The Horror - 31 U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan Crash of Chinook Transport Helicopter During Raid

A US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division prepares to land inside the landing zone at Forward Operation Base Joyce, in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Dec. 17, 2009. Image from US Army/DVIDS.

You know, you go to bed on a Friday night and never consider that Saturday morning is going to bring you news that hits you right in the gut and breaks your heart into pieces but this Saturday morning is one of those times as reports are out that 31 U.S. troops (25 of them Navy SEALs, 6 were the chopper crew) and 7 Afghan troops were killed in a crash of a Chinook helicopter as a raid was going down in eastern Afghanistan.

My G_d, may the hands of the Father comfort the families of those that have fallen.

From the report at The Long War Journal:

Coalition forces suffered the largest loss of life in a single incident since US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 when a transport helicopter crashed during a raid in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 US and seven Afghan special operations forces. The Taliban and an Afghan official claimed the Chinook was shot down, but ISAF would not confirm the reports.

The helicopter crashed today while conducting a raid in the Tangi Valley in the Saydabad district, a known haven for the Taliban in Wardak province. Thirty-one US troops, including 25 Navy SEALs, six aircraft crewmen, and seven Afghan special operations soldiers were killed, according to ABC News.

A spokesman for the Wardak provincial government said that the Chinook was hit as it took off after an operation. A villager in Saydabad also told AFP that the helicopter was shot down.

In a statement released on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, the Taliban claimed the helicopter was shot down "with rockets during the fighting." The Taliban also said that eight of their own fighters were killed during a clash in the area.

The International Security Assistance Force did confirm the helicopter crashed and said "recovery operations are underway," according to a press release issued today. ISAF did not release details of Coalition casualties, however.

As you can see, it hasn't been confirmed that the Chinook was shot down but it sure seems to be leaning that way. I hate to speculate on this tragic crash but from what I'm reading here it almost looks like this might have been a battle that wasn't going so well and that the SEALs needed to get out of an area - the one account says they had been extracted and were taking off when the crash happened...if the Taliban numbers had exploded on them, it might explain how the Taliban got close enough with some RPGs.

The concerning thing about this for me is that if the Chinook was indeed shot down, whether or not some new weaponry has been introduced into this battle field - like some sort of rocket launcher that we haven't seen the Taliban have before.

The important thing in all of this is that we all remember the tremendous sacrifice that these SEALs and helicopter crew have made to their country...that while we sit in shock today and begin the grieving process with their families, that we honor the spirit of their service to America.

Such a sad, sad day in America.

38 Coalition, Afghan forces killed in helo crash


Coalition forces suffered the largest loss of life in a single incident since US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 when a transport helicopter crashed during a raid in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 US and seven Afghan special operations forces. The Taliban and an Afghan official claimed the Chinook was shot down, but ISAF would not confirm the reports.

The helicopter crashed today while conducting a raid in the Tangi Valley in the Saydabad district, a known haven for the Taliban in Wardak province. Thirty-one US troops, including 25 Navy SEALs, six aircraft crewmen, and seven Afghan special operations soldiers were killed, according to ABC News.

A spokesman for the Wardak provincial government said that the Chinook was hit as it took off after an operation. A villager in Saydabad also told AFP that the helicopter was shot down.

In a statement released on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, the Taliban claimed the helicopter was shot down "with rockets during the fighting." The Taliban also said that eight of their own fighters were killed during a clash in the area.

The International Security Assistance Force did confirm the helicopter crashed and said "recovery operations are underway," according to a press release issued today. ISAF did not release details of Coalition casualties, however.

"ISAF is still in the process of assessing the circumstances to determine the facts of the incident," the Coalition command stated. "Reporting indicates there was enemy activity in the area."

Wardak and the neighboring province of Logar are contested by the Taliban. The two provinces are just outside of Kabul, and are used by a host of Taliban and allied groups, including the Haqqani Network and the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, to stage attacks into the national capital. These groups, along with al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, pool their resources and fight as part of what ISAF calls the Kabul Attack Network.

If today's crash is confirmed to be a Taliban shoot down, it would be the second such incident in two weeks. On July 25, the Taliban shot down a Chinook with rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, just one hundred yards outside of an Afghan Army base in the Pech Valley in Kunar province. No ISAF and Afghan troops were killed in the crash, however.

The Taliban's most successful operation involving a downed ISAF helicopter took place in 2005, when the Bara bin Malek Front, a Taliban subgroup operating in Kunar, shot down a US special operations Chinook helicopter. The US team was attempting to recover a four-man team of Navy SEALs who disappeared during Operation Redwing. Three of the missing SEAL team died in an ambush and another 16 US personnel, eight SEALs and eight members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, were killed when insurgents shot the helicopter down with a salvo of rocket-propelled grenades. The sole surviving member of the ill-fated team sought refuge from local villagers who nursed him back to health and helped coordinate a successful US rescue mission several days later.