by Jack
The real story of what occurred in Afghanistan when we lost the Chinook helicopter with our Seal team on board is slowly leaking out.
Here’s the story as reported to me: The mission was a night operation in the Tangi Valley about 50 miles southwest of Kabul. The valley is a stronghold for the Taliban and the Haqqani. The high rocky terrain makes it easy to defend and also to keep a close eye on the valley activities. Its close proximity to Kabul makes it important for a number of reasons from smuggling arms to staging attacks in the city.
The SOC operation was intended to capture the local Taliban leader that had been responsible for planning attacks and organizing the insurgents.
These kinds of raids occur all the time in Afghanistan and this one was no exception. The SOC team sent in to capture or kill the leader quickly encountered Taliban armed with AK-47s and RPG’s, standard arms for insurgents. The RPG is a rocket that must be aimed, it has a short range and it can be bought for about $25 in any arms bazaar.
The current theory is the Chinook took a lucky hit from a single RPG and it exploded near the ground. The large helicopter was so completely destroyed that it took 4 days to pick up the pieces.
From the very beginning of this firefight the Taliban were on the run and taking losses, at least 8 had been killed in the initial encounter. The fighting was concentrated around one of several compounds in the valley. At one point the SOC forces observed a small group of insurgents slip away from the compound and make a run for it, but they were out of position to stop them.
This is a fairly common tactic to protect the group’s leader/s. They leave behind some disposable fighters to give them time to escape so they can fight another day. That’s when the SOC force called in the backup unit to give chase; it was not a desperate rescue mission, as the military spokesmen have been telling us.
This might explain why the backup force was using the older and more vulnerable version of the Chinook, the CH-47. The MH-47 is standard transport for special forces units and it was probably already being used by the main attacking force. Even so, the CH-47 is still very hard to knock down with an RPG. this is why everyone is saying it had to be one really lucky shot, but also not ruled out is the possibility of an accident.
A few days later, the insurgents (numbering about 40) that escaped were located hiding in a house and killed by a missile strike.
This story came from a confidential source, however there are breaking wire stories that tend to support what was sent to me and I believe this to be the true version of what really happened.
Our side made a rookie mistake. They allowed themselves to be drawn into a narrow valley.
The bad guys were waiting with over a dozen RPGs. This was technically a lucky shot, but with at least 12 of them aimed at the target, one was bound to hit.
Quentin I never heard that part before, you have better information than I do. I’ll update this whenever I hear more.
One thing Westerners tend to forget in our arrogance is the lesson of Dien Bien Phu.
Your enemy does not need better weapons–he needs only to be better dedicated to succeed.
MacArthur knew this–as any good soldier would–even before ’56. Is this why he warned us to stay out of Asia?
Try to imagine how many lives would not have been lost had we learned from history.
Afghanistan cannot be won, and never could have been won. It is yet another stain on America’s honor.
Re Quentin’s: “Our side made a rookie mistake.”
In war anything can happen. It takes a real dork who has never even been on the battlefield to call it a “rookie mistake”.
A real armchair dork.
Quentin should take this the the obvious next step. Write letters to the families whose members were killed with an explanation from his comfortable perspective.