SEAL Team 6 Operators Reccount the Biggest Loss in SEAL Team History: Extortion 17

foreign [Music] bodies Spilled Out of the backside at the open ramp of the 47 and I remember seeing like in the thermal you know heat signatures are white right um and you can see their white bodies slowly slowly turned to Black [Music] thank you you've got an amazing Force you've got the world's best sitting in the back of this flying school bus it lands down they shoot on the sky that loss is felt this [Music] Jason workman's wife and family wanted me to Workman was my boy [Applause] [Music] things happen anymore you wish it didn't happen you wish it wasn't a reality it's absolutely reality did not want to get off that Trump said the train was going on the operator gets left to the train station doesn't matter how good those dudes were you couldn't have picked a better it wasn't a more capable fighting force on the earth than the dudes were on that helicopter [Music] there's a rainbow behind you first deployment in the SEAL Teams you get in biggest loss and Seal Team history happens then you get through Green Team and right after you graduate what maybe six less than a year afterwards yeah I mean August of uh August of 11 Extortion 17 happens which again is the biggest loss in Seal Team in history so let's start there um kind of the way we talk about it is where were you where were you in 911 happened yeah where were you when June 28th happened and where were you when August 6th happened I know exactly where I was I was sitting in a movie theater with my wife sitting next to me my shooting Buddy's wife and then my shooting buddy we're all entry movie and we're probably 45 minutes into it and phone goes off and you're glued to these things um can't miss a text message like I mean the addictive the addiction to your phone becomes a real thing like you can't miss a text message you can't miss a phone call ever um and his phone goes off and mine does too when we both crack them and we both looked at each other at the same time and he had got a text from somebody in the white house um a staffer used to be a team guy and he said call me right now and I had the exact same thing the exact same time to say call me right now from a different guy okay and he text back what's up and uh he said Afghanistan Hilo and get to work like the right of my own leadings get up walked right out of that movie they split and drove each other home and I jumped in the car with him we drove straight to work three days before I was gonna rotate out to come back home extortion happened oh man and um we were supposed to go out that night so we were in J batch a lullaby and they were and I can't remember where they were but they were we had the birds or sort of like our our 160 of guys we had weather or something they couldn't they couldn't they couldn't fly so we didn't go so they couldn't get our birds so they use National Guard ones to go do their op and I remember being in my you know we got a deployment you got out of your individual rooms and he had like a common area where you know the coffee's made and you got the video games and you watch TV and got the couches remember sitting in there with my freaking feet propped up just chilling watching probably rescue me or something something good and uh my team there comes in he's like hey bird just went down and he's like it's our it's our boys bird like there was two of them one of them had all our guys another one had just the air crew devastating regardless of which one was shot down so obviously we're hoping that someone without our boys less lives lost right so we all like rush over um and they got it pulled up on I can't remember if we were starting to get our gear on or we were trying to get essay situation awareness of what was going on but I remember watching the TV screen like this huge Monitor and they had uh the thermal uh from ISR looking down and you could see the helicopter down and uh there's bodies Spilled Out of the backside at the open ramp of the of the 47 and I remember seeing like in the thermal you know heat signatures are white right um and you can see their white bodies slowly slowly turned to Black and their life was leaving them and they they were gone everybody was in there like it was spreading fast um nobody had any real details I mean we did but um it went into um it turned into a circus it was like I was reliving a movie that I'd already seen that I didn't want to know the ending of um I've been here before like I already knew what this is all the notifications basically everybody's throwing on dress blues or driving out um me and my wife are grabbing groceries and gallons of Starbucks and dropping off at Gold Star houses um just really trying to take care of her own that's one good thing about the gold star Community is they know exactly what they need so basically notification team would go out and then we would roll in behind and drop off gifts um you know groceries we pick up kids from from school we do whatever we could um and that's the collective that's everybody that's just what you did trying to make sense of what had actually happened um there's just no good way to there's just no good way to go about that I mean that loss is Felt This Moment like that didn't happen that how did this happen again um and you couldn't explain why I mean things happen in war things that you wish didn't happen you wish it wasn't a reality and it's absolutely reality it's another reality check doesn't matter how good those dudes were you couldn't have picked a better there wasn't a more cable fighting force on the earth than dudes were on that helicopter and it didn't matter it did not matter gone in an instant it's like like how are you going to come back from that and then selfishly how are we going to take care of all these families like what do we do now it's like every Foundation just dumped in trying to support trying to do whatever they could to I mean inside of that we're trying to rebuild like we still have we're still fighting the G1 like we can't let this be our defining moment we just can we've been through this thing before um unfortunately the the co at the time had been through had been to this exact same thing use a group two Commodore when Red Wings happened he had been through this whole thing we all go get our gear on we're grabbing quickie saws in case we got to cut dudes out we're grabbing anything and everything that we think for this rescue operation slash keeping the enemy at Bay and uh they wouldn't let us go out they were sending the Rangers and the decision was made by our CEO and at that time I wanted I wanted to I wanted to stick my fist through his face I was like how dare you that's our voice how dare you but thinking about it now always hindsight right uh he didn't want he didn't want those images to be our last images of those guys uh but you know some of the Rangers more than capable of taking care of that they did a great job they were out there for probably I think three days dealing with that getting the bodies so we get the bodies back and we had you know I think it was a total of like 38 or something like that um and they had we had two c-17s to get all these bodies back to Dover and it was my time to go back a three a couple days later so I just that was one of the guys that there was like four of us escorted all the bodies back to Dover to meet the family members of all these guys and when I was over there I somehow I was told by my team leader because the command was got in touch with everyone and work with Jason workman's really sticks up on you Jason workman's wife and family wanted me to Workman was my boy wanted me to escort his body back uh to Blanding Utah for memorial service and then take him to Arlington where he was going to be putting the ground so of course I would wouldn't refuse that so I talked to the doctor or whatever who was dealing with the bodies and I had to point out workman's and most of the bodies were you couldn't they were charred they couldn't you couldn't tell who they were but Workman had some tattoos and they they he showed me his casket so steel caskets and um I put my my ground pad uh next to him put my sleeping bag next to him sat there laid there ate there and you know how they always tell you like on takeoff like please sit down buckle up they wouldn't dare ask that just stay there the whole time next to him put my back on his casket and just escort him all the way back get to Dover and then we land the whole family's there and just seen put a plan in action we had to rebuild the force had to take care of all the families take care all the kids me and Patsy started making out memorial t-shirts Within 12 hours just trying to raise money just trying to do anything that's what a lot of people don't realize is a there's a there's a gap like if you're pronounced dead your paycheck stops it was a long gap before any kind of life insurance comes in or any kind of support so the only thing that puts food on the table the only thing it puts gas in the car is their foundations like people that are raising money um and we don't know how long that Gap is going to be like now we've got you know big name foundations that really lend a helping hand but it doesn't matter to them to that singular family the whole world just came crashing down it's over like it'll never be okay now it's like anything you can do to try to lighten that burden you try to that's making a memorial t-shirt that's you know picking up the kids and having to make skateboards whatever it might be you have to do something um but I'll tell you what that was um that was a super dose of reality because doing a lot of hilos and it's like that's the reality that is exactly what is going to happen there's nothing you can do for them it doesn't matter like you can't plan for that you just can't I mean you can you can try to do things but a Hilo gets shot down with all those people on board there's no good scenario out of that um and it crippled us we had to rebuild the force and every team had to give up bodies um and that was the whole point of contention like people wanting to rebuild people not wanting to rebuild I don't want to go I want to go just it was a it was a circus here for a couple weeks it was do you want to describe a little bit more in detail how many lost would have happened without getting many specifics uh the weather was not in favor it was a high alumn night and a force went out and got contacted and needed to launch a qrf and they launched in that troop to be a qrf and on Final they got shot down um everybody's in there like you've got an amazing Force you've got the world's best sitting in the back of this flying school bus it lands down they shoot on the sky just to see the family's man and their faces and um in the tears and the kids that had no clue man that their dad's gone their uncle's gone it was the most it was traumatic foreign try to find words to comfort them and those words they were hard to come by if any what do you say by I know I know I'm sorry he was awesome what do you what do you say and um then Obama came out and we and and I'm not a fan of his policies or anything whatsoever not a fan of him at all but I will tell you this what's up he greeted and shook everyone's hand in that room and there was a lot of people he went to every single person and I was like I was like that's cool I was like regardless of what what BS you're involved with I was like that was cool and when we went to the hangar to offload the c-17s with all these caskets flag draped he stood um and a hand salute a very crisp one the whole time that dude did not move and we were like going on like three days into sleep I mean we're sitting down because we're like exhausted our backs are killing us from the pain of just operating and that dude did not move he was just crisp did not move for 45 minutes like nothing the whole time and as much as I don't agree with his policies and all that corruption I think that he's maybe involved in I had he earned some respect for me on that day for that for showing that right there to the respect for those men I have to give that to him I have to I saw it with my own eyes um so after that they have to do their autopsies and try to put body parts with two ever I mean gosh however you do that I mean there was caskets coming back which is body parts like no names just body parts legs hands heads cast like I think there's like two caskets full of this so I had time I went back to um Virginia Beach I got my Blues stayed one night I had my girlfriend at the time flew in from Oklahoma saved one night went back up to Dover to catch an Angel Flight but Jason and um so we get on the bird and there's another casket that gets on I'm kind of confused I've never done an Angel Flight before and it was a uh an army guy that passed at a different operation and his little escort was on there too so we fly we dropped them off I think it was at St Louis they get off and then it's just Jason and I um went on top Blanding and I just remember it's like staring at his casket like just attempting to process things and I just couldn't and uh when I got to Blanding his brothers were there he's got three brothers and his mom and his dad and their amazing family amazing family and his wife and his son Jax it was the same age as my son Tristan so that made it worse seeing that seeing him and uh and we had you know we had a memorial service out there and we I was out there with them for two weeks because there's all these Memorial Services going around because there's so many guys and our Command like charted a huge bus I think a couple buses and they're just hitting all these spots and we were like two weeks in line and I'm just sitting out there with his brothers and every night what do you do you get tore up drinking suppressing stuffing because I know what to do there's not a there's not a manual out there that tells you what to do because no one knows what you're feeling no one knows you're insides we can put a scientific name to it but they don't know they don't know and everyone handles things differently and mine was drinking to the point of passing out every night so I could sleep because I would not sleep if I didn't have something or at least that's what I thought maybe I just developed a habit I don't know but I I felt like I had to have it to think about Mike Nate Louis Adam two troop on extortion Josh Harris Cohn Thomas guys that I did training with so I mean axelson and buds with him like just the numbers of like all these guys I went to training with and now they're all gone and it's like I knew before I went that was gonna be my last deployment but that was like I was like okay I need to stop the Eddie show and think about your kids and I did not want to do that I did not want to get off that train it's like the train was going on the operator gets left at the train station but the identity is gone you just can't plan for it you just can it's 31 people gone including some Afghan partner forces but an entire Troupe of people yeah it's just gone and I mean things that people don't think about things that I know that on other individuals is um think about the guy who miss that deployment had a shoulder surgery and wasn't there I think about the guy had to go home for a birth of his kid you should have been there like that's going to weigh on that dude forever it is um I don't know I just remember walking into the building and being so somber just um you didn't know where the smile like you wanted to have fun at work but you couldn't like how dare you smile right now it was one of those things like um and it wasn't a forced um it wasn't a force thing it's just it's what it was we were in the trenches for a long time man we just were and uh it felt like it was so hard to get back out of it we tried to rebuild and we've got the force in their back and they're I mean they dumped every dude they pull guys from all the other teams and try to rebuild that one troop and they grab some All-Stars man they did like they spared no expense they grabbed some serious talent and they rebuilt um and they built a dynasty like they built them dude um foreign thing after another so we get them all back up and that's 2011. um so I had Nick check in my team we were in the same five-man team and he got pulled out to go over there to backfill when all the guys got killed in extortion um and it didn't feel right didn't seem right um him and my wife really tight we did our first uh platoon together and when he went over um I rolled into his team as a new guy um and I loved him then God he was awesome he just was he was uh he was everything he wanted a teammate um he came over and retiled my entire kitchen him and my wife when I was on deployment before his first deployment with command up until the last hour he drove to the command covered in tile sud and put on fresh clothes and got him a plan and like gray dude and uh and we just came back from a we just came back from Afghanistan deployment in between extortion so we backfilled them had to sleep in their beds had to do that whole thing that's a very sombering sombering thing to have to do um I mean it's a reality like this is what it is sleep in a dead guy's bed so um just another reality check trying to get in there and hit a really good Target set and everything's great and we're we're going to work it's all steady in the back of your mind it's like any moment here any moment this thing's Gonna Get Us finally at his memorial service out there in Blanding and uh one of the guys at the command Jason loved Robert Earl Keane you know if you're familiar he's an awesome singer and I didn't even know anything about him until Jason you know got me he'd always come over to my trailer when we were in Baghdad that second deployment that was his first we'd watch movies and you know drink and all that stuff and uh he'd you know we play Robert Earl Keane someone reached out to Robert kind of explained the situation he shows up at the Mortal service gets up on stage sings uh come coming home and finish the song everyone's in tears no one clapped no one did anything he got his guitar sat down in the most classy way I've ever seen like he um he just you know gave us respect no questions asked if I understand that that conversation was like I'll be there there was no oh are you going to cover this it was none of that I was like I'm there like that was one of my fans and he did that and he was doing this I'm there that is America yeah that is America that is respect that is how you earn it by example and that man is an example he is a phenomenal phenomenal man never talked to him I don't need to I watch it I watch his actions the way he handled himself he didn't want to do signatures he didn't want to do anything he just walked in with his Johnny Cash all black suit on played that guitar sang a song that Jason was definitely smiling down on did what he came to do left and then after the memorial service that night we went to a place called Spirit Cove drank of course and just taught Jason's stories and had fun but the buses were there from all the all the people going to all these Memorial Services I mean we're just like can you imagine this like it's just death you're just consumed with death I can't imagine they're just you're consumed everyone's like crying you drink too much you're crying and you're not drinking you're crying you're like but you don't know what to do with yourself it's like what do I do with my hands you know what I mean so you just don't know and uh after that it was time for him to go back to Arlington so go back to Arlington and um we're there and they've got them all lined up next to each other all the guys that decided to go to Arlington and Jason was right next to Milsey he was a really good friend with and uh Stacy and Jason had this thing for rainbows and sure enough she looks back I'm kind of standing behind them you know we've got Jacks I got Stacy family and I'm kind of behind him and she looks back to ask a question or something and she just looks at me she like pauses she gets like a weird look on her face and she goes there's a rainbow behind you wow I turn around and it was the uh brightest most colorful rainbow I've ever seen just seeing that I was done I was taken out of the knees emotions took over that I was stuffing and stuffing and stuffing and trying to be a Pillar of Strength for his family I was just standing behind him hoping they would not look back at me balling it took me out it was like internally took me out I was done so that we do the service you know do the put the Trident on that on the coffin and a couple extra I have another Trident I had to do Mel's East put one on him in the point on Jason and then went back home hey everybody I'm Sean Ryan click here to subscribe to the Sean Ryan Show YouTube 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Channel: Shawn Ryan Show

Views: 922,826

Keywords: vigilance elite, shawn ryan, shawn ryan show, the shawn ryan show, shawn ryan podcast, vigilance elite podcast, shawn ryan navy seal, navy seal podcast, navy seal, talk show, podcast, podcast show, real talk, history, navy seals, seal team, seal team 6, devgru, operator, military, combat, war, never forget, spec ops, special operations, extortion 17, fallen angel, military history, honor

Id: LhnJRucmRXQ

Length: 28min 12sec (1692 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023