Austin

15 years ago today, August 6, 2011, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying an American quick reaction force (QRF) was struck by a Taliban RPG in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, Afghanistan. All 38 men aboard were killed. 17 Navy SEALs, the majority from DEVGRU's Gold Squadron, 5 Naval Special Warfare support personnel, 3 Air Force Special Tactics airmen, the Army helicopter crew, and 7 Afghan commandos plus an interpreter and military working dog. It remains the single deadliest day in the history of American special operations and the greatest loss the Navy SEAL community has ever endured. The mission itself was almost ordinary. The team was flying in as reinforcements for Army Rangers already in contact nearby, which was familiar work these men had performed countless times. There was nothing unusual about the call that night. That's part of what makes the loss so difficult to absorb: a routine task, one unlucky shot, and in a moment an entire generation of hard won experience was gone. 15 years later the loss still moves through the community, through the men who lived only because they were not on that helicopter, through the families of the ones who were, and through every Gold Star wife and child who marks this date each year. We speak their names and remember what a single night can take from an entire brotherhood. Never forgotten 🔱