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Operation Eagle Claw

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Operation Eagle Claw (or Operation Evening Light) was a United States military operation to rescue the 53 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on April 24 1980. The operation was a failure, and had a severe impact on U.S. President Jimmy Carter's re-election prospects; on a military level, it led to the creation of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (the Night Stalkers).

The hostages were eventually released via diplomatic negotiations on January 20 1981, Carter's last day in office, after 444 days of captivity.

Contents

Overview

Planned as Operation Rice Bowl, the operation was designed as a complex two-night mission. The first stage of the mission involved establishing a small staging site inside Iran itself, near the Tabas in the Yazd Province (formerly in the south of the Khorasan province) of Iran. The site, known as Desert One, was to be used as a temporary airstrip for the C-130 Hercules transport planes and RH-53D Sea Stallion minesweeper helicopters which would undertake the actual rescue operation. After refueling the helicopters, the plan was for the ground troops to board the helicopter and fly to Desert Two near Tehran. After locating and extracting the hostages from Tehran, the rescuers and rescuees would be transported by helicopter to Manzariyeh Air Base outside of Tehran, where C-130 transports would take them out of the country under the protection of fighter aircraft.

An unforeseen low-level sandstorm caused two of eight helicopters to lose their way en route to Desert One, but only after men and equipment had been assembled there. A third helicopter suffered a mechanical failure and was incapable of contiuing on with the mission. Without enough helicopters to transport men and equipment to Desert Two, the mission was aborted. After the decision to abort the mission was made, one of the helicopters lost control while taking off and crashed into a C-130. In the ensuing explosion and fire, eight US servicemen were killed: five USAF aircrew in the C-130, and three USMC aircrew in the MH-53. During the evacuation, five MH-53 helicopters were left behind, intact but severely damaged by shrapnel from the burning aircraft. In their efforts to quickly evacuate the MH-53s, the aircrews left behind classified plans which identified CIA agents within Iran. Wounded personnel, mostly with serious burns, returned with the rest of the Joint Task Force (JTF) to the launch base in Oman. Two C-141 medevac aircraft from the rear staging base at Wadi Kena, Egypt picked up the injured personnel, helicopter crews, and Delta forces. The C-141s then returned to Wadi Kena. The injured personnel were then transported to Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Analysis

Critics have argued that the mission had been bound to fail anyway, due to being overly complex and the fact that the hostages to be rescued had been scattered in various 'safe houses', which the provided forces would not have been able to find and secure in time. It is also plausible that the large number of military units involved compromised the secrecy of the mission.

Aftermath

The failure of the various services to work together with cohesion forced the establishment of a new multi-service organisation. The concept of USSOCOM was born and finally established, and became operational in 1988/1989. Each service subsequently now has its own Special Operations Forces under the overall control of USSOCOM. For example, the Army has its own Army Special Operations Command (ASOC) that controls the Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF).

The lack of higly trained helicopter pilots that were capable of the low-level night flying needed for modern special forces missions prompted the creation of the Night Stalkers.

A second rescue mission was planned under the name Operation Credible Sport (also known as Operation Honey Badger) but was never put into action.

Not long after the failure of the mission, the Iranian Embassy Siege ocurred in London.

The hostages were released after 444 days of captivity on January 20 1981, the day that Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter as president.

In the May 2006 issue of The Atlantic, journalist Mark Bowden provided a lengthy account of the failed mission [link].

Units involved in the operation

These units are known to have participated:

External links

References

  1. USAF College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education. [Air & Power Course: Operation Eagle Claw]. United States of America: US Air Force.
  2. Personal account of the mission and Iranian history related to the Iran Hostage Crisis. [link]
  3. Olausson, Lars, Lockheed Hercules Production List 1954-2005, Såtenäs, Sweden, annually.
  4. Kyle, Colonel James H., USAF (Ret.), "The Guts to Try", Orion Books, New York, 1990, ISBN 0-517-57714-3.
  5. Col. Beckwith, Charlie A., US Army (Re.), "Delta Force : The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit", Avon, 2000, ISBN 0-380-80939-7.

 

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