Fallen Angel – Call Sign: Extortion 17The documentary is 2021 and follows the story of how an Army Chinook CH-47 was shot down on August 6, 2011. It killed 30 Americans, eight Afghans, as well as a service dog. Among those killed were 17 SEALs, most of whom were Team Six’s gold squadron members. Extortion 17 resulted in the single worst loss of life in the Afghanistan War and the worst loss of life in special operations’ history.
This film combines a compelling collection of reenactments with heartbreaking, sometimes emotional interviews with the families of fallen soldiers. Interviews with experts, Rangers at ground, the C-130’s fire control officer, as well as soldiers disputing the DOD narrative, are included.
It leaves the viewer with many more questions than answers. All told, the documentary offers a troubling — if not uncommon — picture of deception, obfuscation, and lack of accountability by the Pentagon. The Pentagon presented a jigsaw that, when the reviewer tries to assemble it, won’t produce a matching mosaic.
Beyond the obvious culprits that night (bad guys with guns and RPGs), the film points a rightful finger at America’s absurd Rules of Engagement (ROE). ROEs have been a major problem for our warfighters ever since Vietnam. ROEs are not rules of war, and the film makes that clear – they are self-imposed “rules” that have, without doubt, resulted in American casualties. Officers on-duty and ROEs on the evening of August 6th 2011 almost certainly led to the greatest loss of lives in Afghanistan.
ROEs in Vietnam prohibited combat pilots from firing upon MiGs, unless they could see their enemy. Why? Because a pilot needed to see “hostile intent” first. This resulted in making radar-guided missiles useless because those missiles were designed to fire before visually seeing “intent.” A tool designed to kill the enemy before the enemy could kill our warfighters was rendered illegal pursuant to Robert McNamara’s ROEs. Before pilots were allowed to engage SAM sites, a SAM must be first fired. Black Hawk Down shows that soldiers were stopped from firing at first during the Mogadishu battle. Bad guys carrying guns wasn’t enough evidence — the hostiles needed to take a shot at our guys before our guys could defend themselves.
Extortion 17’s filmmakers offer that ROEs were a main cause of the disaster. They’re right. They’re right. Rangers had already engaged combatants on the ground before the Chinook arrived and killed only two of them. These two “squirters” had disengaged and were running from the Rangers. There is no doubt that they had fired on the Rangers and were identified by the circling C130H crew as “hostiles.” The fire control officer, Captain Joni Marquez, requested permission to kill them. Although this request was within ROEs and clearly in line with war rules, the request was rejected. Further pleas from Capt Marquez weren’t granted. They were clearly seen gathering men. This group was evidently seen gathering other men.
The film delves into the aftermath and the Pentagon’s attempt to whitewash and hide evidence about what happened. The film raises disturbing questions as well as intriguing theories, even though we won’t know the truth.
Why, for example, did the Pentagon present a witness to a congressional hearing that almost certain lied or wasn’t well-informed? The Pentagon’s witness stated under oath that the Chinook didn’t have a “black box” voice recorder. The claim was refuted by two Chinook soldiers, who stated, unambiguously, that Chinook had a “black box” voice recorder.
Why did the Pentagon claim that the “black box” didn’t exist, but also claim that the black box was washed away in a “flood”? A voice recorder can be found in 10,000 feet of deep black ocean, but not in shallow creek beds. Why did the soldiers from Mountain 10 Division send them to retrieve it? To retrieve it?
Why was all of the body cremated? All the family members requested cremation. Pentagon claims that all of the bodies were burnt in subsequent fires. This claim is false. It is false. At least four of those men were able to escape the Chinook unharmed. The traumatizing experience of an army mortuary who was responsible for handling remains has left him still traumatized. He saw bodies, but also witnessed the Pentagon lying to his families.
Pentagon dismisses the relatives of the dead SEALs and calls them conspiracy theorists. It is this same Pentagon, which invented a whole story and lied about it to Pat Tillman’s family and later to America. It is the same Pentagon which was aware that Tillman died from friendly fire but mythologized his death to create heroic deaths. This Pentagon has been repeatedly lying about Extortion 17.
Film explores deeper, darker issues that I won’t go into here. These are the two main things I took away from this film:
- Thirty-seven Americans have lost their lives due to ROEs, and/or the officers who denied Captain Marquez the right to kill the evil guys. She is still depressed, and once considered suicide due to her inability stop the Extortion 17 catastrophe.
- Pentagon is full of incompetent general personnel and liars. The “boots” on the ground are the heroes but they are constantly having their legs undercut by bureaucrats and toadies in and out of uniform.
My son served as an add-on with DEVGRU in the SEALs and was also a SEAL. After Extortion 17, and the release of the official narrative, I remember speaking to him. He said two things I remember: The loss was devastating — that the warriors lost were “irreplaceable” — and the explanation was “bullshit.”
FALLEN ANGEL – Call Sign: Extortion 17 is worth a watch.
Editor’s Note: FALLEN ANGEL – Call Sign: Extortion 17 is a production of SalemNow, part of Salem Media Group, the parent company of RedState.com.
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