The deadliest day of the U.S. war in Afghanistan remains shrouded in mystery. All 38 occupants of an Army Chinook helicopter – including 15 members of the elite Seal Team 6, which had killed Osama Bin Laden three months earlier – perished when hit by rocket fire southwest of Kabul in August 2011. Co-pilot Bryan J. Nichols was a Kansas-based Army reservist.

Who were the insurgents who attacked from the tower of a two-story building? Had they been tipped off? Was it payback for Bin Laden’s assassination? Author Ed Darack examines the tragedy and its victims in a discussion of his new book The Final Mission of Extortion 17: Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six, and the Deadliest Day of the U.S. War in Afghanistan, the first comprehensive account of the incident.