Feral Jundi

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Cool Stuff: Hagel, Biden And Kerry Rescued By Security Contractors In Afghanistan, 2008

This is awesome. A big hat tip to Will for putting this one up on his site. In this photo below, it shows Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Vice President Joe Biden and on the far right, Secretary of State John Kerry, which back then they were all Senators. The back story of this photo is that all three of these men were in a helicopter in Afghanistan during winter. During the flight, the snow got really bad and the helicopters were forced to land on some mountain top in Afghanistan.

They put out a distress call and the military was not in a position to rescue them. So security contractors or what I assume were WPS folks were called in, and they came over land to rescue them. Here is the quote in the article.

With the rapidly worsening weather, there was no way to evacuate the senators to safety by air. The U.S. military didn’t have the necessary people and vehicles nearby to rescue the senators via ground transport before the storm hit.

So the U.S. Embassy asked the men of Blackwater USA to go in by land and evacuate them to Bagram. They did the job, and the senators knew who came to their rescue mountainside when the military could not.

One of the points of Will’s post is that none of these men would acknowledge that they were rescued by contractors, or they outright lied and said it was American troops that rescued them. Here is what then Senator Kerry had to say.

“After several hours, the senators were evacuated by American troops and returned overland to Bagram Air Base, and left for their next scheduled stop in Ankara, Turkey,” a statement from Kerry’s office said. “Sen. Kerry thanks the American troops, who were terrific as always and who continue to do an incredible job in Afghanistan.”

Nope, you were not rescued by American troops– you were rescued by civilians or security contractors…..

Oh well, but at least I can help to correct the record on this blog and give it some more attention. This is just one example of many, where security contractors were the ‘cavalry’ and yet their actions were ignored or barely given a mention. If folks have any photos of the convoy that rolled up to rescue them, I would gladly make the edit and add it to this post. Good job to that team for making this rescue! –Matt

Edit: 09/24/2014–If you check out the comments below, you will see that there was a military convoy that went up to rescue these folks, but there were also contractors in vehicles that went with this convoy. So to clarify, both military and contractors were involved in this rescue operation. At the time of writing this post, I was only going with the information that was available or what was coming in via comments and email. I wasn’t there.  I also said I would make an edit if new information came in, so hopefully this helps. Keep checking the comments and the full story will present itself. Thanks to all for correcting the record and contributing to the story.

Edit: 08/27/2021–In light of current events, this story is getting traction again. Erik Prince has brought up this mission in recent discussions and I have also found a link to an after action report, written by the Hammer 5 SL. The men you see in this photo below, to include our current President Joe Biden, owe their lives to the efforts of Blackwater and of the military units that came to their rescue that day in Afghanistan. Not to mention the work of BW guys to protect this group on the rest of their trip in Afghanistan.

30 Comments

  1. And don’t forget this story: ‘Blackwater Did Rescue Alan Grayson’ – Mother Jones magazine
     http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/02/blackwater-xe-rescue-alan-grayson

    Comment by Hoosier84 — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 12:42 AM

  2. Hoosier84Thanks for the reminder. I remember posting that awhile back. I think another one in which contractors really came through for DoS was the Najaf defense in Iraq.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaJYlk4z5RQ

    Comment by feraljundi — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 11:12 PM

  3. @lizzypearson Flying in a copter from Begram to Ankara? Doubt that bit…

    Comment by llewelyn_morgan — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 2:02 AM

  4. @llewelyn_morgan I’m interested in how marginalised the PMSCs feel. Do you doubt the tale as a whole? I don’t know enough2judge the details

    Comment by lizzypearson — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 2:42 AM

  5. @lizzypearson The rest of it, & esp the toxic status of SCs, has the ring of truth. But I don’t know enuf either, tbh. V interesting, tho.

    Comment by llewelyn_morgan — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 3:57 AM

  6. @llewelyn_morgan Yeah, I had to make an edit on that one. It would appear that they were heading to Bagram, but were forced down due to the weather.

    Comment by feraljundi — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 10:02 AM

  7. @lizzypearson @llewelyn_morgan The story is real and fully documented in the news. And yes, PMSC’s have been marginalized, in my opinion.

    Comment by feraljundi — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 10:07 AM

  8. @feraljundi @lizzypearson But were they really flying in a copter from Begram to Ankara? Rather asking to get stranded in the Hindu Kush!

    Comment by llewelyn_morgan — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 12:57 PM

  9. @llewelyn_morganThis is the quote from news sources about the trip itinerary.

    “Sens. John Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the
    aircraft., according to Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority
    Leader Harry Reid. The lawmakers are on a trip this week that includes
    stops in India, Turkey and Pakistan.
    “After several hours, the senators were evacuated by American troops
    and returned overland to Bagram Air Base, and left for their next
    scheduled stop in Ankara, Turkey,” a statement from Kerry’s office said.
    “Sen. Kerry thanks the American troops, who were terrific as always and
    who continue to do an incredible job in Afghanistan.”
    Hagel’s office http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=7906357,
    a local Nebraska station the Senators were flying out of Afghanistan
    after a meeting with Afghan President Karzai. A snowstorm forced the
    pilot to land at Bagram Air Base near Kabul.”
    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Senators_copter_makes_emergency_landing_in_0221.html

    Comment by feraljundi — Friday, March 1, 2013 @ 6:17 PM

  10. Hi Matt,
    I was part of the WPPS program in Kabul during this time. I was not on this mission, one of our other teams was assigned this CODEL.. Any CODEL mission was always assigned Security Contractors from our WPPS program. As I recall, we had several Contractors on the Blackhawks with the CODEL. When they were forced to land, they set up Security and the military advised it would be quite some time before they could reach them by ground. I’ll try to get a few more facts from the guys on this mission to find out who exactly extracted them.

    Comment by Tim E — Saturday, March 2, 2013 @ 8:07 AM

  11. Tim E Thanks Tim. My intent here is to put attention on this rescue mission, and any information that helps to complete the picture of what really happened is great.

    Comment by feraljundi — Saturday, March 2, 2013 @ 10:22 AM

  12. Update: After putting out a request for info from the team involved here’s what I can share.
    There were 3 BW Contractors on the birds with Kerry and the other CODEL members. A Shift Lead, a Medic and a DDM. The rest of the team was staged at Bagram awaiting the arrival of the CODEL. When the birds were forced to land at 7600 ft elevation, the BFT’s were activated. The DDM set up over watch on nearby high ground and the other two BW Contractors provided close security. The team in Bagram received the call and was geared up with supplies and ready to launch ground rescue within 30 minutes. Army delayed the departure insisting on joint operation since some U.S. Army Generals were accompanying Kerry and the CODEL on the Blackhaws that were forced to land due to heavy snow. The operation lasted between 4-5 hours and the rescue force that arrived over land was combined BW Contractors in Land Cruisers as well as U.S. Army.
    Kerry giving credit to U.S. Army was typical.
    When the Serena Hotel in Kabul was attacked and penetrated by Suicide Bombers, it was BW that arrived on the scene. The US Army force that arrived was unprepared and untrained for the room to room clearance and evac that was necessary. They deferred that task to us (BW) and we successfully evacuated a large number of guests and Diplomatic personnel. A woman assigned to a Diplomatic mission (I believe she was British) asked who we worked for and thanked us for the rescue as did numerous other civilians and Diplomatic personnel. In all the news reports I read following this rescue, the only organization mentioned was the US Army. We never sought recognition and rarely received any.

    Comment by Tim E — Saturday, March 2, 2013 @ 2:12 PM

  13. Tim E Outstanding and thanks for the clarification on this.

    Comment by feraljundi — Saturday, March 2, 2013 @ 2:47 PM

  14. Excellent, informative comments. Thanks so much for the additional information.

    Comment by Will Grant — Thursday, March 7, 2013 @ 5:58 AM

  15. Will Grant Thanks to you guys for bringing attention to this.

    Comment by feraljundi — Thursday, March 7, 2013 @ 9:42 AM

  16. The Army went in for the rescue. My platoon went in on the rescue specifically. It was led by Captain Dalrymple of the 82d Airborne, specifically B CO, 82d DSTB and Lt. Chamberlain of the AZ National Guard. I can shoot you their contact information if you want. But 100% responded to and escorted by the Army.

    Comment by Nick Colgin — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 2:24 PM

  17. Awesome, and thanks for your service Nick.

    Comment by Matt — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 2:37 PM

  18. This is a completely false story. They were rescued by my company. IT because of a great group of guys I lead from the 82nd Airborne and the AZ National Guard not these poser. As the commander of this unit I am totally at a loss for words for such lies.

    Comment by Shawn Dalrymple — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 2:46 PM

  19. One more thing that was said by Tim E that was false. It was the Contractors that were not ready to role and the military wait for over 30 min on them. Get your facts straight.

    Comment by Shawn Dalrymple — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 2:54 PM

  20. Just so you all know….The reason that we got held up was because of the people in the JOC would not launch us…in the mean time Big Army was getting stuck in the switchbacks and horrible terrain on the approach…Kerry about stole my drivers jacket (he let him wear it for the drive back) got out and didnt even say thank you!!

    Comment by Scott — Saturday, July 16, 2016 @ 9:30 AM

  21. I remember the whole thing different…I remember Capt D telling us it was Senator Mc Cain who helicopter went down, which motivated us even more since we were 158th Infantry Arizona National Guard.
    We had just came off a 12 hour patrol around Bagram and it took us a half hour to get ready and we moved out with about 20 vehicles.
    The snow was so bad SSGT McClain had to walk in front of the convoy to keep us on the road on the side of the cliff.
    I remember rolling up and seeing several people pass by us and take 12 of our vehicles back to Bagram, while we were left with 8 vehicles to over watch two helicopters, and because of there placement we could get vehicles by them to block other side of road. eventually 1 ANP truck showed up the next day to deter traffic.
    But that was a cold night, me and SGT Brock patrolling up and down the side of the hills,.
    We waited there with the pilots and crew who told us a different story of what they were doing there…I have plenty of pictures to back this all up…BW might of posed for photo opportunities with the senators and General, but the AZ national guard and B. Co 82nd Airborne where the real hero’s of the day.
    Even after Sen Kerry gave a speech prior to this cutting down the National Guard…We still were Professionals.

    Comment by Sgt Gen — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 3:07 PM

  22. Thanks for adding to the story guys. Obviously there is a disagreement over the facts of what happened, and I will see if I can get someone from the BW side to clarify.

    Comment by Matt — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 3:25 PM

  23. Looks like the 82nd was sent to guard the Blackhawks. Exactly what vehicles did the Senators drive back in?

    Comment by Mic — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 5:18 PM

  24. 4 TOYOTA LAND CRUISERS.

    Comment by Scott — Saturday, July 16, 2016 @ 9:32 AM

  25. I was the PltSGT and 1st Lt Chamberlain was the PL. 1/158 comprised of Reservists, Hawaii National Guard and Arizona National Guard? We also had IRR as part of the PLT. We were approximately 50 and we had the 82nd Mrph and the CO of the company we were attached to of the 82nd DSTB. As previously stated our men just came back from a long day when I got the call that Senetor Mcane’s chopper went down. Lt and I got the men on their trucks did aquick euipment check and headed to BDOC then when we had the 82nd guys we went to, not sure what they called it and don’t care, 82nd HQ. After 30 minutes the LT and CPT came out and told us who it was. Doesn’t matter who they were, they were Americans. Not just senetors but 101 boys as well as contractors. It took us 35 minutes to an hour to get there and it was snowing bad as we started up the hill. SSG Mcclains’ truck was up front and iwas in rear of PLT . CPY Dalrymple was behind and I believe the ASV went off the road? We got there and the only one, of those we rescued, that spoke was the 82 Division CDR. I told him I wish iwas in AZ. They got in contractor vehicles and SSG Pardue’s vehicle and CPT Dalrymple’s vehicle led the way back with contractors in tow. No thanks to our men. Not aword. The got onto Bagram the contractors took the leadand spread abreast the road and moved to the airfield. Everyone dismounted and head on to the plane and went so where other than Afghanistan? The end. Anyone want dispute this give me a call I would be glad to tell you you don’t know what the Hell your taking about. We all did our part. 82nd contractors, 101 and the Misfits of 3rd plt. Now……. back to my Turkey.

    Comment by wiiliam naney SFC retired — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 6:26 PM

  26. Hey William, thanks for you input. Although I removed your phone number because there is no reason to post that.

    Comment by Matt — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 6:50 PM

  27. I have read through all the comments and some are just hilarious.
    As someone who was there with BW on the mission, on the mountain, I can tell you that there are 2 statements that are correct from my point of view. And I am sure there will always be controversy as to who was told what and what their own personal perception will be.
    First off, rather than come off like I am bashing anyone, I would like to thank the US Army units that were involved, we were happy to have you on the mission with us. You bring an invaluable asset to the table and we would have been foolish not to have taken advantage of that. With that being said, BW was staged outside the JOC awaiting the arrival of the birds back from JBAD when we got the call. We had 3 of our guys on board (Team Leader, Medic, and DDM) along with 1 Diplomatic Security Special Agent. We got word from our TOC in Kabul that the Distress button had been activated and details were emerging. As soon as we were given a grid, we started planning and were ready to deploy within 30 minutes. (Someone posted that they (The Military QRF) “had to wait for BW before heading off”. That statement in itself is ridiculous. I can’t for the life of me recall any circumstances where a Military Commander would halt their operation to wait for some “Contractors”. If we weren’t ready then the Military QRF should of, and would have been launched regardless; especially when there are 3 high ranking Senators stranded on a mountain.
    While getting all the specifics in the JOC, we were being offered all kinds of assets. One of which was a JTAC. With only being a 12 man team, heading up a mountain in an area we had never been, we gladly would accept any offer of assistance available. I remember someone in the JOC asking, “where are the guys from the ODA?” We actually got excited thinking there was an ODA in the area that could assist. (Come to find out, they thought we were the ODA). Regardless, Just before we were about to launch, we received a call from “our” higher ups, that a Military QRF team was being spun up and that we were to wait for them. It did take some time for the QRF team to get mobilized. (And as I am reading some of the comments shared, I understand why now). This team obviously wasn’t a QRF standing by ready to respond in 30 minutes or less. This was a team just coming in from mission, and was not aware of what was going on. So being that it is Big Army, I can understand a lot clearer now on why it did take about an hour and a half before we ALL launched.
    The drive up that mountain sucked. Anyone that was there will tell you. Hummer’s were sliding on the Ice into ditches. Gunners were being slung from turrets, and of course lots of snow. We were in Toyota Land cruisers which until that night, I hated. But we had absolutely no problems driving up that mountain in them, unlike the Military vehicles and the Ford Expedition that was brought up as well for the 1 star (I believe he was a 1 star, maybe higher) that was with the CODEL.
    We drove as far as we could then we made our way on foot to the bird. As far as who road back with who, I can tell you, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry road back with us. John Kerry is actually in pretty good shape, but Senator Joe Biden at 7600 feet, could not even keep his body armor and jumped in the first warm vehicle he could find which was the General’s Expedition. We then made our way down the mountain and dropped the Senators off at the Airfield where they departed for Turkey.
    NOTE: This event would have not even taken place, if the CODEL lilstened to the Military in the first place. The military advised that there was inclement weather and recommended to not fly to J-Bad. The Senator’s insisted they go anyways.
    Also, One of the comments we had talked about on the way up that mountain is if this goes bad, we (BW) are going to get blasted on the news. The news report probably would have read something like “BW Killed 3 Senators”, “BW left 3 Senators on a mountain to die”, or better, “BW turned over 3 Senators to the Taliban for money”. And of course we knew if it went well, then no one would even know we were there or even involved.
    We arrived back to Kabul just in time to catch the press conference in Turkey where they thanked the US Military for rescuing them off the mountain. In the end, The Military was rewarded with the credit and BW was rewarded with a few beers. I will take the beer any day over credit!

    And to the guy, who commented about us being “Posers”. I am pretty sure I have more time in a combat zone, then you do in Uniform. And as far as posing for pictures. I dare you to find one picture of a Contractor posing with the Senators on that mountain. in fact the only one I see is them posing with the Pilots.
    In closing, As I stated in the beginning….. Thank you to the Men of the various units involved that night, and I am glad everyone made it back safe because it could have gone South real fast that night.

    Comment by Bodhi — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 8:41 PM

  28. I was so incredibly sick with the flu. But the biggest and saddening thing I remember about this mission was As I walked up with SSG. McClain not one of the VIP shook or thanked aanyone that came to pick them up. Just walked right passed everyone and got into a vehicle and left. The rest of the night is blurry because of the extreme temperature I had.

    Comment by jeff — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 8:46 PM

  29. Wow, thanks for the information Bodhi. Good job to all that were involved with this effort.

    Comment by Matt — Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 8:51 PM

  30. Bodhi’s story is exactly correct. Thanks for answering some questions I had for years. Like why we waited about an hour and a half for QRF. I remember we were discussing leaving on the mission without military assets if we had to wait much longer. Now it’s clear what happened.
    Bottom line is the CODEL was warned by people who knew way better what could happen because of the crazy weather conditions in the mountains. And they wouldn’t listen. Not surprising. And people were put in unnecessary risk because of them being hard headed. Also not surprising.
    As far as the thanks or shaking of hands goes I could not possibly care less. Having my hand shook by “famous” people who’s policies and attitudes I don’t agree with is not anything I desire. What mattered to me most is that we all made it back with all our body parts and no extra holes.
    As long as they didn’t ry to make BW look bad somehow by lying I’m good with them just not mentioning us at all.

    Comment by Lloyd — Wednesday, May 11, 2016 @ 5:00 AM

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