapter 4:
SEALs Called to Action
Chapter 5:
Ninety-ÂSeven Days from Quintessential Glory to Unexplained Disaster
Chapter 6:
Background on the Colt Report
Chapter 7:
The Colt Report: A General Overview
Chapter 8:
The Colt Report 101: Points to Keep in Mind in Examining Evidence
Chapter 9:
The Pink Elephant Escapes
Chapter 10:
CENTCOM Handcuffs Colt's Investigation
Chapter 11:
The Seven Missing Afghans Discovered by Happenchance
Chapter 12:
“Green-Âon-ÂBlue” Violence: “Friendly” Afghans Killing Americans
Chapter 13:
An Ambassador's Blunt Warnings
Chapter 14:
A Forced Suicide Mission
Chapter 15:
Extortion 17 Pilots: Underequipped and Untrained for Special Ops
Chapter 16:
The Deadly Record of CH-47D in Afghanistan
Chapter 17:
Task Force Commander Concerns: Conventinal Aviation with Special Forces
Chapter 18:
Pre-ÂFlight Intelligence: Taliban Targeting US Helicopters
Chapter 19:
Chaos in the Air: The Lost Minutes
Chapter 20:
The Chopper's Last Call
Chapter 21:
The Odd Request for a “Sparkle”
Chapter 22:
The Final Seconds: Who Is “Them”?
Chapter 23:
Extortion 17's Bizarre Behavior
Chapter 24:
The “Two-ÂMinute Burn” and the “One-ÂMinute Call” That Wasn't
Chapter 25:
Was Bryan Nichols Trying to Tell Us Something?
Chapter 26:
A Three-Minute Burn? The Copper in the Spotlight?
Chapter 27:
Fallen Angel: The Final Seconds of Extortion 17
Chapter 28:
Taliban Access to NVGs and Other Weapons
Chapter 29:
A Point-ÂBlank Shot: Clues from Exhibit 60
Chapter 30:
Testimony of Apache Pilots and Pitch-ÂBlack Conditions
Chapter 31:
Extortion 17 and the Earlier Ranger Mission
Chapter 32:
The Rules of Engagement: Groundwork for the Death of Thirty Americans
Chapter 33:
Enemy “Squirters” on the Ground Prior to Shoot-Down
Chapter 34:
Hypocrisies and Inconsistencies in the Rules of Engagement
Chapter 35:
Indefensible Inconsistency: Pathfinders Get Pre-ÂAssault Fire but SEALs Don't
Chapter 36:
The Disappearing Black Box: Further Evidence of Inconsistencies and Cover-ÂUp
Chapter 37:
Disconnect: The Pathfinders vs. the Task Force
Chapter 38:
The Black Box Absent from the Executive Summary
Chapter 39:
The Crash Site: Before the Pathfinders' Arrival
Chapter 40:
The Mystery Unit First on the Ground
Chapter 41:
The Executive Summary: Whitewashing the Real Chronology
Chapter 42:
The Little Creek Briefing and Other Reports: More Questions on the Box
Chapter 43:
February 27, 2014: The Congressional Hearing
Chapter 44:
The Military's Changed Tune: “There Was No Black Box”
Chapter 45:
Black Box Black Magic: The “Analog” Ruse
Chapter 46:
Chaffetz on Fox: The Pink Elephant Lives
Chapter 47:
Cremation and Destruction of DNA Evidence
Chapter 48:
British Press Reports: The Taliban Knew
Chapter 49:
Afghan President Karzai: First to Announce the Shoot-Down
Chapter 50:
NATO Special Operations Forces Kill President Karzai's Cousin
Chapter 51:
Karzai and the Taliban Playing Footsie for Years
Chapter 52:
Another Dirty Secret: Afghans on Every American Mission
Chapter 53:
Shocking Discovery: Bullets in the Bodies
Chapter 54:
Autopsies Versus “No Identifiable Remains”
Chapter 55:
All Signs Point to a Cover-Up
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Prologue
base shank
logar province, afghanistan
august 6, 2011
Under the moonless sky in Logar Province, at just before two o'clock in the morning local time, thirty Americans, including seventeen members of the elite SEAL team that had killed Osama Bin Laden fourteen weeks earlier, were scrambled aboard a Vietnam-Âera US Army National Guard Chinook helicopter, code name Extortion 17. Sixty-Âsix years earlier to the day, the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The old Chinook was not the type of helicopter typically used by the SEALs. Special Forces units typically attack with specially equipped, highly armed Special Operations helicopters with highly sophisticated electronic and jamming systems, flown by Special Operations pilots trained to insert the SEALs with swiftness, speed, and surprise.
But the Chinook was not an assault helicopter. It did not have significant offensive capabilities, and it was not designed for high-Âspeed assaults carried out by US Special Forces. The Chinook was a transport chopper and was not designed to fly into a hot combat zone. Its crew was a National Guard crew, trained to transport troops and equipment, but not trained or equipped for Special Operations in hot battle zones.
The Americans boarding the chopper ranged in age from the youngest, twenty-Âone-Âyear-Âold Specialist Spencer C. Duncan of Olathe, Kansas, to the oldest of the group, forty-Âseven-Âyear-Âold Chief Warrant Officer David Carter of Aurora, Colorado.
Two of the men, Lieutenant Commander Jonas Kelsall, the SEAL commander, and Chief Petty Officer Robert Reeves, had been best friends
since their high school days in Shreveport, Louisiana, and even played on the same high school football team.
Sixteen of the men had wives back home in the United States, and thirty-Âtwo American children called these men “Daddy.”
Three of the men, Navy Senior Chief Craig Vickers of Hawaii, Navy Chief (SEAL) Matt Mason of Kansas City, and Senior Chief Tommy Ratzlaff of Arkansas, had wives who were expecting their third child.
Vickers was on his last tour with the Navy and planned to retire and return home to his family in May 2012. Like Craig Vickers, forty-Âfour-Âyear-Âold Senior Chief Lou Langlais, one of the most highly decorated and experienced SEALs in the Navy, was also on his last combat deployment and planned to return to a stateside job as a trainer where he would reunite with his wife, Anya, and their two boys in Santa Monica.
Seven mysterious Afghan commandos, along with one Afghan interpreter, joined these remarkable Americans on the helicopter that night. The presence of the unknown Afghans, whose names were not on the flight manifest, breached all semblances of military and aviation protocol.
Within minutes of takeoff, every American on board Extortion 17 died a horrific, fiery death in a crash that would mark the deadliest single loss in the eleven-Âyear-Âold Afghan war, and the single-Âlargest loss in the history of US Special Forces.
Why did these men die?
Their children and wives deserve to know. Their parents and their country deserve an answer.
Powerful evidence now suggests there was a cover-Âup to prevent the truth from ever getting out.
What is being covered up?
Several signs suggest that the Taliban were tipped off as to the Chinook's flight path and were lying in wait with rocket-Âpropelled grenades as it approached the landing zone. Invaluable forensic evidence has been inexcusably lost, negligently or intentionally destroyed by the military, or conveniently glossed over to obfuscate the truth as to why these men died.
Even if the Taliban had no inside information, which appears unlikely, the decision to order a platoon of US Navy SEALs and supporting troops onto a highly vulnerable and largely defenseless Vietnam-Âera National
Guard helicopter, a CH-47 Chinook piloted by a noble crew of National Guard aviators who were ill equipped and untrained in the Special Forces aviation techniques necessary to prosecute this mission, effectively sealed the death warrants for each and every American on board that night.
For the sake of the thirty-Âtwo children who lost their fathers, for the sixteen wives who lost their husbands, for the sake of sixty parents who lost their sons, and for the sake of a nation that deserves better from its leadership in protecting its treasured sons in times of war, hard questions need to be asked.
This is the story of the last flight of Extortion 17 and the cover-Âup that followed.