At last, there will be a congressional inquiry into the strangecircumstances surrounding the fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan inAugust 2011, which resulted in the deaths of 30 American service membersand 8 Afghans, including elite troops from Navy SEAL Team Six, thecontingent who killed Osama bin Laden a few months earlier.“We’re going to dive into this,” Rep.Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and GovernmentReform subcommittee on National Security, told The Hill.[See: www.worldtribune.com/2013/05/30/what-happened-to-seal-team-s - May 30, 2013]Parents of the fallen have repeatedly asked the military top brass,including President Barack Obama, for answers to their questions.Instead of being told the truth about what happened that night, theyhave been bullied, mocked, intimidated, ignored and repeatedly lied to.Strange, the father of SEAL Team Six member Michael Strange, at a pressconference on May 9, 2013 at the National Press club.“My son was murdered,” said Charlie Strange in an exclusive interviewwith WorldTribune.com. Mr. Strange still “cries every day” over theloss of his son Michael, but he is outraged that his legitimate concernshave been routinely dismissed as merely the befuddled complaints of a“grieving father.”Yet, he and other family members who lost their sons that evening,knew from the moment they were debriefed about the fatal crash, that theofficial story the American government was peddling did not make sense.“They were talking to us like we were complete idiots,” said Mr.Strange, recalling the debriefing on Oct. 12, 2011 in Little Creek,Virginia. Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt, who conducted theinvestigation, attributed the shooting down of the helicopter to a“lucky shot” from the Taliban, by some low-level, lone fighter. Mr.Strange cried out that evening: “Are you kidding me? A ‘lucky shot’would be if he had missed.”Mr. Strange and other family members do not believe that the blackbox from the crash was washed away in a “flash flood,” as officials whoinvestigated the crash claim.In addition, “at the moment the aircraft was shot down, the satellitesurveillance of a mission, known as ‘the eye in the sky,’ suddenly ‘wentout’,” said Mr. Strange. Furthermore, he was told his son’s body hadbeen burnt beyond recognition, only to later see photos of his son’sdead body lying on the ground, clutching what appears to be a gun.To add further insult to injury, on July 22, Michael Strange wasposthumously awarded The National Intelligence Medal of Valor but Mr.Strange and his wife, Mary, were not invited to the ceremony. They are“treating us like second class citizens,” said Mrs. Strange because “wedare to ask questions.”The families of the nation’s military heroes “are not treated withrespect,” said Larry Klayman, the attorney representing the families, inan interview with WorldTribune.com. He decried the lack of answersbeing provided and mocked the so-called “disappearance” of the black boxdue to a flash flood. “There has been no flood there since Noah washedaway with the Ark,” he said.He pointed out that the bodies of some of the dead soldiers werecremated without consent from family members. There are even largerissues at stake in this tragedy, he explained. There was no pre-assaultfire that night. While under attack, America’s elite warriors “were notdefending themselves,” he said.“In my view, this is bigger than Benghazi,” said Mr. Klayman. “Thisis about how our men and women are treated. Our government has betrayedthem.” At a minimum, he is calling for a correction to the rules ofengagement. The focus of combat should be “defeating the enemy andprotecting valued assets,” he said.While three families have been most vocal in their outrage, theothers are “scared” to speak out, said Mr. Klayman. “They fear militaryretaliation or being ostracized,” he said.Mr. Klayman is encouraged that at last some members of Congress willreview the evidence. “We’re going to be uncovering a very big scandal.In my opinion, this goes right to the top, to the Commander in Chief,”said the attorney.Billy and Karen Vaughn, parents of slain Navy Seal Aaron Vaughn,spoke to WorldTribune.com about their long and difficult journey tobring the case to the attention of the national media and to members ofCongress. They were deeply “disheartened,” said Mrs. Vaughn when thefamilies held a press conference at the National Press Club in May andmembers of the mainstream media did not attend. “The mainstream mediadid nothing to help us,” said Mrs. Vaughn.The story was kept alive by one of America’s leading talk show hosts,Michael Savage, who was the first to report it in 2011 and whoimmediately smelled a rat. He wrote a fictional account, A Time for War,to raise awareness. Subsequently, a handful of publications and newsoutlets, including Fox News and WorldTribune.com, along with a vigoroussocial media campaign, helped galvanize those concerned about the fateof Navy SEAL Team Six and the other warriors who died in the crash.Nonetheless, by the time the Vaughns traveled to Washington D.C. inmid-June, they were losing hope that Congress would listen; they werealso financially strained. During the first few days they met withwell-meaning members of Congress who understood their plight but coulddo nothing.“People we met initially in Washington, D.C. were great Americans,”said Mr. Vaughn, “but there seemed to be a block. That block is Mr.Boehner.” Republican members of Congress told the Vaughns it wasunlikely House Speaker John Boehner would sanction an inquiry. Mr.Vaughn had in fact initially called Mr. Boehner’s office “over and overagain,” when he received news of his son’s death. “I never, ever got aresponse. I never got past the secretary,” he said.On the third day of their journey in Washington D.C., on WednesdayJune 18, the Vaughns awoke with Mrs. Vaughn stating: “I wish we were nothere. We’re getting nowhere.”Yet, suddenly, a giant breakthrough occurred. While they met with amember of California Rep. Darrell Issa’s staff, for the first time sincethey began their quest for justice, they found someone who “knew evenmore about what we were talking about than we did,” said Mrs. Vaughn. Hewas so alarmed by their testimony that he pulled Mr. Issa out from theHouse floor to meet the Vaughns, Charles and Mary Strange and Mr.Klayman, who were also in attendance. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Issacalled Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican, into the room. The menpledged to help.“Issa and Chaffetz have assets others do not have,“ said Mrs. Vaughn,expressing a gleam of hope that their case will result in answers tothe questions they have been raising for several years.Doug Hamburger, who lost his son Pat in the tragedy, wants answers tothe key questions the other family members are raising. In an interviewwith WorldTribune.com, he asked also why the government’s report didnot contain the astonishing fact that thirty minutes before the flighttook off, seven Afghans refused to board the aircraft and were replacedwith others.“In over 12,500 pages, there is also no mention of the Afghan Commandbeing part of the investigation, “ said Mr. Hamburger. “The AfghanCommand had been part of the planning of every mission and they had lostseven soldiers, but were not part of the investigation. It doesn’t makesense.”Mr. Hamburger asks all Americans to “keep the pressure on” thenation’s leaders to give the families answers. “We need all your help.”Perhaps the best summary of this tale comes from Mr. Savage in hisJuly 24th broadcast, brimming with passion, outrage and patriotism: Thecongressional inquiry is a “ray of light at the end of the tunnel” in atwo-year battle, he said. He lambasted the “loveable, forgettableRomney” for failing to make this a central campaign story in 2012. Healso blasted Republicans for not rising to the defense of “the nation’sheroes” and addressing this story earlier.“Somebody threw them to the wolves,” said Mr. Savage. He wondered howit is possible that the commander-in-chief has not addressed anincident in which more Navy SEALS died in one conflagration than in thehistory of their unit.“No one will stop until someone goes to the gallows,” vowed Mr. Savage.Finally, two years later, Mr. Chaffetz and Mr. Issa have at lastheard the anguished cries of those young men plunging mercilessly totheir deaths — not merely by an act of war but possibly from acts of themost heinous treachery known to man.Grace Vuoto is the Editor of Politics and Culture at WorldTribune, host of American Heartland with Dr. Grace on WTSB Radio and isthe founder of the Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal.