About this item

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached a landing zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American and coalition special operations troops. It would never return. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of its rear rotor blades, and brought it crashing to the ground. All 38 onboard perished instantly in the single greatest moment of sacrifice for Americans in the war in Afghanistan. Those killed were some of the U.S.'s most highly trained and battle-honed commandos, including 15 men from the Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known popularly as SEAL Team 6, which had raided a Pakistan compound and killed Osama bin Laden just three months earlier.



About the Author

Ed Darack

I'm an author of fiction and non-fiction books, a writer of magazine feature articles, and a globally published stock and magazine photographer. Working independently, I have pursued a broad scope of interests and fascinations that includes mountaineering and adventure travel, front-line ground and air combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, aviation and space exploration, the study and beauty of the atmosphere, aesthetics throughout nature, and quantum mechanics and the exploration of the most fundamental constituent entities of the universe - among a host of other endeavors. Throughout my entire career I've worked as both a writer and creative photographer, often merging the two arts for a varitey of dynamic projects. I'm the author of the critically acclaimed Victory Point (published by the Penguin Group, New York; named a book of the year by the United States Naval Institute) and three other books (two about mountaineering and one about expedition sea kayaking) . I'm currently hard at work on a number of incredibly exciting fiction and non-fiction book projects; please check the Books and Upcoming sections for more information and updates. I've authored hundreds of feature articles for publications such as Smithsonian Air and Space, Alpinist, Weatherwise (where I'm a contributing editor) , Foreign Policy (online) , and many other magazines and media outlets about subjects ranging from the physical geography of Mount McKinley to witnessing and photographing a space shuttle launch, among many other topics and experiences. My creative rights-managed stock imagery is represented by SuperStock, Getty Images, Corbis Images, and further distributed through an international network of over 100 leading specialty agencies. I'm extremely fortunate to have images of mine used on all types of visual media throughout the globe over the course of my career, including the covers and interiors of some of the world's most widely-read periodicals (and those not so widely read) , the covers and interiors of an array of books - including New York Times bestsellers - on broadcast and cable television, and all forms of product advertising and packaging. Images of mine have been used by and have appeared in Smithsonian, Germany's Stern, The National Geographic Society, The Times of London, Bank of America, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Forbes Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Town and Country, Powder, Popular Science, Geo, Elle, Reader's Digest, Playboy, Canada Post, The United Nations, Random House Publishing, The Penguin Publishing Group, McGraw-Hill, Volkswagen, Discovery Channel, British Petroleum, Time Life Publications, The Guardian, IBM, ABC News, The BBC, People Magazine, New York Magazine, Time Magazine, NBC Television, The Week Magazine, Microsoft, ABC Television, Scientific American, The United States Department of State, The United States National Institute of Health, Mental Floss, American Airlines, and many other editorial, comm



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