Chinooks have been used since the Vietnam War. It has the best payload, its heavily armored, and can carry up to 21000 pounds. Judging by the number of personnel, that would have been the only option. Its hard to take down but not impossible. There's not been that many accidents with the Chinooks.
you park them away from firefights, you drop personnels at a distance of where the action is going to take place.... it's not a close ground support aircraft that just stay around at low altitude spreading bullets at nmes... Has never ever been designed for this. Maybe it was an ambush, there were nmes with rpgs in a place they werent suposed to be... i dont know.
A chinook is not an attack chopper... It transports people and vehicles from a place to another and has basic defenses just in case but that's about it. It can be shot down easely by heavy machine guns or rpgs at close ranges, this is why it is not to be used in these situations.
