by Ed Darack
The original Extortion sign, with signatures of pilots and crew, at FOB Shank. Several Black Hawk crew chiefs at Shank would cut out the sign in 2013 and return it to Buddy Lee. Credit 40
While the shock of the tragedy waned in the years following the downing of Extortion 17, memories of those killed not only endured but grew more powerful. “I denied it for years,” said Kaitlen Carter. “I thought that it was a mistake, that the Army had made a terrible mistake—that my dad was still in Afghanistan, flying, doing what he loved. I just felt that he was coming home, that one day I’d come home and he’d be there,” she said. “But I accept it now. And I think of him every day, how wonderful a father he was.”
“I see Kevin [Houston] in my dreams,” said Jan Anderson. “In one, I open the front door, and he comes in and looks around and says, ‘I really like your new house.’ And I tell him, ‘I’m so happy you like it.’ Then he hugs me and walks out, and he vanishes.”
The most vivid of her dreams involves Kevin’s youngest son. “I’m holding him up against my shoulder, with him looking behind me, and we’re walking through a field, and the sun is shining—we can feel its warmth, and there’s a perfect breeze. And [Kevin’s son] is telling me, ‘Nanna, I miss my dad. I miss him so much.’ And out of nowhere, there’s Kevin, approaching us through the field, and he’s wearing his jeans, his Red Sox hat, and he puts his finger to his lips and comes right up to us and takes his son by surprise and holds him and says, ‘I love you. And I’ll always be with you.’ Then he kisses him and holds him, and then he gives his son back to me and brushes his cheek to mine and walks four or five steps. And then he vanishes.”
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AWS Area Weapon System
AWT Attack Weapons Team
BUD/S Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL
CENTCOM Central Command
COP combat outpost
DEVGRU Naval Special Warfare Development Group
FE flight engineer
FLIR forward-looking infrared
FOB Forward Operating Base
HAATS High Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site
ICS internal communication system
IED improvised explosive device
IRF immediate reaction force
ISR intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
JPEL Joint Prioritized Effects List
JSOC Joint Special Operations Command
JTAC Joint Terminal Attack Controller
LZ landing zone
NVGs night-vision goggles
OEF Operation Enduring Fury
OIF Operation Iraqi Freedom
PID positive identification
RC-E Regional Command East
ROE rules of engagement
RPG rocket-propelled grenade
SEAL sea, air, and land
SOAR Special Operations Aviation Regiment
SOCOM Special Operations Command
SOF special operations forces
TADS/PNVS target acquisition and designation site–pilot night-vision system
SOURCES
1. REDCON 2
Justin “Buddy” Lee provided information on the individuals in the helicopter and recalled their quotes for me, which he heard as they were transmitted. Lee and Kirk Kuykendall provided insight on standard operating procedures, such as “safing” weapons. Kuykendall also supplied quotes such as “Left gun, safe and clear,” standard language that is always stated in this exact manner, and Lee corroborated these quotes. I gleaned information from Lee and Kuykendall through face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, email, and text and Facebook messages. I interviewed Apache pilot John Edgemon via phone and email for general information on the Tangi Valley and its importance in the war. I used Google Earth to determine the distance from the Tangi to Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, and I used photos taken by Lee and satellite imagery to describe the terrain of the Tangi. Lee provided information about the insert flight and the standard procedures the passengers carried out. Edgemon provided insight into other aircraft of the operation described, including the AC-130 and the two Apaches. The standardized cockpit procedures for landing the troops at the start of the operation came from Lee, and standardized procedures by crew and passengers came from Kuykendall. Information about the difficulty of flying at night came from Lee. Information about the warlord and the operation was drawn from the Colt Report (http://extortion17book.com/resources/colt.pdf). Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and intelligence development information came from a trusted, anonymous intelligence officer and my analysis of the Colt Report.
2. AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR
Information on the general nature of Operation Enduring Freedom was culled from my book Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers—the Marine Corps’ Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan (New York: Berkley, 2010). Insight into violence in the Tangi in the summer of 2011 came from phone and email conversations with John Edgemon and in-person interviews with Buddy Lee. Information about the 160th SOAR(A) came from my phone interviews with Matt Brady, who was a 160th pilot and commander. Information on the role special operations played in Operation Enduring Freedom and their integration with conventional forces came from U.S. Marine Brigadier General Norm Cooling, with whom I worked on Victory Point; I communicated with him via email for this book, and his quotes are drawn from these recent interviews. Information about SOF units requesting conventional aviation support came from CW5 David “Pat” Gates, a conventional Army Chinook pilot who worked extensively with special operations ground units in Iraq and who has direct knowledge of SOF raids supported by conventional Army aviators in Afghanistan. Detailed information on the abandonment of Combat Outpost Tangi was provided by Edgemon in a phone interview, and it is also in an Army.mil release: www.army.mil/article/54693. Information on the naming of FOB Shank came from Lee and from a Military Times overview of the soldier, Michael A. Shank, for which it was named: http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-staff-sgt-michael-a-shank/2394988. Geographic information on FOB Shank was derived using Google Earth. Lee provided information on those waiting at FOB Shank, including names and ranks. Helicopter transmission information on ground activity came from Edgemon, one of the Apache pilots on-scene during that period-of-darkness. Description of Extortion Company members—in particular Dave Carter, Bryan Nichols, Pat Hamburger, Spencer Duncan, and Alex Bennett—came from many sources. I interviewed Laura Carter, Dave’s widow, by phone, in person, and via email, text, and Facebook messages. I interviewed his daughter, Kaitlen Carter; his son, Kyle Carter; and his mother, Elsie Carter, by phone. I interviewed his fellow pilots Andy Bellotti, in person and via email, phone, and text messages; Pat Gates, in person and by phone; and Tom Renfroe, by phone and via email. I also interviewed the adjutant general of the Colorado National Guard, Major General H. Michael Edwards. To learn about Nichols, I relied heavily on in-person and phone interviews with Lee; they went through much together. Lee introduced me to Nichols’s mother and father, Doug and Cynthia, whom I interviewed in person twice and repeatedly by phone. Lee also introduced me to Nichols’s widow, Mary, whom I interviewed a number of times, including an in-person interview and phone and text messages. I learned about Hamburger through phone interviews with his mother and stepfather, Joyce and DeLayne Peck. I learned about Duncan through in-person and phone interviews with Kirk Kuykendall and Lee, and I conducted phone interviews with Duncan’s parents, Megan and Dale Duncan. I learned about Alex primarily through in-person and phone conversations with Bennett and, to a lesser extent, in-person and phone interviews with Lee.
3. “MAKE IT COUNT”
Information on Spencer Duncan came primarily through my phone and text message interviews with his mother and father, Megan and Dale. I interviewed Kirk Kuykendall about Duncan in person and by phone.
4. FORGING A MODERN U.S. ARMY AVIATOR AND COMMANDER
Buddy Lee provided most information about himself in this chapter through
in-person, phone, and text message interviews with me. I interviewed his wife, Christy, too, in some of these in-person interviews. The description of then-President George W. Bush’s September 20, 2011, address to the nation came from a C-Span broadcast on YouTube. I interviewed Kirk Kuykendall in person and by phone about his deployment to Pakistan for earthquake relief. I relied on Google Earth for geographic information and on my book Victory Point for details on Peshawar, Pakistan, and its ties to international terrorism.
5. EXTORTION COMPANY AND THE MODERN AMERICAN WAR MACHINE
I relied on my in-person interviews with Buddy Lee and his wife, Christy, for the opening of this chapter and all of Lee’s quotes; Lee also provided most of the information about the naming of Extortion Company. I relied on Google Earth for geographic references. Information on the modern construct of the U.S. Department of Defense and combatant commands came from phone interviews with Air Force Reserve Colonel Mike “Tiger” Greiger, an expert in these matters. Geographic information on U.S. Central Command was drawn from www.centcom.mil/AREA-OF-RESPONSIBILITY. Kirk Kuykendall’s quotes and references in this chapter came from my in-person interview with him. For discussion of Regional Command East, I consulted my book Victory Point and the NATO website www.rs.nato.int/subordinate-commands/rc-east/index.php#AOR/.
6. SPECIAL OPERATIONS AND THE 160TH
Information for this chapter came primarily from phone and email interviews with Matt Brady. Geographic information came from Google Earth; information about the Desert One tragedy came from the Holloway Report, in the National Archives (http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB63/doc8.pdf). Information on Operation Anaconda came from my phone interview with Brady. Information in this chapter’s conclusion came from my in-person and phone interviews with Kirk Kuykendall.
7. THROUGH THE PERILOUS SKIES OF WAR
The internal Army study noted at the opening of this chapter was provided to me by an anonymous Army instructor pilot. Quotes from Colonel Anthony Bianca came from my phone interviews with him; information on and the quote from Regan Turner came from a phone interview with him. Much of the Sampson 22 information came from an anonymous Marine helicopter aviator very familiar with the incident. I also gleaned information on the incident from a report released by Wikileaks: https://wardiaries.wikileaks.org/id/3330F732-DCAF-487D-8DC4-F8DF5EAA5447. Geographic information came from Google Earth. Quotes and insights from Kurt Thormahlen came from my phone interviews with him. I learned about Haditha Dam during my embed with the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment in February and March 2007. I interviewed Colonel James Donnellan via email for parts of this chapter detailing the CH-46E incident at the dam. To ensure accuracy of details (e.g., name spellings, ages, units) about the non-Marines lost that day, I checked their Military Times pages: for Dustin M. Atkins: http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-dustin-m-adkins/2406361; for Kermit O. Evans: http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/air-force-capt-kermit-o-evans/2406355. In addition, I was very familiar with Trane McCloud, and Donnellan is a close friend to this day. Findings about the CH-46E incident were given to me by an anonymous senior Marine Corps officer familiar with the investigation and subsequent actions by the Marine Corps.
8. PROGRESSION OF EXCELLENCE
Information in the opening of this chapter came from in-person interviews with Buddy Lee, as did subsequent quotes and references from Lee. Information about Alex Bennett and the progression of specialties came from Kirk Kuykendall, Bennett’s primary mentor, who also provided specifics on Army flight regulations. The closing of the chapter, where I discuss logistical difficulties and the importance of helicopters, drew upon my direct experience over the course of four combat embeds in Afghanistan. Information throughout this chapter came from three hour-long phone interviews with Major Tom Renfroe, including all his quotes; a mechanical engineer, he was an ideal source because of his background and because he flies Chinooks for the Colorado National Guard.
9. FAMILIES AND WAR
Information for the first part of this chapter came primarily from my interviews with Joyce and DeLayne Peck, Patrick Hamburger’s mother and stepfather. Technical information on the type of engines used in the Chinook and historical information on the aircraft came from a document by Nick Van Valkenburgh, “Chinook—Legacy of Tandem Rotor Helicopters” (U.S. Army’s Cargo Helicopters Project Manager’s Office, January 1, 2014), an exhaustive work; because it was produced by Army aviation, I trust it completely. A copy is at http://extortion17book.com/resources/chinook.pdf. I also gleaned information from three one-hour phone interviews with Tom Renfroe. Information and quotes from Buddy Lee in this chapter came from my phone interviews with him (Lee, a HAATS-trained Chinook pilot, also told me, in an in-person interview, that HAATS knowledge played a vital role in Extortion Company operations). On the naming of the Chinook, I consulted Tom Schlatter of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colorado; as a fellow contributing editor to Weatherwise Magazine, he has written the “Weather Queries” column for more than three decades and is a leading authority on meteorology, including the semantics of weather phenomena. Meteorological information came from knowledge I have gained while writing for more than two decades for Weatherwise. For geographic information on Fort Rucker, I relied on Google Earth. Information and quotes from Kirk Kuykendall came from my in-person interviews with him. Details on the HH-60 Pave Hawk tragedy on Mount Hood came from my phone interview with now-Lieutenant Colonel Grant Dysle. Information and quotes by Tony Somogyi and by Darren Freyer came from my in-person interviews with them at HAATS. Quotes and information from Colonel Anthony Bianca came from my phone interviews with him.
10. BORN TO FLY
Quotes and information from Buddy Lee came from my in-person interviews with him; as Extortion Company commander, he was privy to all service records and hence understood the high-caliber piloting skills of Bryan Nichols. Information and quotes from Doug and Cyndi Nichols came from two in-person interviews. Information and quotes from Mary Nichols came from an in-person interview and numerous phone and text message interviews.
11. NEVER STOP FLYING THE AIRCRAFT
Information at the beginning of this chapter, including information and quotes by Buddy Lee about Bryan Nichols and his performance as a pilot, came from my in-person and phone interviews with Lee. Information and quotes by Kirk Kuykendall came from in-person interviews with him. General information on Operation Hammer Down came from an Army document (see www.benning.army.mil/Library/content/HammerDown.pdf). Geographic information came from Google Earth analysis. Information about the Chinook’s design came from my in-person discussions with Lee, as did details about military commanders destroying the remains of Extortion 17 on LZ Honey Eater. My two anonymous sources of information about the investigations—both are Army aviators but are not current or former members of Extortion Company—are highly familiar with the incident and the two reports.
12. THREE STEPS AHEAD OF THE HELICOPTER
General background information on the incident came from Joey Bunch and Kieran Nicholson, “Rescuers Lose Race to Save Teen Climber,” Denver Post, June 16, 2010 (www.denverpost.com/2010/06/16/rescuers-lose-race-to-save-teen-climber/). My general knowledge of the Mount Blanca Massif, and Little Bear Peak specifically, came from my numerous trips to the area (I lived in a cabin 13 miles southeast of the peak from 2003 to 2005). Quotes and information involving Andy Bellotti came from my in-person interview and a number of telephone interviews with him, as did information about the pilots, crew, and flight itself. Quotes and information from Major General H. Michael Edwards came from my in-person interview with him.
13. WOODEN WINGS
Recollections about young Dave Carter came from my phone interview with his mother, Elsie Carter, as did information on Carter’s later teen years. These were supplemented by my interviews with Laura Carter, his widow. Information on Carter’s time at Fort R
ucker and as a husband and father came from interviews with Laura, whom I interviewed in-person, by phone, through text messaging, and by email. Quotes and information from Carter’s daughter, Kaitlen Carter, came from my three phone interviews with her; those from his son, Kyle Carter, came from my two phone interviews with him. I interviewed Andy Bellotti in person and by phone for his perspectives on Carter, and information about Carter’s Iraq deployment came from in-person and phone interviews I conducted with Pat Gates and Tom Renfroe.
14. THE INVISIBLE WARFIGHTERS
The first section of this chapter relied primarily on information I gleaned from a number of sources who wish to remain anonymous. None was a member of Extortion Company, but one did have direct knowledge of the planning and execution of JSOC operations in the Tangi Valley. These sources include a senior military intelligence officer and two fixed-wing military pilots who have had roles in planning and executing special operations raids. Information on HUMINT, IMINT, SIGINT, and MASINT came from a senior military intelligence officer who has wide-ranging experience with all these forms of data. The DIKW pyramid information came from Lieutenant Colonel Kain Anderson, USMC, who, when I interviewed him, commanded Marine Unmanned Aerial Squadron 1 and has wide-ranging experience with intelligence data. Information about intelligence gathering for the Tangi raid came from analysis of the Colt Report and an interview with an intelligence officer who wishes to remain anonymous but is well versed in the types of intelligence different aircraft gather. Information on intelligence used for the Tangi raid also came from an anonymous military officer with first-hand knowledge of the raid but who wishes to remain anonymous. Information about the RC-12 Guardrail, the MC-12 Liberty, and RQ-1 Predator came from a phone interview with a noted Marine Corps infantry officer. Detailed information on aviation platforms came from a senior field-grade officer in the Air Force with extensive knowledge of these aircraft who wishes to remain anonymous. Geographic information in this chapter came from Google Earth. Information on the RQ-170 came from a military pilot familiar with the RQ-170 and its operations out of Kandahar. Information about the USA-204 came from www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=34713 and www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104512/wideband-global-satcom-satellite.aspx. Information in the opening of the chapter’s second half, including quotes by Bryan Nichols, were recalled from my in-person interviews with Buddy Lee and were included in the Colt Report. Information and quotes by John Edgemon came from a number of phone interviews with him; he further provided information on the importance of the Tangi Valley, the TADS/PNVS, COP Tangi and the Peninsula, the frequency of attacks at COP Saydabad, and the Apache gunship role and aircraft “stack.” Geographic information in this chapter came from Google Earth. Information on agriculture in the area was drawn from “Afghan Agriculture,” University of California, Davis (http://afghanag.ucdavis.edu/country-info/province-agriculture-profiles/wardak/wardak). Details about rules of engagement, positive identification, and collateral damage came from my phone interview with Air Force Reserve Colonel Mike Greiger, an expert on these issues. In the rules of engagement section, details about Edgemon came from a phone interview with him. An intelligence officer who wishes to remain anonymous, and who was not part of Extortion Company but was deeply knowledgeable about ground operations in the Tangi, provided me with information about intelligence used to develop the raid supported by Extortion 17. Information about insurgency ties and objective names came from an interview with an intelligence officer familiar with intel reports on the area who wishes to remain anonymous. Information about Dan Bair, including his quotes, came from my phone interview with him. Details about Extortion Company supporting over 90 percent of JSOC raids, the Apaches supporting all of them, and other Extortion Company statistics came from my in-person interview with Lee, as did material describing the evolution of a mission, including weather briefs, and the section on landing Extortion Chinooks and various other missions.
