[Richard]

Operation Eagle Claw and Desert One

Attchd pdf - excerpted from Beyond Hell and Back: How America’s Special Operations Forces Became the World’s Greatest Fighting Unit by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and John D. Gresham.

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Fehran and took hostage all the Americans in the compound. Fheir proclaimed intent was twofold. They wished to force the United States to return the exiled shah of Iran, who was in America for medical treatment. Fhey were also seeking evidence of a CIA plot to overthrow the new Islamic republic that had formed under the cleric Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini. While publicly pursuing diplomatic efforts to free the captive Americans, President Jimmy Carter covertly authorized a top-secret rescue mission, Operation Eagle Claw. It would be conducted by America’s new and equally secret counterterrorist unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta (Delta Force), commanded by its founder, Colonel Charles Beckwith. The hostage crisis dominated world news, the rescue attempt failed disastrously, the crisis ultimately lasted 444 days, and Eagle Claw’s failure in large part contributed to President Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election. Fhe mission became a textbook example that has been studied by special operations personnel ever since. More importantly, Operation Eagle Claw became the touchstone for the creation of Special Operations Command (SOCOM).