skua, ref your last,
I can assure you that we moved as quickly as possible to reach the crash site. In 'just' 50 minutes, we had to be informed of what happened, find some maps of the area (14 nm = approx 30 km and that was outside of our AOR), collect extra ammunition, water, rations etc for a possible stay of up to 72 hrs in an area that was not overwatched by the Taliban, but was smack in the middle of a known Taliban position that was an objective for Op MEDUSA. We then had to get to the chinook that took us and fly there. i'm no expert on how chinooks fly to places, but it certainly isn't in a straight line, especially when there are bloody big mountains in the way. IMHO, 50 mins to do what we did was an amazing effort.
The RCD were already there when we arrived and fortunately they had armoured fighting vehicles. When they left early the next day, we were left in an exposed position surrounded by over 500 'civilians' as well as numerous unarmed Taliban who were recce'ing our positions and preparing to launch an assualt. Thats the reason we were forced to leave the area, but only after we had recovered all the bodies and whatever kit looked vaguely classified or important. If you know a way that this could be done quicker by 40 blokes, on foot, then please tell me.
RIP fellas