Posted on 04/25/2010 6:22:04 PM PDT by patriotgal1787
Thirty years ago this week, James Earl Carter went before the nation to give a speech that would mark the beginning of the end of his presidency. The night before his speech, Carter gave the "green light" to the Iranian hostage rescue mission--Eagle Claw--that ended in disaster at Desert One.
Eight U.S. servicemen died at the site and had to be left behind. At the time, it was by far the worst humiliation the U.S. had ever suffered, and it cost Carter his reelection bid later that year. Ronald Reagan won in a landslide.
An investigation into Operation Eagle Claw cited lack of command and control and inter-service coordination as major reasons for the mission's failure. As a result, SOCOM was established and headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
As a president, Carter was weak; as a former president, he's a disgrace.
The Desert One Debacle: A complete history from inception to disaster.
(Excerpt) Read more at thirdwavedave.blogspot.com ...
Correct. The original plan involved two aircraft carriers launching a full load of Army helicopters. The choppers would land in the desert and refuel from a KC-130, while the rescue force drove into Teheran in trucks carried in on the choppers. Knockout gas would be used to eliminate any resistance. Then they'd drive back out to the desert, load the hostages into the freshly refueled helicopters, blow up the trucks and leave.
Carter was paranoid about Iranian intelligence, but since the Shah's government had just fallen and most of the defense and intel apparatus was loyal to the Shah, he was exaggerating the risk enormously. First, he cut the task force in half, from two carriers to one, and replaced the Army helicopters (which had sand filters on the engines) with navy helicopters (which had no sand filters). As another Freeper observes below, this reduced the number of helicopters to the bare minimum needed to complete the mission. No reserve and no margin of error.
Second, Carter cancelled a planned "dress rehearsal" at the island of Diego Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The only living things on Diego Garcia were a few hundred US Navy sailors, their dependents, and thousands of birds. There was absolutely no chance that the mission's cover would be blown, and the dress rehearsal would have revealed the risk of a mid-air collision between the KC-130 and the helicopters. The tactical plan could have been modified to eliminate this risk if it had been detected.
These two micromanagement actions by Jimmy Carter doomed the mission. If he hadn't cut the rescue force in half, the mission still would have succeeded even after the mid-air collision, because there would have been more helicopters, trucks, troops and other material in reserve; and of course the Navy helicopters were vulnerable to desert dust.
What should have been an Army and Air Force mission from start to finish had portions carved out for the Navy and Marines, and the result was bad.
We needed carriers to move the helicopters into position for the launch. That should have been the limit of the Navy involvement. But Carter was ex-Navy. So he threw in a lot of Navy and Marine personnel into the expeditionary force.
Jimmy Carter was a screw-up from the get-go. The military had recommended a much larger force to launch precision diversions and have some margin of error. Carter insisted on minimal force and minimal footprint. There was absolutely no margin for error. Anyone who has ever been close to the military knows that screw ups and error are inevitable on an operation of this nature. Zero margin for error is a risk worth taking only when there is no alternative.
See above. When the Navy task force was cut in half, it eliminated the reserve force.
Thanks so much for the additional details.
But I remember Carter coming on TV and telling us that Desert One was “an incomplete success.” How long until Hussein uses that term to describe his programs?
LOL, I remember President Carter using the phrase, “baloney,” when Reagan was tearing him up in the debate. At one point, he said he asked his daughter Amy about something or other. He was doomed. Of course, we can only hope that zero follows in Carter’s footsteps, 4 years and you’re out! Sounds good to me.
From the article: “As a president, Carter was weak; as a former president, he’s a disgrace.”
Barry Hussein Obama, the Kenyan born Muslim Marxist, is already a disgrace. Beyond weak. Beyond inept. Obama is an enemy of America and all we hold dear.
Excuse me, but, Bush didn’t spend time tearing down the military. Its the DEMRATS who hate the military and cut their budget every time one of them is elected president.
As if Kennedy had any love for the military.
If I'm not mistaken, the collision occurred while the KC-130 and the helicopter were on the ground rather tan in mid-air.
Weren’t you a part of this?
One reason I am a member of this site is James Earl Carter.
My sainted mother had us playing along with his 68 degrees thermostat nonsense - remember his ‘cardigan speech?’
The EAPS system had absolutely nothing to do with the failure of the mission
The NAVY refused to fly those aircraft enough to keep them flight ready, that is why they failed on their first hard flight test.
Carter did not micromanage the rescue mission, General James Vaught almost had free reign
Nonsense!
The only love that Kennedy had for the military was that he could say that he was one time in the service. He was in the Army and discharged as a PFC.
I thought that the Son Tay raid went well for the raid itself, it was just that the prisons were empty which was a failure of the non military part of the operation?
http://vodpod.com/watch/1342369-1980-reagan-carter-debate-part-i
8 minutes of Gip from the dee-bate!
“Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”
That’s kind of like saying the Jedburg teams that got rounded up by informers in France in WWII did good, except for the intel part. Not to mention, the almost all CIA post WWII native teams that were inserted into Eastern Europe, almost all of them were wiped out. Nice, eh?
What’s the point.
( Another, older operation. Bay of Pigs )
Anyways, after twenty years, the military bureaucracy finally responded and made the Special Operations Command, realizing that the failures were leadership, organizational.
There must of been five thousand guys, or more, that in support came knowingly, or not, in contact with members.
I can not imagine in today’s world of internet, cell phones how you would keep operational security.
It looks like it will probably happen that way, but we are the ones who have to make it happen. With ACORN broke and on the sidelines, it's going to be hard for them to steal it. We can win it fair and square.
If I'm not mistaken, the collision occurred while the KC-130 and the helicopter were on the ground rather tan in mid-air.
The Sea Stallion helicopter was in the air, flying low; and the KC-130 was taxiing.
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