![]() ![]() As it attempted to land, the helicopter took fire from Al Qaeda fighters, and SEAL Neil Roberts fell from the back of the helicopter. military’s Operation Anaconda, a multi-day effort to squeeze out and kill the last large group of Al Qaeda militants and Taliban fighters hiding in the valley. On March 3, 2002, a small SEAL Team 6 reconnaissance team led by Slabinski landed atop Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot peak above the Shah-i-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. All these authorities have refused to conduct any meaningful or robust oversight of a group of elite commandos who have committed war crimes abroad and gone to great lengths to cover them up. ![]() More significantly, the decision to award a Medal of Honor to Slabinski represents the enduring failure of the SEALs, the Pentagon, Congress, and the White House to reckon with the dark history of SEAL Team 6 in the post-9/11 wars. The awards have exposed a rift in the special operations community, a long-running argument pitting the Air Force against the Navy SEALs. But the announcement of the award for Britt Slabinski - and the concurrent decision to give the same award to John Chapman, a deceased Air Force combat controller - came after a yearslong campaign to recognize disputed events 16 years ago on a remote mountain in Afghanistan. Normally, the presentation of the Medal of Honor is a solemn and meaningful recognition of bravery and heroism. On May 7, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would award a retired SEAL Team 6 sniper the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor.
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