SEALs killed in Afghan crash were answering call for help

Source: LAT

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan –—
New details emerged Monday about the devastating helicopter crash that killed 30 U.S. service members including at least 22 elite Navy SEALs.

The chopper, carrying the SEALs as well as seven Afghan commandos and other U.S. troops, was downed early Saturday as it arrived to answer a call for help from another elite force, the Western military said publicly for the first time.

Previous reports had been contradictory about whether the Chinook helicopter carrying the SEALs was arriving or departing the scene in Afghanistan's Wardak province. The chopper was apparently downed by insurgent fire.

A statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, the first detailed public accounting of the incident, said the operation "began as a security search for a Taliban leader responsible for insurgent operations in the nearby Tangi Valley."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-0809-afghan-helicopter-20110809,0,2270664.story

to be ambushed. Evidently given false information about a Taliban meeting taking place to draw them in.

I have become so cynical it a shame. When I heard rescue mission I only though of PsyOps and putting out a story that would tug heart strings rather than just the plain truth.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-helicopter-shot-down-taliban-trap-afghan-official-070456126.html

in the first place. I wasn't sure if he were more upset over this son's death or with the "higher ups" not saying/doing the right thing in this situation. He seemed very preachy about staying in Afghanistan even after losing his son. We heard a lot of similar parent comments when their soldier-children were dying in Iraq. The exception was Pat Tillman's parents (Pat having died in Afgahnistan). Anyway, this interview troubled me.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44056945/ns/today-today_people/t/navy-seals-widow-we-were-blessed-be-together/

However, I sometimes get the feeling in general that we are witnessing the rise within our militry of some unhealthy hybrid cult, a combination of nouveau fundamentalism, unquestioning nationalism, and something else that I cannot quite put my finger on. And I think it is passed down from the top because there is a uniformity to it.

Families have no say in the matter. Just reported on CNN.

consent for any filming?

Yesterday it sounded like the transport of the soldiers' remains would be a total media blackout.

After the farcical death of "Bin Laden". Did this guy even exist?
They mop out any unwanted witnesses. Can you believe that the best of the best fly in a huge-arse heli together which can be easily shot down by anybody hiding in the multiple caves in Afghanistan?

Has anything like this ever happened in America's history? Has there ever been any disinformation on the part of our government?

"Has there ever been any disinformation on the part of our government?"

Of course. But this isn't the Reagan Administration. Geez. Why would they off all those guys? Give a motive, or put on your tinfoil hat and shut up.

Your snarky answer speaks volumes about you. Now you are cordially invited to stuff that "tin foil hat" up your... never mind.

I thought only tea-bagging hobbits went off on weird conspiratorial $hit like that.

take your time.

rather than consider questions. As in, "Is this scenario possibly true?" Since neither of us have any evidence concerning this event, the question is a fair one. But, I don't blame you for lack of critical thinking skills.

And, I'm not waiting.

So no more of them around ?

Mission helo was secret stealth Black Hawk

By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 4, 2011 18:08:39 EDT

The helicopters that flew the Navy SEALs on the mission to kill Osama bin Laden were a radar-evading variant of the special operations MH-60 Black Hawk, according to a retired special operations aviator.

The helicopter’s low-observable technology is similar to that of the F-117 Stealth Fighter the retired special operations aviator said. “It really didn’t look like a traditional Black Hawk,” he said. It had “hard edges, sort of like an … F-117, you know how they have those distinctive edges and angles — that’s what they had on this one


http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/army-mission-helocopter-was-secret-stealth-black-hawk-050411/

Yes, the Black Hawk is remarkable and vital for special ops where you need stealth. The SEALS didn't seem to be on a special ops - it was already a hot zone and no one needed to sneak in. The bad guys know there will be reinforcements coming. Standard issue chopper for this is often the Chinook (CH-47), especially if you want to get a lot of people into the area quickly. I doubt if SEALS use Chinooks very often but sometimes you use what you have available, especially if you have to move fast as you would in a rescue mission.

make up a whole bunch of stuff with no evidence whatsoever of any of your assertions and hope that some idiot runs with it.
bravo.

a Chinook Chopper.. Chinooks are troop carriers and not assault helicopters.. It makes no sense to me at all.. If these guys were going to air assault into the frey to relieve Rangers that were pinned down, there would be guns blazing while the assault ships did their thing... Doesn't sound right to me, but I have not been in such a situation for more than forty years..:shrug:

they are commonly used in Afghanistan for assaults because in the mountains in the summers they have a speed and power advantage over Blackhawks.

They were also commonly used for assaults in Iraq - here is a story from 2008:

http://www.stripes.com/news/chinooks-take-on-more-air-assaults-1.75685

Thanks for posting.

:patriot:

We flew old jalopies into battle. The D model Huey. Eighty miles per hour, pedal to the metal. The H models were quite a bit faster and more powerful but we carried the guns...We operated in pretty dense jungle though with small LZs usually nothing more than bomb craters.

for killing bin laden, and it sure looks like it was a trap. Solution? Pull our forces out of the area where the talibastards are operating and as a goodbye present, call in the B-52s and carpet bomb until the whole fucking place is below sea level.