Just as an aside....I was told they didn’t use Israeli made 9mm Uzi’s for fear of the round passing through the enemy and hitting the hostages. They used American made 45ACP Mac 10’s....because of the slower speed and knock down capability of the 45. Although I haven’t ever been able to confirm that all these yrs.
“The leader of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, was also shot dead by a Ugandan sentry.”
A rather significant omission from the excerpt.
Okay, that comes with a /sarc off from me. But if it happened today, wouldn't that be the exact reaction from Western Europe, Rev. Wright, US college campuses, and in some form, our own State Dept.?
In 1976, of course, no one at our liberal college campus had anything bad to say about the rescue. It was celebrated by liberal Dems and wide-eyed socialists alike. But the Left had not eaten as much of its own tail at that time. Leftism, being gnostic, has to keep moving its own ideological goal-posts unceasingly, lest anyone figure out that there are no principles at all to Leftism, only the compulsion to control one's followers.
In 1976, the Kampus Kommies still claimed to be "less anti-Semitic than thou." Now they are falling all over themselves to claim top honors for Jew-hating—not just Israel-bashing, but Jew-hating. And somehow, it's still in the name of justice and tolerance.
The finale of the movie ‘Raid on Entebbe’ (1977). Powerful scene.
English Translation:
How good and pleasant it is for
brothers and sisters to dwell as one, to live together in peace. ( From Psalm 133.)
Hine ma tov uma nayim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xHWk6gE444
- USA was there-
One hundred and eleven days after Olenga's capture of Stanleyville, in the dawn hours of 24 November 1964 following a strike by CIA-piloted B-26s against Stanleyville Airport, 5 U.S. Air Force C130s bearing 340 troops of the 1st Battalion, Belgian Paracommando Regiment, staged a combat assault to seize the airport.
The airborne assault was planned to coincide with the arrival in Stanleyville of a ground force composed of Belgian and U.S. Army officers, a small CIA element, and a contingent of the Congolese Army.
Once Stanleyville was secured, the Belgian paras staged another combat assault on Paulis, several hundred miles away, to rescue still more European hostages
The Dragon operations in the Congo-Dragon Rouge and Dragon Noir-were the first, and in many ways the most complex, hostage rescue missions of the cold war.
http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/odom/odom.asp
In spite of the often repeated statement that the recovery of US Special Operations started with the April 1980 failure in the Iran Desert the actual recovery began July 1976 and continued, at an admittedly slow pace, through November 1979.
Many of the long term investments in Special Operations began in the FY 1978 budget cycle. Included in that budget was the classified directed operational requirement for elements of the DOD to develop and maintain both an individual and joint counter-terrorist capability. This language and its accompanying funds for its execution started the rebuilding cycle.
Prior to Entebbe, DOD had declared that we would never have to fight another unconventional war. After Entebbe Congress said we had better start preparing for another unconventional war.
Proof of statement lies in the money trail and the training cycles. Without the jump start provided by Entebbe there is no way we could have put boots on the ground in the Iranian Desert April 1980, 5 months after the American Embassy in Tehran had been seized (which is BTW an act of war by all accepted international codicils).
I was very proud of Israel that day in 1976. Israel proved that they were a leader in fighting terrorism that day. as a 17 year old American Jew at that time I realized what Islamic terrorism was all about. Its true 35 years later. Nothing has changed.
Made for TV **Raid on Entebbe** is a great movie. If you can catch it in reruns its well worth your time...