Navy SEALs received national attention for two very different events in 2011. The first was the mission that killed infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The second incident was much more tragic.
In August of 2011, a crash of a helicopter gunship in Afghanistan killed all 38 people on board, including 17 SEALs. Known by the call sign “Extortion 17,” the event resulted in the greatest loss of American military lives in a single incident during the war in Afghanistan.
Now, a retired Air Force officer is speaking out about Extortion 17 — and according to her account, much of the blame for those deaths lies squarely on the Obama administration.
Retired Air Force Capt. Joni Marquez served aboard an AC-130 “Spectre” gunship on the fateful day. According to Circa.com, the fixed-wing aircraft had been ordered to fly close air support for Army Rangers who were engaged in a firefight with Taliban insurgents on the ground in Afghanistan.
The Rangers called in supporting fire from nearby assault helicopters, who engaged the Taliban. Many of the enemy force were killed, but vitally, a handful survived.
“I had the sensor operators immediately shift to the eight insurgents the helicopters had taken out,” Capt. Marquez explained to Circa, in her first interview regarding those events. “Two were still alive.”
As the fire control officer on the Spectre aircraft, Marquez’s job was to coordinate the detailed sensors with the powerful weapons, and ensure that the crew was properly targeting the correct points on the ground.
From the air, the AC-130 crew could detect that some of the armed insurgents were still alive and were likely going for reinforcements.
“We had seen two of them (insurgents) moving, crawling away from the area, as to not really make a whole lot of scene,” Marquez remembered. She passed that information to the ground commander. “You have two enemy forces that are still alive,” she said. “Permission to engage.”
Shockingly, that request was denied...
Read more at:
http://conservativetribune.com/capt-bombshell-seals-died
