Carter's Ghost: Operation Evening Light, 4/24/80

[denem]

Oh you bet the RW'ers were looking forward to a successful resolution of a hostage crisis!

Operation Evening Light (or Eagle Claw) was the United States Special Operations Command plan to rescue the American hostages in Tehran. Critically, the operation depended on having six RH-53D helicopters available to carry out the assault. Eight were dispatched, three failed, leaving only five operational at the 'Desert One' staging post. President Carter aborted the mission. Eight serviceman died. Carter's Presidency never recovered.

Although there is absolutely no comparison, President Obama dodged a bullet here.

Evening Light ...only the delivery of the rescue force, equipment and fuel by the C-130 Hercules occurred according to plan. An unexpected low-level intense sandstorm of the kind known as a haboob contributed to the reduction of the force by three of the eight RH-53D helicopters by the time the helicopter formation reached Desert One, behind schedule. The first helicopter was grounded and abandoned in the desert with equipment indicating a cracked rotor blade, and its crew picked up by another helicopter that continued the flight. The second helicopter abandoned the flight and returned to the Nimitz with reported erratic instrumentation blamed on the highly elevated temperatures inside the haboob. The third helicopter arrived at Desert One with a malfunctioning primary hydraulics system and insufficient confidence in the secondary (backup) hydraulics system to continue. The first and third helicopters, which were abandoned, now serve with the Iranian Navy...

With only five helicopters remaining for transporting the men and equipment to Desert Two, and needing a predetermined minimum of six helicopters at that stage (Col. Beckwith's plans anticipated losing additional helicopters at later stages, especially as they were notorious for failing on cold starts and they were to be shut down for almost 24 hours at Desert Two), Col. Beckwith recommended that President Carter abort the mission, and Carter did just that on April 25, 1980. In order to complete the refueling of one of the helicopters, another had to be moved. That helicopter had blown a tire on landing and had therefore to be moved by "air taxi". Its pilot became disoriented in the resulting dust cloud raised by its rotors and crashed into the C-130.

In the ensuing explosion and fire, eight US servicemen died: five USAF aircrew in the C-130, and three USMC aircrew in the RH-53D, with only the helicopter pilot surviving. During the following frantic evacuation of the scene by the C-130s, with many of the helicopter aircrews believing they were under attack due to munitions cooking off in the fire, five RH-53D helicopters were left behind mostly intact, some damaged by shrapnel, with the sixth helicopter on top of the C-130 where it crashed and was being consumed by the fire. Iranian gains from the failed operation total between four and six RH-53D helicopters. In their haste to evacuate the helicopters, the Marine aircrews inadvertently left behind classified plans that identified the Tehran CIA agents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

[Captain Hilts]

1. Sending navy helicopters to conduct operations in the desert without dust shields was stupid. nt

[denem]

2. Nonsense. The "Sea Stallions" are Sikorsky S-65s

extensively used Iraq and Afghanistan. A "haboob" storm is a desert equivalent of a tornado: 70mph downward winds, and temperatures recorded at 380 F.

[Captain Hilts]

4. With dust filters. These had none. And the pilots were basically minesweepers. nt

[denem]

6. 1. Wrong - The pilots were US Marine Corps Aviation.

[Captain Hilts]

8. I knew some of the NAVY pilots that flew on the mission. nt

[BlueCollar]

3. "The Guts to Try"

by Col. James H. Kyle, USAF retired.

ISBN 0-345-44695-X

One of the best accounts I have read about the mission preparations, execution and aftermath.

The title is based upon a passage in chapter 38...

"After leaving Kelly's tent, I circulated among the maintenance and support troops, giving each of them a pat on the back. They had made sure the C-130s were in top shape to perform the toughest of missions - they had come through with flying colors."

"This was when two of the Sultan of Oman's Air Force Personnel - British - came driving up and delivered their morale-boosting cargo - two cases of cold beer. The troops made short work of the much-appreciated suds. "Ah, those Brits have real class," one veteran pilot exclaimed as he raised his bottle in a salute to the Omani side of the airfield."

And the message on the cardboard case - "To you all, from us all, for having the guts to try"...


Ultimately Kyle's assesment of the failure boils down to 5 principal factors:

1) Busted weather forecast.
2) Poor use of communication equipment and flawed command and control.
3) Questionable pilot abort decisions.
4) Absurd tactics restrictions.
5) Flight planning factors (the sidelight issue)

In the end, mechanical failure was not the reason...Nothing to do with Navy Helicopters or Marine Pilots.

[madamesilverspurs]

5. Wrote a letter to Pres. Carter

at that time. The posturing umbrage of the republicans on the hill was nauseating. Those same gasbags would have been knocking each other down in the effort to claim the credit had the mission succeeded, and I said as much in my letter to Carter. That was long before the White House correspondence was computerized, and I got a very nicely typed response from one of Carter's staffers. I still remember my landlady's big-as-saucer eyes as she handed me my mail - the only thing in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope was the phrase 'The White House'. I still have that letter, kept in a safe place with the thank-you card from Pres. and Mrs. Kennedy, a response to my letter about her televised tour of the executive mansion.

[BlueCollar]

7. kick and recommend...n/t