The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six, and the Deadliest Day of the U.S. War in Afghanistan-Quality Guarantee

Description

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached alanding zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter,call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American andcoalition special operations troops. It would never return. Insurgentsfired at the Chinook, severed one of its rear rotor blades, and brought itcrashing to the ground. All 38 onboard perished instantly in the singlegreatest moment of sacrifice for Americans in the war in killed were some of the U.S.’s most highly trained andbattle-honed commandos, including 15 men from the Gold Squadron of theNaval Special Warfare Development Group, known popularly as SEAL Team 6,which had raided a Pakistan compound and killed Osama bin Laden justthree months earlier. The downing of Extortion 17 spurred a number ofconspiracy theories, such as the idea that the shootdown was revenge forbin Laden’s death. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, EdDarack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind thismysterious tragedy. His account of the brave pilots, crew, andpassengers of Extortion 17 and the events of that fateful day isinterwoven into a rich, complex narrative that also discusses modernjoint combat operations, the history of the Afghan war to that date,U.S. helicopter use in Afghanistan, and the new and evolving militarytechnologies and tactics being developed to mitigate such tragedies nowand in the future.

Amazon Best History Book of the Month – September 2017