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Tom Vaught · 08-08-2011, 12:18 PM

Heard about this deal Saturday while in Ohio for the Norwalk event. It made it into our local paper today on page 8.

22 Navy Seals, 3 Air Force Combat Controllers, A Dog Handler and his dog, 4 Helicopter Crew Members, and 8 Afghan troops.

The Taliban Insurgents initially attacked a Ranger Unit.

The Helicopter went to the area and helped subdue the attackers.

As the helicopter was leaving, the helicopter was shot down. (Shades of Vietnam - Pin down troops, other troops rush to assist, the enemy pulls back, the rescue force loads up to leave and then big guns open up. In this case, "Mr Stinger" was probably involved.)

May they all rest in peace after making the ultimate sacrifice.

Tom Vaught

Region Warrior · 08-08-2011, 12:31 PM

Heard on the radio too. Makes me sick.
Not 1 of our guys are worth a 1000 of them sand ....

critter · 08-08-2011, 12:48 PM

Made front page here. Still is on the front page. 2 of them were from Arkansas. They're in God's arms now.

sleepy · 01:11 PM

I guess my question would be. WHY didn't they have some Apaches or cobras running escort cover for the transport bird??

60man · 08-08-2011, 01:07 PM

I hate to hear that....God bless them all
Rest in peace..

Wareagle · 08-08-2011, 01:25 PM

Yes - the Ultimate Sacrifice - My prayers and condolences to the family's . For procedure - Would they fire off some Chaff etc. as they were leaving or would that help in this incident .

sleepy · 08-08-2011, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wareagle

Yes - the Ultimate Sacrifice - My prayers and condolences to the family's . For procedure - Would they fire off some Chaff etc. as they were leaving or would that help in this incident .

I don't think Chaff would have done anything. Once a stinger is locked on, You're done.

There are three main variants in use: the Stinger basic, STINGER-Passive Optical Seeker Technique (POST), and STINGER-Reprogrammable Microprocessor (RMP).

The Stinger-RMP is so-called because of its ability to load a new set of software via ROM chip inserted in the grip at the depot. If this download to the missile fails during power-up, basic functionality runs off the on-board ROM. The four-processor RMP has 4K of RAM for each processor; since the downloaded code runs from RAM, there is little space to spare, particularly for processors dedicated to seeker input processing and target analysis. The RMP has a dual-detector seeker: IR and UV. This allows it to distinguish targets from countermeasures much better than the Redeye, which was IR-only

DanC · 08-08-2011, 01:47 PM

RIP my Heros.

DanC

Ogre · 08-08-2011, 01:53 PM

So far the only reports I have read and heard (some from retired generals who have GOOD inside sources) all indicate that the Chinook was downed by a RPG. There has been NO discussion of stingers, SA-7s, or anything similar. If the reports are right, this was the proverbial "golden BB." My understanding is that the RPG is about as accurate as the thousands of "willie petes" I fired.

I am sure the entire investigation is going to make sure we know IF more advanced weapon systems have been introduced by Iran, or others.

If the Chinook was in a hover preparing to land, it would have been a "sitting" target, but still a hit by a RPG is a "luck shot" at best.

God Bless them all, and their loved ones.

My

Ogre

1971WARBIRD · 08-08-2011, 02:07 PM

the flags on Kandahar Air Field (KAF) are at half mast. my brothers, missed but not forgotten.

Tom Vaught · 08-08-2011, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ogre

So far the only reports I have read and heard (some from retired generals who have GOOD inside sources) all indicate that the Chinook was downed by a RPG. There has been NO discussion of stingers, SA-7s, or anything similar. If the reports are right, this was the proverbial "golden BB." My understanding is that the RPG is about as accurate as the thousands of "willie petes" I fired.

I am sure the entire investigation is going to make sure we know IF more advanced weapon systems have been introduced by Iran, or others.

If the Chinook was in a hover preparing to land, it would have been a "sitting" target, but still a hit by a RPG is a "luck shot" at best.

God Bless them all, and their loved ones.

My

Ogre

My ASSUMPTION was a Stinger was used (the paper did not say it was a Stinger).

As Pat said, the odds of a conventional weapon, RPG, knocking down a Chinook is extremely, extremely, extremely rare vs a Stinger.

My article said the Chinook was on the way out, not in a hover coming in to land.

Tom Vaught

Region Warrior · 08-08-2011, 03:54 PM

Wonder where they got a Stinger from...

Cliff R · 08-08-2011, 04:27 PM

Tom is probably correct in his assessment that the helicopter attack was roughly planned out. Even if they didn't have a sophisticated weapon to actually take it out, they probably planned on using what the did have to make the attempt, which is usually an RPG.

Absolutely sucks that they made good on the effort. Rest assured that retaliation is being planned and executed as I type this. I'm sure they are tracking those responsible as I type this, and I doubt if any of them will be alive by the end of the week......Cliff

Ogre · 08-08-2011, 04:47 PM

Lot's of unanswered questions right now, ... differing news stories and all. Some reporting the Chinook was on the way out, others stating that it was responding to a call for help from a group of pinned-down Rangers, etc.

Supposedly there are up to a dozen of these missions each night, where troops go in to an area looking for Taliban Leaders, and the Chinooks are airborne with backups if needed, just waiting to be called. Also the altitude of the Afghan Mountains restricts the Blackhawks and others so ONLY the old, slow, cumbersome Chinooks can do the transport (think airborne truck) job.

Anyway, the investigation is continuing and hopefully they'll find out if the shootdown was from something more than a lucky RPG round.

Keep their loved ones in your prayers,
Ogre

i82much · 08-08-2011, 07:28 PM

heck you've probably got different stories going around among the troops back at Bagram and Khandahar, much less in the media. Could have been 1 of 100 RPG's that was actually fired.

Mr-Bratt · 08-08-2011, 09:17 PM

I dont care how it happened, I am sorry for our troops, Just bring them all home and let them A$$ wipes deal with thier problems we have lost way too many over there.

Tom Vaught · 08-09-2011, 05:58 PM

You would think that there would be "options" like this available to the Rangers on the ground. It can fly over any mountain in Afghanistan, can deliver awesome firepower, and the Taliban are scared of the things.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...zer-world.html

We used them years earlier with good results.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20...women_071229w/

Tom Vaught

Mr-Bratt · 08-09-2011, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

You would think that there would be "options" like this available to the Rangers on the ground. It can fly over any mountain in Afghanistan, can deliver awesome firepower, and the Taliban are scared of the things.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...zer-world.html

We used them years earlier with good results.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20...women_071229w/

Tom Vaught

Sorry. TOM, but just bring our people home, we have other problems here, let them shoot it out ;

Bob Rutledge · 08-10-2011, 08:39 AM

Mr. Bratt, it is true that we have problems here at home, many of which started on Sept. 11th 2001. That is why we are over there, as they decided they wanted to mess with us here. Mess with the bull, you get the horns.

Rugratman · 08-10-2011, 08:59 AM

I might have missed this, but was this the SEAL team that did in Osama?
I dont watch the news anymore.

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