“This wasn’t the worst [firefight of my life], but it was the longest,” Paronto says. “The only difference with this one was that we were left behind. That’s just the truth. No support came. Period.”
A congressional committee found that no support was available but Tiegn said this:
“A lot of politicians don’t realize that we were all in the military and we know a lot of the military guys, and they tell us things,” Tiegen says. “One pilot said to us that [the government] was afraid of another ‘Black Hawk Down’ scenario.”
Also Paronto said
“There are pilots that come up to us and say, ‘Sorry, dude. We were ready to go,’ ” Geist says.