Operation Whalers was a combat mission planned by the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment (2/3) in the summer of 2005 to destroy the operations of an up-and-coming terrorist / insurgent leader named Ahmad Shah. Whalers, named in honor of the Hartford / New England Whalers professional hockey team, came in the wake of the tragedies of Operation Red Wings, where Ahmad Shah's men brutally ambushed a four-man Navy SEAL surveillance and reconnaissance team, killing three and then shot down an MH-47 Special Operations Chinook sent in to save the SEALs, killing all 16 on board. While Red Wings, for reasons never before disclosed to the public, included special operations forces (Navy SEALs), Whalers was planned and executed solely with U.S. Marine conventional forces, attached Afghan National Army soldiers, and conventional support assets such as U.S. Army "Dustoff" air ambulance helicopters, Air Force A-10s, and Army artillery. The outcome of Whalers, which had the same goal as Red Wings, was startlingly different than Red Wings. Both are documented in Ed Darack's book, VICTORY POINT: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - The Marine Corps Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan. VICTORY POINT reveals, for the first time, startling information and details about Red Wings, as well as the virtually unknown (but successful) Operation Whalers.