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U.S. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen Speaks Out On Death Of SEALs

MIAMI (CBS4) – American and Afghan troops battled insurgents Sunday in the same area where a U.S. Army helicopter was shot down, killing 30 Americans including nearly two dozen Navy SEALs.

Elite teams from the Pentagon spent the day searching the wreckage and recovering the remains of the 38 people who died in the crash.

U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said despite the tragic loss, the American policy in Afghanistan must go on and not change.

"We're never going to be a conquering force, we don't seek to be a conquering force. We're even saying we're not going to have permanent bases where we've been," said Ros-Lehtinen.


In an interview at her South Florida home the veteran of two decades in Congress said her heart goes out to the families of those lost. But Ros-Lehtinen said that this, the single deadliest day for American soldiers in nearly 10 years in Afghanistan, should not force the United States to accelerate nor slow down the planned troop withdrawals in that country.

"This terrible tragedy does not make us speed up the pace of our withdrawal, nor should it," said Ros-Lehtinen.

Here in the U.S. the human cost of the shoot-down is only now beginning to be felt as the Pentagon officially notifies relatives of the dead servicemen including 25 year-old Petty officer First class Michael Strange of Philadelphia.

"He was intense, he was funny, had that dry humor like Seinfeld," said Strange's father Charles Strange..

Also among the dead, Aaron Vaughn of Tennessee, who was a member of Seal Team six; the same unit that found and killed Osama Bin Laden.

"He was such a good boy and he loved his country enough to put his life on the line," said Vaughn's grandmother Geneva Green Vaughn.

The Pentagon said none of the Seal Team 6 members who died in the crash were present during the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound back in May.

Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen said the information she's received indicates the Seal Team Six in this case had just successfully completed a rescue operation of Army Rangers caught up in a firefight in the Tanish Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province when the Chinook the Navy Seals were riding in was brought down, possibly by a rocket or shoulder fired missile.

"They had just completed their mission. They were successful in what they set out to do," said Ros-Lehtinen. "This war has gone on for a mighty long time. The American people have said, you know, this is long enough."

Fellow South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement:

"We are reminded of the freedom they fight to preserve and protect and must honor them with our gratitude."

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