Here's what happened to the SEALS

Ithaca 37

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This contains an account of what happened to the Navy SEALS



FYI, Bert is a 50 yr old LTC who has been stationed in
Afganistan for a year and is coming home this week. He just completed his last mountain mission before returning and should be on his way home.
Read the account of the attached letter concerning the Seals.
Heart Moving.


FINAL UPDATE

Hello everyone, this is my final update. Let me start by
telling you that I am in excellent health and in good spirits. I
apologize for not keeping you informed these last few months but
our operational tempo was too high and our operational security did
not allow me to share with you what missions we were conducting.
When I return home I hope to sit down and write about our spring
offensive here. However I will share with you that my team in Farah
captured Mullah Sultan who was a mid level Taliban leader and a target
that
we had been searching for several months. He is still being
interrogated in Afghanistan but should be making the long
journey to GITMO (providing it is still open) very soon.

I will be home in a couple of weeks and plan to have a party
around Labor Day weekend so please mark you calendars because I would
love to see you there. This update will be extremely short but I do
want to close it by telling you some insight about the SEAL Team and
Night Stalker tragedy that occurred a few weeks ago. By now you
have heard a lot about what happen but I really want share how
significant that event was to the soldiers on the ground here
and to explain in my opinion why I feel it is important that all
Americans continue the fight for freedom.

Before I explain what happen to the SEALs, I want to thank you
all for your prayers, emails, care packages, yard work and all the
things that you did for me in my family while I have been
deployed. The support from my friends and neighbors has been incredible
and
humbling. Your support has helped me to endure this incredibly
long year and to concentrate on what I was doing here with minimum
worrying about Pam and "A". Thank you all from the bottom of my
heart.

The Naval Special Forces (NAVSOF) team that was involved in the
operation in Kunar Province had been traveling throughout
Afghanistan conducting apprehend or kill missions against Al
Qaeda and Taliban operatives. They had worked with us for two weeks,
three weeks before the events on June 28. While working with
our teams, they attempted to take out a high value Taliban target
and missed him by hours. This operation was conducted in the Zerico
Valley which has been one of our hot spots. We provided the
outer ring security for the SEALs with Afghan National Army soldiers
and ETTs while the SEALs conducted the compound assault. We missed
the big target but did get some mid level guys so the mission was
not a total bust. The NAVSOF guys are the best of the best, not cocky
simply professionals in every way, we call them operators.

On June 28 a four man SEAL reconnaissance team was trying to
locate Taliban in the dense mountainous and forested area of the Kunar
Province of Afghanistan. They were trying to identify routes
that the bad guys use to enter from Pakistan. The targeting
information would be used to direct U.S. and Afghan forces who would
interdict and destroy those enemy forces. The SEALs were spotted and
engaged by a large force of Taliban some where between 25-50 insurgents. The Taliban who are still alive and fighting in Afghanistan are
very good combatants. Unlike Iraq Arabs, they are not suicidal and
they use good small unit tactics. The bad guys used Rocket Propel
Grenades (RPGs), mortars and small arms to attack the SEALs.
The team set up a 360 degree defense and called in Hornet Nest
(troops in contact) back to their operational base. The command and
control headquarters for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan moved a Predator
unmanned drone over the battle location. The SEALs were located
by the predator by their locator beacon and the inferred camera
system of the drone. The headquarters could see that the TEAM was
encircled by bad guys and that the enemy was too close to the
SEALs to use Air force close air support. A weather front was rapidly
coming into the area and the SEAL Commander a Lieutenant
Commander ask permission to launch his quick reaction force to go rescue
his men. The commander of TF 160th (the Night Stalkers) agreed to
fly the mission.


The Night Stalkers are the Army's Special Operations air wing.
They specialize in high risk insertion and extraction at night.
It was not night fall yet and the command hesitated because sending
the special operation birds into the area in the light was very
risky.
The Generals look at the screen that was giving a live feed of
the fire fight, they saw that the SEALs were surrounded, they did
not see a way for them to escape, a weather front was coming, it was
dusk but not dark yet and time for the trapped men was running
out. Leadership requires having the guts to make a decision, based on
analysis and forethought. You must totally recognize the risk
and be ready to accept the results. The general in charge made the
right call, he had to try to rescue the operators, we as
American soldiers cannot leave our people on the battlefield, every
Airman, Marine, Sailor, Coast Guardsmen and Soldier has to know that
when you go down range and things go wrong keep fighting and help
will come.

The decision was made, two CH 47 Pave Hawk helicopters headed
toward the SEALs. The CH 47 is a large aircraft but it is fast for a
helicopter, able to fly at 170 knots. The aircraft entered the
mountains flying at 50 feet above the ground with 16 men aboard.
All four SEALs were still alive and fighting an unbelievable
battle. As the lead bird approached the landing zone they started to
slow down and the air speed dropped under 100 Knots, another group of
Taliban, not engaged in the initial firefight but in the area
saw the aircraft and open fire with small arms and RPG's. The lead
aircraft was hit by a RPG but the aviator kept the bird in the
air. They were in the mountains; therefore there was no clear place
to land. He flew for about a mile and saw a ledge that he could
try to put the bird down on. The CH 47 landed on the ledge hard, they
almost made it. The hard landing and the palpitations of the
rotors were too much for the small landing zone and weak ground. It
was their time, the aircraft rolled off of the ledge on to its side
and down the mountain into the valley below. 8 SEALs and 8 aviators
from TF 160th were gone. The other aircraft could not land in the hot landing zone and were called back. There was not enough time to try to secure the
area kept fighting and used the cover of darkness to crawl out of the
initial enemy lines. The SEALs were engaged again and had a
running gun battle for over two hours. The SEAL that survived was
knocked unconscious by a mortar round and found that he was alone when
he woke up. Two of his team members were dead close by, and the
last team member was missing. They had dropped all none essential
gear during their escape therefore all contact with them was lost.
Eventually the surviving SEAL ran into a villager who took him
to his house. That shepherd, at great risk to himself, protected
the SEAL until he could be moved six hours away to the nearest U.S.
forces that the villager was aware of.

The loss of the operators really broke the hearts of all us
deployed down range. Losing men of that quality and dedication is bad
enough one at a time, but to lose so many, so fast was hard to
comprehend. But after the shock had worn off and we got the true story of what happen we took solace. You see every one did what they supposed
to on that day, the SEAL recon team kept fighting, the SEAL
commander went to get his shipmates, the Night Stalkers volunteered to
fly in to harms way to rescue their brothers in arms and the generals
had the guts to make the right decision. That is all you can ask
for out here, it is what it is and everything else is god's will. I
have had the pleasure of serving with some unbelievable men and
woman in the last year. Folks from 18 to 59 (yes 59). It has
been an honor. I really appreciated America before I came to
Afghanistan but this experience has truly opened my eyes to how bless my
life has been.


Folks I know this is a cliché, but freedom is not free.
Embrace it, respect it and don't ever stop fighting for it. These
people over here are far from free, but we have given them a taste of
it. We need to ensure that we don't give up the fight because to do
so would be to dishonor all the men and woman who have died to
ensure we remain free. Freedom is contagious, with it, out goes
tyranny. The evil people that attack America on September 11th were not
free because if they were, they would not have cared what another's
persons beliefs are they would simply accept them for what they are and moved on.


Please continue to pray for all the soldiers in Afghanistan and
Iraq, don't stop praying for me because I am still here, and
your prayers have been working so keep it up, I don't to mess up a
good thing. I will be home soon, god bless you all, god bless
America and thanks again, goodbye


Cheers,
 
This is a great find and a good read, thanks Ithaca... Hope to read more stories on the bravery of our fighting men and women.... Thanks... :)
 
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