CALL SIGN EXTORTION 17 CODE

8, 2011, the Agence France-Presse quoted an unnamed Afghan government official saying that the chopper was lured to the area with the promise of finding Tahir - who wasn’t there. In the days following the attack, Afghan officials thought so. It was the deadliest single loss in the 11-year-old Afghan war, and the single-largest loss in the history of US Special Forces. They would all die from a rocket-propelled grenade at the hands of the Taliban. Seven mysterious Afghan commandos, along with one Afghan interpreter, joined these remarkable Americans on the helicopter that night. Like Craig Vickers, 44-year-old Senior Chief Lou Langlais, one of the most highly decorated and experienced SEALs in the Navy, was also on his last combat deployment and planned to return to a stateside job as a trainer where he would reunite with his wife, Anya, and their two boys in Santa Monica.

Vickers was on his last tour with the Navy and planned to retire and return home to his family in May 2012.

Three of the men, Navy Senior Chief Craig Vickers of Hawaii, Navy Chief Matt Mason of Kansas City, and Senior Chief Tommy Ratzlaff of Arkansas, had wives who were expecting their third child. Sixteen of the men had wives back home in the United States, and 32 American children called these men “Daddy.” Two of the men, Lieutenant Commander Jonas Kelsall, the SEAL commander, and Chief Petty Officer Robert Reeves, had been best friends since their high school days in Shreveport, Louisiana, and even played on the same high school football team. Duncan of Olathe, Kan., to the oldest of the group, 47-year-old Chief Warrant Officer David Carter of Aurora, Colo. The Americans ranged in age from the youngest, 21-year-old Specialist Spencer C. Their destination: a place called Tangi Valley, where, intelligence indicated, a Taliban chief by the name of Qari Tahir was hiding.

CALL SIGN EXTORTION 17 CODE

Under the moonless sky in Logar Province, at just before two o’clock in the morning local time, 30 Americans, including 17 members of the elite SEAL team that had killed Osama bin Laden three months earlier, were scrambled aboard a Vietnam-era US Army National Guard Chinook helicopter, code name Extortion 17. New mission: Retired Navy SEALs ride cross-country to raise awareness Personal 'Hell': Mom endures insult to injury after son's death during SEAL trainingįlorida man tried to steal bulletproof vest worn by Bin Laden kill squad: cops 'Mayans MC' outlaw gets on the right side of the law on new show 'The Terminal List'

Call sign extortion 17