Posted on 04/22/2005 11:11:00 PM PDT by HAL9000
A desperate mission to rescue 53 American hostages from Iran ended in failure and the deaths of eight servicemen, but it is being remembered 25 years later as a turning point for U.S. special operations forces that eventually led to successes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and elsewhere.Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force veterans of Operation Eagle Claw, families of those who lost their lives and a support group are gathering this weekend for an anniversary reunion and remembrance in the Florida Panhandle.
Mere failure turned into fiery disaster when a helicopter collided with a transport plane at Desert One, a desolate rendezvous spot in Iran, after mechanical and weather problems already had aborted the mission.
What happened on April 25, 1980, shocked the Pentagon and Congress into building up special forces that conduct clandestine missions and practice small-scale warfare against terrorists and guerillas.
“The U.S. got better prepared to deal with terrorism quicker because of Desert One,” retired Air Force Col. Roland Guidry said in recent interview.
He was a squadron commander in the lead plane at Desert One and later served as chief of air operations for the U.S. Special Operations Command, now headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa.
Organizational, logistical and equipment flaws coupled with interservice rivalry contributed to Eagle Claw’s failure, but the audacious rescue plan and training that went into it still are paying dividends.
“There’s a lot of missions that are occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan we don’t know anything about, but they’re using some of the same tactics and procedures we developed,” Guidry said.
Guidry, 65, now a Destin real estate broker, will be the principle speaker at an Eagle Claw symposium Monday, the mission’s anniversary date, at Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach.
Hurlburt is headquarters for the Air Force Special Operations Command, and it was the home base of five airmen who died at Desert One. Three Marines also perished.
On Sunday night, the Tampa-based Special Operations Warrior Foundation will hold a 25th anniversary dinner and remembrance in Fort Walton Beach. The foundation was founded in the wake of Desert One to provide college scholarships for children of special operators killed or disabled in the line of duty.
Since then, it has awarded grants to about 530 children of more than 440 special operations personnel who have given their lives. That includes 17 children of the eight men killed at Desert One and one airman who was disabled there.
Former third-party presidential candidate and billionaire Ross Perot, one of the foundation’s first contributors, also will receive its “Spirit of the Warrior” award Sunday.
Jody Powell, then-President Jimmy Carter’s press secretary, will be master of ceremonies. Carter’s inability to free the hostages was an issue in his 1980 re-election defeat.
The crisis began Nov. 4, 1979, when a mob seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. One hostage was freed because of illness after the rescue attempt. The other 52 were released as President Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated in 1981.
Eagle Claw was aborted after mechanical problems disabled two of eight Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and a third turned back in the face of a dust storm. The five remaining helicopters were one short of the minimum needed to continue.
Six Air Force transports had flown in Army Delta Force troops and fuel for the helicopters, which then were supposed to take the soldiers to a clandestine staging area near Tehran. The mission never got that far.
After the abort order, one helicopter tried to leave Desert One in a cloud of dust but crashed into a parked C-130 cargo plane loaded with 44 Delta troops.
“We didn’t hear anything. We just felt sort of a jar,” said retired Air Force Staff Sgt. J.J. Beyers, a radio operator in the C-130’s cockpit where five other airmen died. “We thought we might have been shelled or something. It never occurred to us what happened.”
Beyers, 62, who lives near Hurlburt in Niceville, climbed down a ladder into the cargo hold where something hit him and knocked him out.
“I woke up and the cargo compartment was empty,” he said.
A door on the right side appeared to be five miles away, Beyers said.
“I was saying to myself ‘I’m dead,”’ he recalled. “Then I looked up again and the door looked like it was just an arm’s length away. I said, ‘Hell, I’m not going to die in this godforsaken place.”’
Beyers was on fire when he got out. Soldiers rolled him on the ground to put out the flames. He suffered severe burns on both hands, his arms and his buttocks and was forced to retire.
The transports had taken off from Misirah, an island off Oman. When they returned, British airfield workers sent over two cases of cold beer.
One case had a message scrawled on it. That piece of cardboard is displayed in a frame at Hurlburt. It reads:
“To you all from us all for having the guts to try.”
The eight service members killed on a failed mission to rescue 53 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Iran on April 25, 1980:
AIR FORCE
- Maj. Richard L. Bakke, navigator, Long Beach, Calif.
- Maj. Harold L. Lewis Jr., pilot, Mansfield, Conn.
- Tech. Sgt. Joel C. Mayo, flight engineer, Harrisville, Mich.
- Capt. Lyn D. McIntosh, co-pilot, Valdosta, Ga.
- Charles T. McMillan, navigator, Corryton, Tenn.
MARINE CORPS
- Sgt. John D. Harvey, Richmond, Va.
- Cpl. George N. Holmes Jr., Pine Bluff, Ark.
- Staff Sgt. Dewey L. Johnson, Dublin, Ga.
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Eagle Claw (4/24/1980) - Apr. 24th, 2003
Our people did their duty and paid the price for having a completely inept President--they are to be honored.
Having said that, this title must go down in the "saving a lib's legacy" hall of fame. They had to resist the urge to add "No, REALLY"
BINGO
The AP is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the DNC.
vein s/b vain.
The topic is absolutely correct. It did lead to later successes; Reagan, Bush Sr., and W are all successes....
Thanx, My bad :-(
If Jimmuh had had any Testicular Fortitude, he would/should have Arc Lighted the Iranian Embassy within 48 hours of its being taken.
Instead, all the Armed Services wanted a piece of Col. Beckwith's proposed operation. Time was wasted. Near impossible Mission Standards were set and good men died!
Jack.
Strange how the military has to suffer to learn leassons under democraps (LBJ,Carter,Clintoon). We learned a lot of lessons in GW 1 which we used in GW II, without a lot of suffering.
I know you mean well but the hair on the back of my neck always stands up a little when someone says someone who served honorably in our military in combat "died in vain"-- such as the Dems are fond of saying about Vietnam Vets. The fact is, as long as we honor their service to their country, they absolutely did not die in vain, regardless of the political outcome of the conflict in question.
point taken, and I agree
Instead, all the Armed Services wanted a piece of Col. Beckwith's proposed operation. Time was wasted. Near impossible Mission Standards were set and good men died!
I agree. The mission was much too complicated, partly as a result of interservice rivalries. It was the first in a series of leadership blunders under both Dems and Republicans that sent a signal of weakness to our enemies-- two others being the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut (withdrawl) and Mogadishu on Blackhawk Down day (initial buildup then withdrawl).
A man can't display testicular fortitude without the requisite physical equipment .... Jimmuh was never even in the game.
http://rescueattempt.tripod.com
The Hostage Rescue Attempt In Iran, April 24-25, 1980
Page One, Introduction
DUE TO THE 25TH ANNIVERSAY COMING UP IN APRIL, SOME HAVE CONTACTED ME ABOUT ANY REMEMBERANCES.
I have received an e-mail from White House Commission on Remembrance , and here are the details they sent me:
The White House Commission on Remembrance will host the 25th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony in honor of all those who died in the Iran Hostage Rescue Mission. The tribute will take place on April 25th, 2005 at noon in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery. We hope that you will be able to join us.
The White House Commission on Remembrance was established by Congress as an independent government agency. It honors America’s fallen and recognizes those who have served and those who continue to serve our country.
If you would like to attend please contact the Commission at commission@remember.gov
MANY PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY INDICATED THEY WILL BE THERE WHO WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MISSION AND WITH SUPPORT.
ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.
FOR THOSE IN THE FLORIDA AREA, HURLBURT FIELD IS HOLDING A CEREMONY APPROXIMATELY THE SAME DATE FOR THE AIR FORCE CREWS, PLEASE CONTACT HURLBURT FIELD FOR DETAILS.
Carter chose to follow the failed leadership style of his predecessors, LBJ and that idiot MacNamarra. I remember reading the critiques of the mission at the time that put the onus on Carter's insistance on direct communication links between the Whitehouse and and the mission leadership. He insisted on looking over the commander's shoulder and second guessing every move. Contrast that with the present CIC and compare the results.
The conceit of both the Johnson and Carter administrations coupled with their distrust of the military cost lives in both cases.
As a side note; Why is it that the MSM still drags Robert MacNamarra out to comment on anything military? Where is his credibility? His record on anything to do with the military is a disgrace. He was dead wrong on Viet Nam and every bit of his commentary on the Afganistan and Iraq Wars have been true-to-form. It's the Dems reliance on people like him that make them a menace to the military.
No, That hedline is an almost verbatim quote from SF types because it is true.
Because of th failure at Desert One, our forces developed the best systems and training in the world.
We learned how much problems can come from mixing it up, and a few other things.
The mission was not complicated.
There were just too many surprises that were unforseen, and too many people who are not forgiving helicopter pilots who flew for 6 hours in a state of vertigo, puking on their flight suits in 105 degree heat to finally make it to desert one.
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