Obama 'Put a Target on Their Backs', SEAL Team 6 Family Members Say
Deadly crash in Afghanistan could have been avoided, they say
By PAUL D. SHINKMAN
May 9, 2013
Brian Bill, John Douangdara, Kevin Houston, Jonas Kelsall, Jon Tumilson, Michael Strange, Stephen M. Mills and Jason Workman, members of SEAL Team 6, were among the 30 Americans and eight Afghans killed when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their Chinook helicopter en route to a combat mission on August 6, 2011.
The families of 17 SEAL Team 6 commandos who were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan during a helicopter flight to help Army Rangers pinned down by Taliban gunmen accused the Obama administration of deliberately endangering their loved ones for political ends.
[PHOTOS: America's Elite Navy SEALs]
During a press conference on Washington Thursday, family and advocates for the fallen troops called into question the rules of engagement that they say prohibited their sons from being able to return fire, and the White House's decision to announce shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden that SEAL Team 6 was responsible for the raid.
"In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs," said Doug Hamburger, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Hamburger, served among the helicopter's crew.
The event was organized by Freedom Watch, a conservative advocacy group, at the National Press Club. One by one, fathers and mothers of the victims of the crash spoke about what they see as gaping holes or inconsistencies in the review of what U.S. Special Operations considers its most deadly incident.
In all, 17 members of the SEAL Team 6 counterterrorist force were on board the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, along with its Army National Guard aircrew, several support personnel and seven Afghan commandos. In all 38 troops died after the helicopter was shot down by what a review determined to be a Taliban RPG over Wardak Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011.
http://www.usnews.com/news/art.....6-family-members-say
Logged
