Strategy General Planning

Speaking as a paratrooper; if there is a downed bird, it's going down over enemy terrain. Even if anyone survives, they'll be out of contact and generally useless to us. In addition, it depends on the type of bird. A C130 can glide into a (somewhat) survivable landing if the terrain allows and a little luck. A downed helo from way up in the sky? Yeah, you're done. A downed helo from about a hunnerd feet up? Maybe. If the gods really, really like you that day. I'd vote any downed bird in anything other than a air assault mission is gonna be all hands lost, or at least crippled beyond repair.

Cripples remind me of something I learned in Iraq: against an invading army, you don't necessarily want to kill the enemy. It's better to have them crippled: you can leave a corpse. It's harder to leave behind a dude who's sobbing for his mother as he slowly bleeds out. The insurgencies in Iraq used this is great effect against US soldiers. A crippled soldier requires the government's resources to maintain and is a walking, talking... or at least breathing representation of just why it's a bad idea to f*** with the opposing forces. I can imagine our slow retreat intentionally using weapons that cause lots of cripples, things like IEDs, exploding darts aimed into the legs, punji stakes, etc. etc... it's a devious, underhanded, cruel way of waging war, and it's wonderfully effective.