Thanks for the refresher. I remembered everything more or less correctly. The lives that were lost were lost for nothing, the crew had already been freed. That is not to criticize the men involved in the rescue attempt, as usualy they served bravely and did the best they could under the circumstnances, but rather the intelligence types and the DoD leadership who messed things up pretty badly.
agreed, Im not trying to downplay the loss or plans that went astray or rub ya about it, it was a long time ago, most folks don't remember it anyway.
Ford had been in office for 9 months after
Nixon's resignation, Rumsfeld had just assumed leadership position with DoD (not sure what date he took over in 1975), we're were closing out the Vietnam activities at that time as well.
Thanks for your service, btw.