Decorated Air Force Officer: Pentagon Covered Up Real Cause of the Shoot Down of Extortion 17

CIRCA.com’s Sara A. Carter in a column titled “A retired Air Force captain says Pentagon covered up real cause of deadly chopper crash” reports:

A decorated retired Air Force officer who witnessed one of the most deadly attacks on Navy SEALs in U.S. history is breaking her silence, saying the government covered up evidence detailing that the 2011 downing of a Chinook helicopter gunship [call sign Extortion 17] that killed 38 fighters in Afghanistan could have been prevented had it not been for restrictions to the military’s rules of engagement that were changed under the Obama administration.

The mission

August 6, 2011: Retired Air Force Capt. Joni Marquez and her crew were working the dark morning hours aboard an AC-130 gunship after being summoned to a mission she describes “as almost like a 9-1-1 type of a situation.”

The gunship was ordered to fly close-in air support above Afghanistan’s dangerous Tangi Valley, in Wardak Province, assisting troops with the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment who were being fired on by eight heavily armed Taliban insurgents.

Joni_Marquez.JPG

Retired Air Force Captain Joni Marquez was on the AC-130 gunship the night Extortion 17 was shot down. (Photo, Joni Marquez)

The Rangers had called in for assault helicopters to engage the enemy hiding among the rocky valley. The air weapons team fired on the Taliban fighters, but not all of the insurgents were killed as originally believed.

“I had the sensor operators immediately shift to the eight insurgents the helicopters had taken out,” Marquez told Circa, in her first interview about the incident. “Two were still alive.”

Marquez was the fire control officer aboard the AC-130 gunship, making sure that the sensors and weapons were aligned and allowing the crew hone in on targets.

Permission denied

That night it didn’t matter, because the gunship was not given permission to fire. “We had seen two of them (insurgents) moving, crawling away from the area, as to not really make a whole lot of scene,” she recalled.

Monitoring the scene from above, she relayed the scene to the ground force commander. “You have two enemy forces that are still alive,” she said. “Permission to engage.”

They were denied.

Read more.

The United West, on the fourth anniversary of the shoot down of Navy SEAL helicopter call sign – Extortion 17, release a critically important press conference that took place on May 9, 2013 in Washington, D.C. The May 2013 press conference confirmed what U.S. Air Force Captain Joni Marques says.

Please watch SEAL TEAM SIX – Extortion 17 EXPOSED:

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *