Karen and Billy Vaughn lost their SEAL son, Aaron, in 2011 in Afghanistan along with 16 other Navy SEALs.
This combo shows the 30 troops killed in a helicopter downing in Afghanistan on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. The Pentagon on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five. (AP Photo)
At the funeral service in Afghanistan an Islamic cleric disparaged in Arabic the memory of these servicemen by damning them as infidels to Allah.
On May 9, 2013, Billy and Karen Vaughn and other families of fallen American heroes held a press conference demanding a Congressional Hearing to investigate the death of their sons in the military operation, commonly referred to as Extortion 17.
Their cries have been heard. Americans all across the nation banded together with the Vaughns, and on February 27th, Congress will hold a one-day hearing on the devastating details behind the fatal operation leading to the death of 30 Americans.
On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47D Chinook military helicopter, carrying special operations officers sent to reinforce Army Rangers under fire, was shot down in the Wardak Province, Afghanistan, killing 30 of our soldiers – 22 of whom were part of Navy SEAL Team VI; the team who took down Osama Bin Laden.
Only months before, Vice-President Joe Biden betrayed Navy SEAL Team VI after publically crediting them to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. This put members of the special ops community, and their families, in grave danger.
The shoot down of Extortion 17 resulted in the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the twelve-year war in Afghanistan that began in 2001, and the greatest single loss in the history of the Navy SEALs.
Today, after two and a half years of waiting, the SEAL families will sit in a Congressional hearing asking questions about the death of their sons. Jag Hunter reported:
As news comes from the White House of another election year withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan, which promises to leave the region in the same kind of terrorist run chaos as Iraq, a House Sub-Committee on Government Oversight of National Security is set to grill Pentagon officials on the single largest loss of SEAL lives in history.
The Committee says the hearing is to “honor the heroes of Extortion 17.” But the families of those heroes have a very different interest in that hearing. They are not going to the hearing to listen to empty platitudes about the wrongful death of their loved ones…
The families of the fallen SEALs want answers… North American Law Center submitted official questions to members of the House Sub-Committee more than 24 hours before the hearing, on behalf of Billy and Karen Vaughn, parents of Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn.
The hearing has received almost NO press coverage to date.
Billy Vaughn, Aaron’s father, released an explosive book titled Betrayed about his son and the circumstances surrounding the death of his son on 6 August, 2011 in Afghanistan. The mission was code named “Lefty Grove” and the CH47 was call sign Extortion 17.
At 10:00 am ET February 27, 2014… after two and a half years of waiting for answers, SEAL families will sit in a Congressional hearing asking questions.