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thedrifter
01-18-04, 12:42 PM
Issue Date: January 19, 2004

The Lore of the Corps
Hostage-rescue mission came to fiery end in Iran

By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times

On Nov. 4, 1979, Islamic radicals, angry that the United States admitted Iran’s exiled Shah into the United States for medical treatment, stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, including 13 Marine Security Guards.
Diplomatic attempts to free the hostages were blocked at every turn by Iran’s fundamentalist Shiite government. In time, 13 hostages — four black Marines and nine female employees — were released. The Iranians said they were released because blacks were victims of the United States and Islam didn’t wage war on women.

The humiliating situation continued with no end in sight, dragging President Carter into a political quagmire. As diplomatic efforts continued, a secret planning group called “Rice Bowl” was established to come up with a military option.

What emerged was an audacious joint operation. But ultimately, it would end in disaster and with some finger-pointing at the Marine contingent of the force.

The plan called for Air Force C-130s to fly 132 Army Delta Force commandos, Army Rangers, support personnel and huge bladders of fuel into a remote site in the Iranian desert dubbed “Desert One.” At the same time, eight RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters would launch from the carrier Nimitz and fly 600 miles to rendezvous with the C-130s.

The helicopters, after refueling from the fuel bladders, would carry the Army assault force to a hiding spot near Tehran while the C-130s returned to Oman. The next night, the Delta Force commandos and Rangers would drive into Tehran aboard Central Intelligence Agency-obtained vehicles and free the hostages. The helicopters would swoop in, retrieve the hostages and soldiers and, covered by a flight of AC-130 gunships, fly to an abandoned airfield where other C-130s would fly them all to safety. The rescue helicopters would be destroyed in place.

One of the mission’s major problems lay with training for the mission. The services trained personnel involved in the mission separately.

Leading the Marines was Lt. Col. Edward Seiffert, a pilot with extensive experience flying combat missions in Vietnam. Of the 16 helicopter pilots, 12 were Marines, three were Navy and one was Air Force.

On April 11, 1980, Carter approved the mission, named Operation Eagle Claw. Within two weeks, the forces were positioned and, at sunset April 24, the C-130s left Oman and Seiffert’s flight of eight helicopters lifted off the deck of the Nimitz in the Indian Ocean.

Two hours into the mission, one helicopter experienced mechanical problems and was abandoned in the Iranian desert, its crew scrambling aboard another helicopter. A dust storm further complicated the mission, and another helicopter succumbed to electrical and navigational failures. It turned back to the Nimitz, leaving the task force with the minimum number of aircraft required for carrying out the rescue.

Meanwhile, the Delta commandos and Rangers landed at Desert One and set up a perimeter. When a bus and gas truck came upon them, the bus — with approximately 40 passengers — was seized, and a panicked soldier destroyed the gas truck with an anti-tank rocket, creating a huge fireball.

Delayed by the severe dust storm and a miscalculation of their flight time by planners, the six remaining helicopters landed an hour late. Upon landing, one of the helicopters experienced a lock-up of the secondary hydraulic system. It remained flyable at the time, but Seiffert correctly calculated that the added weight of the extra fuel, hostages and assault troops eventually would cause a complete lock-up of the helicopter and eventual crash.

With only five helicopters at his disposal, the mission commander, Army Col. Charles Beckwith, aborted the mission. Ordered to reposition his helicopter for fueling, Marine Maj. James Schaefer lifted off but was soon engulfed in a cloud of dust. The men on the ground watched in horror as the helicopter suddenly lurched to the side, its rotors slicing into one of the parked C-130s.

Fuel and munitions erupted into a fireball as soldiers and airmen scrambled out of the burning C-130. Three Marines — Staff Sgt. Dewey Johnson, Sgt. John Harvey and Cpl. George Holmes — died in the accident, along with five airmen, while Schaefer and his co-pilot, Maj. Leslie Petty, were among five men seriously injured.

The rest of the force boarded the remaining C-130s, which took off for their base in Oman. Left behind were the helicopters and bodies of the eight dead Americans.

The next day, Carter announced the mission’s failure and accepted full blame. Army officials, most notably Beckwith, unfairly levied most of the blame on the Marine pilots, going so far as to call them cowards.

An investigative panel found that poor planning, inadequate communication, lack of cohesive training, unpredictable weather and “Murphy’s Law” plagued the mission. And, despite the Army’s accusations, the panel praised the Marines. Seiffert’s decision not to fly the damaged helicopter into Tehran was correct, it concluded, based on the information he had and his flying experience, know-how lacking among his critics.

Condemnation was heaped on Carter, and the hostages finally were set free Jan. 20, 1981, the same day Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, took office.

The writer is a gunnery sergeant stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He can be reached at kambtp@aol.com.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-1553964.php


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

rot204
01-03-11, 01:50 PM
Thanks for listing this very important time in our history. Sorry I never saw this until now. I was a refueler at desert one that night and I remember it like it was yesterday. Just this past April was the 30th year memorial service at Arlington. Very sad while great to see everyone. Semper Fi

FR