operation red wings crash site photos

Graham reported the situation back to Bagram. It didnt look like there was any way anybody could have survived, Graham said. Soldiers sit on the rear deck of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter while flying over southern Afghanistan Oct. 19, 2010. Turbine 33s nose dipped down, and the aircraft slid to the left, appearing to almost recover. After landing, Graham saw the same five Black Hawks that had peeled off earlier parked on the runway. The plan was for the SEALs to fast-rope onto the ridgeline above the original LZ. They ascended back into orbit and remained there for an hour until the task force commander ordered them back to Jalalabad. But militants were waiting in ambush and shot down an Army MH-47E Chinook chopper as Kristensen and his men were preparing to fast-rope to the ground, killing all 16 aboard. military operation during the War in Afghanistan. When you hear all four directions, everyone gets pretty tense, Brady said. The 160th had only lost helicopters during daylight missions at that point theyre called Night Stalkers for a reason. After refueling, he continued on to Jalalabad and off-loaded. The only SEAL to make it out of the Red Wings incident alive, Navy Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, went on to write the bestseller "Lone Survivor," which became a major motion picture of the same title last year. Graham made a stop at a Forward Arming and Refueling Point just outside of Jalalabad. This was a desolate part of the Hindu Kush, and at night, you wouldnt really expect to see much, Brady told Coffee or Die. The two Apaches had arrived on station, drawing heavy gunfire, but nonetheless giving Turbine 34s crew back in the operations center a good look at the crash site. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Im glad youre a thinking air mission commander and not simply one that takes a black-and-white view of the situation.. Arriving on site, the task force members fast-roped in. Primary and secondary zones appear to be clear of potential threats.. They ascended back into orbit and remained there for an hour until the task force commander ordered them back to Jalalabad. Brady persisted with the details. As the pilots climbed the last 1,000 feet of elevation, the AC-130 crew providing overwatch on their destination radioed to say they had to leave their position due to a mechanical issue. I could see a lot of vehicles with troops armed to the damn teeth, Smith recalled. After covering his landing, Brooks book goes through a nearly hour-by-hour recounting of the rescue and recovery mission that lasted almost two full days. Photo courtesy of Steven Smith. In one passage, he wrote, At any moment, I expected the crack of a rifle. : r/CombatFootage by GGdigger NSFW Rare footage of the disastrous Operation Red Wings from the Taliban PoV. It was a gut-wrenching decision for everyone on the mission, as they knew the original SEALs on the SR team were fighting for their lives and one of their own aircraft and crew was burning on the side of a mountain. The members of the task force said their final goodbyes. Back in the operations center, leaders were busy trying to figure out the SEALs last known location and calculating how many soldiers each helicopter could fly with. Brady stood next to a SEAL commander both had to take command of their respective units when Reich and Kristensen were killed on Turbine 33. All of us were pretty broken up at that point, Rogie said. The Night Stalkers flew back to their newly forged landing zone the following night. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. Monitored and controlled by a Joint Terminal Attack Controller at Forward Operating Base Shank via a General Atomics MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, all six were positively confirmed killed by the bomb strike and subsequent attacks by a Lockheed AC-130 gunship and two Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships. It wasnt an ideal insertion, but the Night Stalkers had accomplished their mission. Luttrell wrote of his own experience surviving through Operation Red Wings, a 2005 special operations mission in Afghanistan to stop Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. On April 6, 15 U.S. service members and three American civilians were killed when their chopper went down in a sandstorm. The task force commander debriefed the men and then focused on planning their next steps. Each of the five Black Hawks was loaded with Marines and had flown out thinking they were the QRF for the SR team. But seeing the site, even so long after, was helpful. The C-17 sat on the runway with the ramp down, waiting to receive the 16 interment cases containing the fallen warriors. The Chinooks took off toward the mountains once again, but as they climbed in elevation, severe weather rolled in. Doc's platoon was alerted . . When we landed, we just saw a row of Night Stalkers and Rangers and SEALs for as far as I could see, lined up and ready to help transport the remains off and take them to the mortuary affairs section, Brady recalled. During the flight, the Night Stalkers passed two Apache gunships whose pilots asked if they wanted to slow down so they could provide surveillance and support for the operation. He didnt think much of it at the time, but many years later he found out a new platoon leader came into their company within the 160th and was responsible for those Black Hawks. The Armys elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) is known for having some of the most skilled aviators in the world, who fly the most elite special operators into some of the most austere environments on earth using the most advanced aircraft in the U.S. military inventory. Matt Rogie, left, and Matt Brady having jovial conversation in Bagram. The flight back was pure silence. The pilots descended to the point where the Chinooks front rotor was just a few feet away from the mountainside with tall trees all around the aircraft. The Night Stalkers job was to insert the SEALs on a ridgeline where the terrain left few options for landing zones. An MH-47 Chinook with 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and a KC-130J Super Hercules with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 conduct aerial refueling during Exercise Yuma Horizon 19. The crash site of Turbine 33. Brooks said all of those events, happening within a matter of months, had been the momentum changer that inspired him to join the Army Rangers. We argued for what seemed like 10 minutes but was actually about 30 seconds, Brady recalled. For the Night Stalkers of the famed 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the war on terror continued. He and Eicher hurried back to the operations center. Back at Jalalabad, the commanders decided they had no choice but to wait for better weather and try again the next night. of 1 Photo courtesy of Matt Rogie. Marcus Luttrell, to get out of that thing alive, its a miracle, I mean I dont know how, Brooks said. "But he was on the helo," his mother told ABC News, as the family marked the tenth anniversary of Erik's death in Operation Red Wings last weekend. military operation. Graham and his co-pilot whipped their Chinook around to look for survivors. Photo by Spc. It just didnt look good.. Turbine 34 started taking heavy gunfire from unseen fighters below. As the storm raged, the members of the task force haunted with thoughts of their brothers on the mountain tried to sleep. A Taliban high-value target sat tucked into the corner away from them all, guarded by other soldiers. Bradys maintenance officer woke him and said the SR team was in trouble and the Night Stalkers had orders to spin up and pull the team out. Search instead in. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Brady had no way of knowing at the time, but it would be the last time anyone at Bagram would ever see three of those four Americans alive. These are the first photos released by the military of the . Steven K. Young, courtesy of DVIDS. Kind of like SEALs.. 45. Arriving at the insertion point on the ridgeline, Turbine 33 descended into a hover. The JSOC troops, along with their newly arrived reinforcements, went to work recovering those killed in action as well as sensitive equipment that could not fall into enemy hands. Brady said he pleaded with Reich to at least let him come with and act as an extra gun and set of eyes. Receiving the transmission, Brady couldnt believe it. His unusual personality and fateful heroism has remained largely unknown in public compared to Luttrell and Murphy's legend, despite courageously leading the ill-fated rescue mission. Brooks also described the difficulty of navigating the mountain terrain and scrambles up hillsides covered in loose rocky scree as well as dramatic weather changes. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell was the only survivor from the initial four-man SEAL reconnaissance element. Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and other Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) personnel loaded onto five Chinooks. Smith said everyone on the Chinook was angry. Navy SEALs operating in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I get that hes got some guilt that his friends were killed, but the fact that he got out alive, he should be celebrating, Brooks said. The weather was turning bad again as they offloaded Marines to assist with security. In unpublished photos taken of the crash site by an Army photographer, blackened tree stumps poke up from the flattened slope. Soldiers and Sailors from the Task Force saying their final goodbyes. "With my experience with TWA 800, I knew what an aircraft crash does to people. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. One of the SEALs even drew his pistol and attempted unsuccessfully to force the Chinook to land so they could try to save their friends. Explosives were used to chop down trees due to width of the trees being too big for chainsaws. One of Bradys soldiers in the operations center was asking him a question, but Brady was momentarily frozen with shock. Soon they learned that their son Erik was among those killed in action. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. The sun was fading behind Afghanistans Hindu Kush mountains the evening of June 27, 2005, as a team of four U.S. Navy SEALs walked up the ramp and into the back of U.S. Army Captain Matt Bradys MH-47 Chinook helicopter on Bagram Air Base. He walked out of the operations center and found Eicher. Reich, who had been designated mission commander for phase two of the operation, felt the QRF was his responsibility. I could see the grass being blown by the rotor wash and all the remains bags being lined up in a row 16 of them, Rogie recalled. Photo courtesy of Matt Rogie. Kristensen confronted him about the decision to cut the rope at the LZ and asked if the Night Stalkers would go back and retrieve it. Not wanting to burn valuable time waiting on approval from the task force commander for the audible, the Night Stalkers continued on without the Apaches. Its a necessary evil and we should know the good and the bad., Front cover of "Leave No Man Behind" by Dr. Tony Brooks with Bob Welch. His parents buried Kristensen -- wearing his beloved Birkenstocks -- at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, which his father had also graduated from three decades earlier. You can't change it, you've got to live with it. A lot of guys really wanted to stay on the mission, recalled Chief Warrant Officer 3 Tim Graham, one of the pilots on Turbine 34. "That was the one part of the movie that I enjoyed. "Leave No Man Behind" begins with Brooks' decision to enlist and his life as a young Ranger, the good and the bad. There was still some smoldering from the crash site, and I could see the glow from the heat through my night vision.. I dont really care, Matt, he told Brady, just get your stuff and get off the airplane. Smith said he saw a line of armored vehicles full of troops. The commandos would have to descend from a rope fast-rope while the helos hovered high above the trees. A dog tag with the "Warrior Ethos" inscribed on it, discovered in the wreckage of a shot down MH-47 helicopter in Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005. This article originally appeared on Coffee or Die. "Someone said Erik wouldn't be on the helo, recalled his mother, who goes by Sam. Ed Kristensen, quiet and soft-spoken, said he doesn't need to see that mountainside in Afghanistan to ease his grief, because he knows that Erik "was doing what he wanted to do. Photo courtesy of Matt Rogie. Almost every variety of special operations troops in the US military inventory participated in a coordinated effort through some of Afghanistans most dangerous and austere terrain during the search for their brothers both alive and fallen. Tasked with inserting the SEAL special reconnaissance (SR) team deep into enemy territory in unforgiving terrain, Brady knew the SEALs Lt. Michael Murphy, Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, Petty Officer 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Axelson had a difficult mission ahead. A photo of a Rangers gloved hand holding the dogtag imprinted with the Warrior Ethos sits framed in the Kristensens home, but until this month, his parents had never seen the rest of the crash site photos. Robert Thaler, courtesy of DVIDS. I don't know if I want to do this the rest of my life. The recent major motion picture "Lone Survivor" tells the story of Operation Red Wings, an ill-fated 2005 Navy SEAL reconnaissance operation in Afghanistan. The members of the task force said their final goodbyes. As the cases were being loaded, a SEAL ran up to the new SEAL commander and placed a written note in his hand. Three war-weary escorts one of them a SEAL and the other two Night Stalkers Daniel Bell and Chris Eicher sat off to the sides, grimly staring off into space. 1st Class Mike Russell, was sleeping and updated him on what had unfolded. Then there was NFL football player Pat Tillmans decision to give up his football career and become an Army Ranger. He was wickedly smart, but more on the creative side. Photo courtesy of Matt Rogie. The Afghanistan mountains and forest from the valley where soldiers searched for the remains of the three SEALs who were killed in action. Thunder boomed as lightning struck all around them. Feb 24, 2015 - By Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr Amid the 1200-page military investigation into the crash in Wardak province in August are photos of the helicopter. The movie is based on Marcus. Im glad youre here because I am spent, Eicher told him. They would have to offload eight SEALs from each helicopter before continuing.