previous post next post  

The CH-47 shoot-down in Wardak.

By The Armorer on October 14, 2011 | | Comments (6)
Sometimes, in war, shit happens. The enemy gets a vote, and every now and then scores an upset. That's the gist of the executive summary of the report. 

Wardak CH-47 Executive Summary

Share This Article:

Share |

Categories:

Tags:

6 Comments

By Heartless Libertarian on October 14, 2011 1:39 PM
Also, the enemy is not stupid, and he gets a vote.
 
By Fred on October 14, 2011 1:55 PM
 "I have determined that this mission, and the tactics and resources employed in its execution, were consistent with previous special operations missions..."

Translation: We got away with it before.
 
By John of Argghhh! on October 14, 2011 2:05 PM
Yeah, Dave, I said that.

Fred - that's another way to spin it, certainly.  Flip side, just because we did it before, didn't make it wrong to do it this time, either.  Nor did it make it right, by default.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on October 14, 2011 5:29 PM
 " We got away with it before."
That's how you pick out the good SOPs.

Cheers
 
By BillT on October 14, 2011 5:41 PM
The planning was good, and I can't fault the execution -- the PC's decision to come in from the direction opposite the previous insertion was a smart move. Every so often, the dirtbags just get lucky, and it was only pure damn luck that the RPG hit a rotor blade at all, let alone hitting one where it did...
 
By John (Not The Armorer) on October 15, 2011 12:20 AM
This was not the usual "aircraft accident investigation" where a loss has to be from the pilot, the aircraft or the weather.  This is combat and the enemy get to shot back, and they got lucky.

Good clean investigation, and looks like our guys were doing stuff the smart way and the best way to get the mission accomplished, but the risks can never be all avoided, and the took a major hit.  It would be bad if it was 38 average troops, but the loss of so much training and expertise was a much larger operational loss, even though the loss to families is always the same no matter the other variables.