The Shoot-Downs: Blow By Blow

The two Chinooks roared between Afghan peaks in the dead of night, each chopper's twin rotors kicking up a storm of sound in the icy air.

Inside, U.S. soldiers huddled with their heavy rucksacks. If this Chinook flight was typical, they sat with foamy yellow earplugs, faces bathed in red light, waiting for a two-minute warning to untether themselves and exit in a flash.

Just ahead of them was America's bloodiest battle in the Afghan war and one of the most harrowing for helicopter-borne troops since the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" raid in Somalia.

Offering new details on what is still a confused picture, Pentagon officials said Tuesday up to 40 U.S. soldiers engaged an unknown number of surprisingly well-armed foes at the height of the ensuing fire fights.

"I don't think we knew what we were getting into this time, but I think we're beginning to adjust," said Sgt. Maj. Mark Nielsen, 48, from Indianapolis.

They saw one of their own dragged away by the enemy; Navy Petty Officer Neil C. Roberts, a SEAL, was found shot dead.

Officials said the battles raged over many hours, well into daylight, before the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters were put down and U.S. forces spirited away their soldiers — including all seven killed and 11 injured.

Neither stealth nor evasion is a strong point of the Chinook, which retired Army Ranger Will Garner likens to a "gutted bus." These high-tech workhorses announce their arrival even when they are just silhouettes in the night sky.

"You can hear those things from a mile away," Garner says. "Two heavy rotors — whoop, whoop, whoop. You'd have to be stupid not to know: Here come the Americans."

One Chinook sank into a high valley near a series of peaks, beginning its mission to land a special forces team. The chopper was doubly vulnerable — low enough for ground fire to reach it, yet so high above sea level that the air grabbed by the blades was too thin for the aircraft to fly at its best.

At about 3:30 a.m. Monday in Afghanistan, it tried to land on a slice of wilderness known in military jargon as a "Hot LZ," or hot landing zone.

A rocket-propelled grenade was fired. It bounced off the chopper, but not harmlessly. Although the grenade did not explode, it caused hydraulic fluid to leak.

Overhead, an unmanned Predator drone kept watch on some of the unfolding chaos, sending images back to commanders.

As described by officials at the Pentagon, Roberts fell out as the stricken chopper veered up and away toward safer ground. But the commander of operations in the region suggested the helicopter landed, then was hit and everyone except Roberts piled back in as it staggered off.

In either event, the Chinook flew to a somewhat safer area before coming to a jarring landing.

"They were under fire and the helicopter just got hit and they knew they had to go back," said Marine Maj. Ralph Mills, speaking for the U.S. Central Command.

Roberts was overcome and shot, officials said.

"We saw him on the Predator being dragged off by three al-Qaida men," said Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, commander of the continuing Operation Anaconda assault on al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the mountains.

The "wingman," the companion helicopter, swooped in and picked up the troops and crew from the grounded chopper.

After depositing the crew in a still-safer place, the second Chinook went back to the danger zone to look for the missing man and put troops on the ground.

At that point, the troops did not know whether their mission would be to rescue a survivor or recover his body, Mills said. He said Roberts was later found dead from a bullet wound and his body was recovered.

Why go back into the hot zone? "We don't leave Americans behind," said Brig. Gen. John Rosa at the Pentagon.

A refusal to leave the stranded or dead from a downed helicopter also motivated U.S. troops in the 1993 Somalia fire fight that killed hundreds of Somalis and 18 American soldiers.

When the troops got off the second chopper, an intense exchange of gunfire erupted. The Chinook flew off as the men stood their ground. "A helicopter is not going to remain in a hot area," Mills said. "It's nothing more than a target."

Night was slipping into day.

About 3 1/2 hours after the first Chinook was struck — and with other aircraft swarming in the skies to support Americans on the ground — two other helicopters zeroed in on an area a few miles away.

The first in this pair took ground fire as it was coming in — machine gun fire, a rocket propelled grenade, or both. It, too, went down hard, Rosa said. "That airplane could not fly."

The soldiers in that helicopter rushed out, and into more withering gunfire. Six of them died, Rosa said.

The second chopper in this pair got its troops on the ground and left.

With the Americans at greater strength, they were apparently wearing their foes down. "They were able to suppress the enemy eventually," Mills said.

Vacating the site of the second grounded chopper, the soldiers recovered Roberts' body, Rosa said. Finally, one or two more helicopters swarmed in and evacuated everyone.

The death toll: four from the Army, two from the Air Force and Roberts.

"Obviously, somebody was waiting for these folks," Garner said.

By CALVIN WOODWARD