{"id":97164,"date":"2020-03-18T15:46:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T19:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=97164"},"modified":"2020-03-18T16:24:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T20:24:31","slug":"exclusive-legendary-special-operations-aviator-reveals-bin-laden-mission-details-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=97164","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Legendary special operations aviator reveals bin Laden mission details for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nNow-retired Army CW5 Doug Englen in an MH47 helicopter about to fly from ship in undisclosed location on classified mission. (Courtesy of Doug Englen) <\/em><\/p>\n

We all remember how during the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, one of the H-60’s crashed into a wall. Not a good start. Fortunately everyone egressed safely and continued with the mission, but now they were a helo short, and the damaged Blackhawk had to be destroyed. Here’s were CW5 Doug Englen comes in. <\/p>\n

By: Alex Quade <\/strong><\/p>\n

It was just 30 seconds into the mission to kill Osama bin Laden in May 2011 when special operations Chinook pilot Chief Warrant Officer 5 Douglas Englen heard the call of \u201cBlack Hawk down\u201d come over his radio.<\/p>\n

Black Hawk 2?s pilot alerted Englen \u2014 the pilot in charge of the air operation that night \u2014 that Black Hawk-1 had just crashed inside the 9\/11 mastermind\u2019s Abbottabad compound.<\/p>\n

Englen, the air component planner for Operation Neptune\u2019s Spear, was pissed off.<\/p>\n

His crew in Chinook-1 and another crew in Chinook-2 had been setting up a refuel site for the two Black Hawks, about 30 miles to the north. But his Chinook immediately went straight to the objective area, to pick up the ground force and the aircrew. Meanwhile, the other Chinook stayed at the refueling site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just went into contingency mode,\u201d said Englen, talking about the raid, and his life, for the first time in an exclusive interview with Military Times. \u201cDidn\u2019t know the severity \u2014 if it was crashed with casualties? If it crashed in civilian area? All we do is minimize our time and get there as quick as possible,” Englen said.<\/p>\n

Englen had studied the area around bin Laden\u2019s compound for months. He knew exactly where everything was; he didn\u2019t need a map. When he flew over Abbottabad, it felt as familiar as flying over his hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

He could see where the police lights were, where the commotion was happening. Blue police lights don\u2019t show up in night vision goggles, so Englen looked under his goggles to see those blue lights.<\/p>\n

From getting the call, Englen was there less than 10 minutes after the aircraft crash. As he came in fast to pick up the ground force and air crew, he saw the downed helicopter.<\/p>\n

Just as Englen was about to land, the team master chief told him over the radio to break away. The fuse was ready to blow up the crashed helicopter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was probably 100 feet from the aircraft when it blew up. It pushed our aircraft to the side. I had to actually fly away, make a tight circle and come back in, and land under the mushroom cloud. I landed to the east of the compound, right next to it. I mean like, right next to it,\u201d Englen explained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much, much more to read here: Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now-retired Army CW5 Doug Englen in an MH47 helicopter about to fly from ship in undisclosed … Exclusive: Legendary special operations aviator reveals bin Laden mission details for the first time<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,261,410,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-bin-laden","category-bravo-zulu","category-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97173,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164\/revisions\/97173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}