Free Operation Red Wings: The Untold Story Behind Lone Survivor (Kindle Single) (SOFREP) by Peter Nealen, SOFREP Page B
Authors: Peter Nealen, SOFREP
from the trees near the zone. The projectile impacted the MH-47’s exhaust duct and detonated.
The Chinook rolled over in midair at the impact. The pilot lost control, and the helicopter hit the side of the mountain and exploded. All sixteen men aboard—eight members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), the Night Stalkers, and eight SEALs from Team 10 and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1—were killed.
Under more ground fire, Turbine 32 turned away hard, throwing the men in the troop compartment to the deck, and pulled into an orbit above the mountain, searching for survivors. According to the official contact report, one of the AH-64s reported a possible survivor near the crash at around 1215Z, but the report was never corroborated. It is remotely possible that one of the men aboard the helicopter survived, only to succumb to his wounds before rescue forces could reach the LZ, but it is equally possible that what the Apache pilot saw was a Taliban combatant, investigating the wreck. No one will likely ever know.
The birds continued to orbit the mountain. A No Fire Area was established for a 500-meter radius around the downed helicopter, so as to avoid accidentally hitting any possible survivors. There would be no air support or artillery missions approved within 500 meters of the crash site.
While the SEALs desperately wanted to get on the ground to look for surviving SEALs and Night Stalkers from the downed bird, as well as retrieve the SR team that still had not been contacted, word came from CJSOTF (Commander, Joint Special Operations Task Force) to return to the airbase at Jalalabad. The risk of losing another helicopter on the mountain was considered too great. The aircraft turned southwest for Jalalabad, while the SEALs aboard Turbine 32 fumed at losing a chance to rescue their brothers.
* * *
It was later reported that Turbine 33 was struck by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) that went through the open ramp and impacted the main driveshaft, thus downing the bird. According to the SEALs who witnessed the shootdown, however, it is the consensus that it was not an RPG but something much more powerful, a MANPAD (man-portable air defense) device of some kind. RPGs, contrary to movies and video games, do not leave smoke trails. Missiles do. There had been rumors of Stingers still around from the Soviet-Afghan War, but those were just that—rumors. Stinger batteries don’t last all that long; the missiles have a definite shelf life. Whether it will ever be discovered what exactly shot down Turbine 33 is unlikely, but the question of how many loose SA-7 Strela shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles are still floating around has to be asked.
Given the operational impact of acknowledging an actual MANPAD threat in-theater, the reports were put down as an RPG shot down Turbine 33. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to completely alter air operations in the entire AO (area of operations). It did, however, put a substantial damper on air operations in support of the rescue effort. Having lost one bird already, the command became extremely skittish about risking another.
Had a suspected MANPAD been reported and verified, it’s likely that loss of life in-theater linked to shot-down helicopters could have been prevented, including the controversial Extortion 17 crash that would happen years later.
* * *
The SEALs weren’t going to sit still in Jalalabad. Now, not only were four SEALs missing on the mountain, but another eight, plus their Night Stalker brethren, had gone down on the same mountain. Getting off the MH-47, they pushed to get aboard new birds, this time UH-60 Black Hawks. They had to get back to the crash site as quickly as possible, in case the reports from the Apache pilots had been correct and anyone had survived. The birds took off and headed back northeast toward Sawtalo Sar, passing over the checkered fields of the Kunar River valley before heading up
The Chinook rolled over in midair at the impact. The pilot lost control, and the helicopter hit the side of the mountain and exploded. All sixteen men aboard—eight members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), the Night Stalkers, and eight SEALs from Team 10 and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1—were killed.
Under more ground fire, Turbine 32 turned away hard, throwing the men in the troop compartment to the deck, and pulled into an orbit above the mountain, searching for survivors. According to the official contact report, one of the AH-64s reported a possible survivor near the crash at around 1215Z, but the report was never corroborated. It is remotely possible that one of the men aboard the helicopter survived, only to succumb to his wounds before rescue forces could reach the LZ, but it is equally possible that what the Apache pilot saw was a Taliban combatant, investigating the wreck. No one will likely ever know.
The birds continued to orbit the mountain. A No Fire Area was established for a 500-meter radius around the downed helicopter, so as to avoid accidentally hitting any possible survivors. There would be no air support or artillery missions approved within 500 meters of the crash site.
While the SEALs desperately wanted to get on the ground to look for surviving SEALs and Night Stalkers from the downed bird, as well as retrieve the SR team that still had not been contacted, word came from CJSOTF (Commander, Joint Special Operations Task Force) to return to the airbase at Jalalabad. The risk of losing another helicopter on the mountain was considered too great. The aircraft turned southwest for Jalalabad, while the SEALs aboard Turbine 32 fumed at losing a chance to rescue their brothers.
* * *
It was later reported that Turbine 33 was struck by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) that went through the open ramp and impacted the main driveshaft, thus downing the bird. According to the SEALs who witnessed the shootdown, however, it is the consensus that it was not an RPG but something much more powerful, a MANPAD (man-portable air defense) device of some kind. RPGs, contrary to movies and video games, do not leave smoke trails. Missiles do. There had been rumors of Stingers still around from the Soviet-Afghan War, but those were just that—rumors. Stinger batteries don’t last all that long; the missiles have a definite shelf life. Whether it will ever be discovered what exactly shot down Turbine 33 is unlikely, but the question of how many loose SA-7 Strela shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles are still floating around has to be asked.
Given the operational impact of acknowledging an actual MANPAD threat in-theater, the reports were put down as an RPG shot down Turbine 33. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to completely alter air operations in the entire AO (area of operations). It did, however, put a substantial damper on air operations in support of the rescue effort. Having lost one bird already, the command became extremely skittish about risking another.
Had a suspected MANPAD been reported and verified, it’s likely that loss of life in-theater linked to shot-down helicopters could have been prevented, including the controversial Extortion 17 crash that would happen years later.
* * *
The SEALs weren’t going to sit still in Jalalabad. Now, not only were four SEALs missing on the mountain, but another eight, plus their Night Stalker brethren, had gone down on the same mountain. Getting off the MH-47, they pushed to get aboard new birds, this time UH-60 Black Hawks. They had to get back to the crash site as quickly as possible, in case the reports from the Apache pilots had been correct and anyone had survived. The birds took off and headed back northeast toward Sawtalo Sar, passing over the checkered fields of the Kunar River valley before heading up
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