Call Sign Extortion 17 (23 page)

0250 1/B reports they are leaving all detainees on Objective LEFTY GROVE and moving to crash site ASAP (19)

0252 Additional AWT (Air Weapons Team) at FOB (Forward Operating Base) assumes REDCON level 2 (1)

0254 EXTORTION 16 arrives at [Forward Operating Base] (1)

0254 10th CAB Fire Support Officer (FSO) reports [unidentified unit] (B1-B) nine (9) minutes away from crash site (10)

0255 10th CAB intelligence section reports N (MQ-1) UAV O/S over crash site (10)

0256 (AC-130) assumes role as On-­Scene Commander (4)

0304 10th CAB FSO reports [unidentified unit] O/S at the EXTORTION 17 crash site.

* * *

0321 AWT (Air Weapons Team) conducting containment fire (7)

0327:43 element identifies possible FKIA IVO crash site for first time (3) **Refuted after viewing gun tapes and crew statements; coroner finds injuries invalidate the initial report**

* * *

0347 [Unidentified unit] reports insurgents have identified that coalition elements had entered a field, surveyed the aircraft, and then headed back to an unspecified road (14)

* * *

0350 TF (unidentified Task Force) approves the launch of the [Pathfinder] element to crash site (10)

0359 Pathfinder element (20 pax) (20 personnel) depart FOB (Forward Operating Base Shank) en-­route crash site on GALLANT 40/44 (2 x UH-60) (7/10)

* * *

0405 TF (task force) reports there is one friendly spotted 10-15 meters outside of crash site (10) **Refuted after viewing (apache) gun tapes and crew statements; coroner finds injuries invalidate the initial report**

0407 TF (task force) reports one coalition service member recovered from Crash site by (10) **Refuted after viewing gun tapes and crew statements**

* * *

0414 [Air Weapons Team Black Hawk helicopters] initiates suppressive fires IVO (in vicinity of) Pathfinder HLZ (helicopter landing zone)

0415 with Pathfinder element lands in HLZ approximately 600m southeast of crash site. (1/4/7)

0415 reports visual contact of Pathfinder element, but has not established radio communications (7)

 

There is considerable detail in the chronology, quite a contrast with the strange lack of detail in General Colt's Executive Summary, which created a different impression of what happened on the ground in the aftermath of the crash.

Recapping some key points in the chronology: By 2:50 a.m. the unidentified unit (Lima Bravo) is abandoning its Lefty Grove position and heading to the crash site.

At 2:55 a.m., the Predator drone is overhead, providing close aviation supervision of the site. Remember that the Predator drone can provide fire support from the air.

At 3:04 a.m., an unidentified unit (presumably Lima Bravo) is on site.

At 3:47 a.m., “insurgents have identified that coalition elements had entered a field, surveyed the aircraft, and then headed back to an unspecified road.” Note that “coalition elements” entered the field, surveyed the aircraft—whatever that means—and left. It's odd that there was no ­follow-­up and no clarification on this point. No questions were asked in the transcripts along the lines of “who were these coalition elements?” Or “what does it mean that they
surveyed
the aircraft and then left?” All that is ignored.

Three minutes later, at 3:50 a.m., the Task Force (presumably Lima Bravo on the ground)
approves the launch
of the Pathfinder element. So all the activity described so far has taken place on the ground before permission is granted for the Pathfinder element to take off. Nine minutes later, at 3:59 a.m., the Pathfinder element, with two members aboard, takes off headed for the crash site.

Stop and think about the timing of the Pathfinder launch. Extortion 17 was fatally attacked at 2:39 a.m. The principal unit that typically
searches wreckage sites was not even launched until one hour and twenty minutes after the shoot-­down.

Then at 4:14 a.m., the Air Weapons Team delivered pre-­assault fire on the landing zone, and one minute later the Pathfinder team landed on the ground, 600 meters from the crash site, or 656 yards (1,968 feet) from the crash zone. To put that in more perspective, the Pathfinders have landed a little less than one half mile away.

Testimony from exhibits 65 and 84 helps explain what both the Pathfinders and Rangers found when they landed.

Here is what the Pathfinder leader said (Exhibit 65, page 3).

 

PF PLT LDR:
Just when we touched down and LZ was just starting to get light sir, so we were still moving [in a] period of limited visibility. I think it was 560 meters from our LZ to the crash site just would have been to the southeast, we moved parallel in the Wadi up to the khalat the Lima Bravo element was already on scene, I think they beat us about 30 minutes.

 

Here's what the Army Ranger Platoon Leader said at page 5, Exhibit 84.

 

We got a few hours of sleep, probably four hours of sleep or so, and then at a point somebody came and got me and woke me up and said you guys have been notified you are going to be the element to go and relieve 1/B at the crash site. You need to get up and get spinning on this.

 

From this testimony, we know the Ranger unit was actually deployed into the crash site to relieve this Lima Bravo unit. This is corroborated by the brief exchange at page 8 of Exhibit 84.

 

SME-­GFA:
And correct me if I'm wrong, but the element had some outside security is that true?

RANGER PLATOON LEADER:
Roger sir, they still had the outer cordon, they didn't have any folks right on top of the wreckage or just outside for security purpose.

 

So we know, not only from Enclosure H, but also the testimony from Exhibits 65 and 84, that this “Unit 1/B” or “Lima Bravo” was on the ground considerably sooner than the Rangers.

But that's not how it's portrayed in Brigadier General Colt's Executive Summary. General Colt made it appear that the Rangers first arrived at 4:12 a.m. Nothing was mentioned of anything happening on the ground before then.

Here's how the Executive Summary described the first moments on the ground after the shoot-­down:

 

6. Recovery Operations,
Following the shoot-­down, the Ranger-­led assault force began a rapid foot movement to the crash site. At 04:12. The assault force was the first element to arrive at the crash, established a security perimeter around it, and began searching for survivors. The assault force initially discovered twelve friendly remains, but could not immediately continue recovery efforts due to secondary explosions from within the wreckage. Within minutes, the 20-man Pathfinder element (downed aircraft rescue and recovery unit) joined the assault force to assist in site security and recovery of remains.

 

So the question here is “Why?” Why no mention in the Executive Summary of the Predator drone securing the airspace? Why no mention of the Unit “1/B” arriving at 3:04 a.m.? Why no mention of Coalition elements “surveying” the aircraft at 3:47 a.m.?

Did General Colt not want this important data in the official report? If not, why not? Did something happen in that period of time that the military does not wish to focus upon? Perhaps the removal of the black box?

“Lima Bravo” a Joint Special Operation Unit?

Just who was this mysterious Lima Bravo unit, apparently also known as “1/B,” that appears to have been the first unit on the ground, but whose presence was mysteriously not mentioned in the Executive Summary?

The unit appeared to be part of the Joint Special Operations Task Force. The testimony of the JSOTF operations officer confirmed this (Exhibit 1, pages 115–116) when he called the infiltrating team “our guys.”

 

JSOTF J3:
Immediately after the crash happened, you know, obviously, the battle space owner element, they offered up their Pathfinder element, which is a quick reaction force they have standing by primarily for aviation incidences like this. They said they're ready to go and they wanted to infill them.

Obviously, we were very hesitant to put in any additional aircraft. So we were weighing the time it was going to take to get there because it was about a 3.9 kilometer movement. By the time it was going to take them to get there with—you know, they needed to get that site secure and the additional risk, the rotary wing aircraft getting them there. Based on our assessment of the time it was taking, you know, the decision was made to infill the Task Force element into an HLZ, you can see reflected there at item Number 10. But, really, what had ended up happening was our guys, ended up getting there prior to the Pathfinder element.

They secured the site, and the Pathfinder element linked up with on the ground about 0027 Zulu there.

 

Joint Special Operations is a joint unit, meaning the unit could have been composed of several branches of the military—possibly Navy SEALs, possibly US Army Rangers, possibly US Army Delta Force, possibly Marine Recon. They were not regular US Army. This unit arrived much earlier than the regular Ranger unit, based upon the Ranger unit leader's testimony at Exhibit 84, indicating that the “1/B” unit
and
the Pathfinders were already on the ground when the regular Ranger unit arrived.

There appears to be a distinction between Lima Bravo, apparently under the Joint Special Operations Task Force for this mission, and the Ranger unit referenced in their unit leader's testimony at Exhibit 84.

General Colt's Executive Summary does not mention members of the Joint Special Operations Task Force arriving on the ground.

Also, it should be noted that Lima Bravo, per the J3's testimony, was approximately 3.9 kilometers (2.4 miles) away at the time of the crash at 2:39 a.m.

At average walking speed of 4 mph, it would take about thirty-­seven minutes to walk 2.5 miles. The Special Ops unit would most likely have been moving on foot faster than the average civilian.

Because Enclosure H shows elements of the group arriving at 3:04, or twenty-­five minutes later, it is safe to assume that they were deployed to the site immediately after the shoot-­down and moved with some speed and urgency.

By contrast, General Colt said in his Executive Summary that the Rangers arrived at 4:12 a.m. (one hour and thirty-­two minutes after shoot-­down), which would imply lollygagging of over an hour in trying to make a decision on whether to send the Special Forces unit to the crash site by foot (if he's implying that the Joint Special Forces and Rangers were one in the same). A one-­hour time lag is not believable. That decision would have been made and, in fact, was made
immediately.

Note the J3's testimony. In describing the timeframe for making a decision to send guys in on foot, he uses this phrase: “Immediately after the crash happened.”

Once again Colt's summary does not match the facts.

So why omit the actual arrival time of the Lima Bravo team and instead make it appear that the Ranger unit was first to arrive at 4:12? Ordinarily, showing the earlier arrival time would be a feather in the military's cap, by showing the almost immediate movement of forces into the crash area to search for possible survivors and clear the area.

It seems odd that the actual arrival time would be omitted, unless, of course, the military did not want questions asked about what happened in the crash zone during that timeframe between 3:04 a.m. and 4:12 a.m.

Could activity that occurred during this timeframe provide a clue as to what happened to the black box?

Remember that the activities described by the Pathfinder leader, in searching for the black box, occurred
after
whatever undocumented activities took place in the crash zone between 3:04 a.m. and 4:12 a.m.

The Pathfinders, who were not part of the Joint Special Operations force that was on the ground effective 3:04 a.m., had been told that the chopper had a black box (flight data recorder) and were told to go look for it. They even spent considerable time looking for it.

Could the black box, unbeknownst to the Pathfinders, have been removed between 3:04 a.m. and 4:12 a.m.? Could the black box possibly have been removed by special ground forces who were ordered to remove it from the cockpit because it contained data revealing evidence of Taliban infiltration of Extortion 17? Could it have been removed because it contained information embarrassing to the military and/or the Obama Administration?

There is no direct evidence that the box was removed during that time period. But something happened to it.

It's equally disturbing that no one from the Lima Bravo unit that arrived at 3:04 a.m. was interviewed in the Colt investigation, and it's also both disturbing and suspicious that their presence was not even noted in the Executive Summary.

Why not?

Also disturbing and suspicious is the fact that neither the Executive Summary nor the congressional “hearing” delve at all into the reference to Coalition elements “surveying” the wreckage at 3:47 a.m.

Here's that notation from Enclosure H again, where, twenty minutes after Lima Bravo arrives at the crash site, at 3:47 a.m., “insurgents have identified that coalition elements had entered a field, surveyed the aircraft, and then headed back to an unspecified road.”

Just what does that mean? Does it mean that “insurgents” (the enemy) saw Coalition forces approaching the wreckage?

What does it mean that coalition elements “surveyed the aircraft”? Could this “survey” of the aircraft, out in the field, have anything to do with the missing black box?

And what's this “unspecified road” that Coalition forces headed back to?

And why would these “Coalition elements” have a need to head back up an “unspecified road”
prior
to the arrival of the Pathfinders on the scene at 4:15 a.m.?

It seems, logically, that in the minutes following the shoot-­down, this would be the time to be reinforcing troops on the ground, not pulling them out already. Is it possible that these “coalition elements” retreated back along this “unspecified road” because they had something in their possession that they didn't want the Pathfinders to find? Perhaps a black box?