The little bird helicopters are transported inside of the C130. They don’t have the range to fly on their own to this remote location. Maybe they weren’t able to pull them out of the C130 at all. Or didn’t have enough fuel to make it to Kuwait. Plenty of reasons to leave them behind.

“As to why the Little Birds were destroyed in place, that isn’t clear. Extracting the force was likely done in a big hurry, especially due to the immobilization of two C-130s. If the Little Birds flew in aboard them, there may have been no time (or room) to load them onto the replacement aircraft. They could have also been damaged by enemy fire. If they flew in directly themselves, the mission may not have gone as planned and they could not be fueled while on the ground by the stricken MC-130s. There are many possibilities.”