On November 4, 1979, 66 Americans were taken hostage by Iranian students who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Six months later, on April 24, 1980, the U.S. attempted to rescue the 52 remaining hostages from inside a country in the middle of a revolution.
Storming the Embassy
The United States chose not to extradite the former king of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been dethroned during an Islamic revolution. He was in the U.S. undergoing medical treatment, so the students thought they could use the hostages as a bargaining tool, all with the approval of their new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
This was the beginning of 444 days in captivity for the Americans. The military hatched a plan and began training a month after the captives were taken.
The newly established Delta Force would run point on the ground since they were the hostage-rescue unit. However, the rescue would be complicated since the region was full of mountains and hard to reach, but a location was found 50 miles from the capital for staging.
Gathering intel was rather difficult for Delta. Most of their intelligence came from Iranian national T.V. For example, the captives were either in the embassy, or they could have been in the Foreign Ministry.
Operation Eagle Claw
Another difficult piece was finding harmony between all four U.S. military branches since they all wanted to be a part of the rescue. The Air Force would have the fixed-wing aircraft with a Special Tactics team, and the Nacy would provide eight RH-53 Sea Stallions from the USS Nimitz.
The Marines would pilot the helicopters, and the Army would provide Rangers, Delta Force, and Special Forces to rescue the hostages. The MC-130E and EC-130E would fly supplies from Oman to Desert One, and the eight RH-53 would meet them.
But nothing went as planned. Two RH-53s were abandoned, and the other went back to the ship due to mechanical failure. The mission had to be abandoned because all six helicopters were needed.
They tried again the following day, but a helicopter ran into an EC-130E, and five airmen and three Marines were killed. Eight aircraft were destroyed.
The mission was a failure. The various teams never trained together and never did a dress rehearsal. As a result of the failure, the Army created the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, so the helicopter problems were not repeated.
Wow -
Thank you all for your service and to those that are Resting In Peace.
Not everything goes perfect. This was an honest attempt that went bad, but not at the hands of any of the service personnel. The reality in the past and will also be the reality in the future. The only good thing that comes from this is for everyone to learn from this incident so it doesn't happen again. Bless all the service personnel, here and gone, for what they go through to protect America and American citizens. ❤️🇺🇸👍❤️🇺🇸👍❤️🇺🇸👍
When the prisoners at Son Tay were to be rescued the military practiced for months. So why would the same practice not be conducted to rescue the hostages. It does not make sense not work out the details.
The story didn't tell how it ended.
Docustory only declasify more info on event alone must tell
Another time the right hand doesnt know what the left hand is doing. All branches need to work together with special teams working together z frw times a year so this never happens again if the need arises
The bumbling Jimmy Carter launched the fateful mission without proper training all the while edefunding the Military like your typical Democrat.
Ms. Sweeney, you have been misinformed. Delta had nothing to do with this failed rescue attempt. Delta was practicing a rescue attempt for several months but was not allowed to do it. The man in charge of the operation was a desk jockey: He had no experience in field work. Also, this rescue was the first time more than one branch of the military was involved in the planning and execution.
This operation failed because it was designed to fail. The only thing it accomplished was get world sympathy on the side of the USA, which I believe was its ONLY goal all along.