EPISODE 26
The FINAL MISSION OF “eXTORTION 17”
Author and war reporter joins Jim and Mike and discuss Extortion 17 and its final mission
Ed Darack is an author and war reporter who has embedded with US forces in Afghanistan and written a couple books about it. Extortion 17 was a US Chinook helicopter that was shot down by a lucky hit by a Taliban fighter with an RPG. 38 US and Afghan personnel and a military working dog were killed in what became the largest single loss of Special Operations personnel in Afghanistan. Just so happens, Jim was deployed at the time of the incident and has personal connections with the story. In the aftermath, several rumors and conspiracy theories surfaced about the incident, and Ed wrote an article and then a book to get the story right and honor the memories of the personnel and crew who were killed that night.
The article, The Final Flight of Extortion 17
The book, The Final Mission of Extortion 17
For an overview on Afghanistan, Ed’s book Victory Point
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The Final Mission of Extortion 17, has brought relief to so many parents who were disgusted with the baseless and ignorant conspiracy theories. We were needlessly tortured by the thought it was a setup, when those that really bothered to interview the soldiers, and from soldiers that were there the night of the shoot down.
So our sincere thanks to you for telling the truth in a book, that factually reported it was just a lucky shot. Not some dumb thing attached to Bengasi.
thank you too for remembering those in other branches of the service that lost their lives that night.