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CH-46s: The U.S. State Department has confirmed that seven CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters, also colloquially known as “Phrogs,” belonging to its Air Wing have been rendered inoperable and abandoned in Afghanistan as part of the ongoing crisis evacuation effort. This non-combatant evacuation operation, or NEO, could very well be the last major mission ever for any Sea Knight belonging to the U.S. government, with the State Department already in the process of divesting its entire fleet.
In addition, the Pentagon says that this NEO could be the second largest in American military history, the other being the evacuation of Americans and others from South Vietnam in 1975. As The War Zone has already reported, there is evidence that at least one of the State Department’s now-abandoned Sea Knights in Afghanistan, which it originally obtained second-hand from the U.S. Marine Corps, took part in both operations. Read more
