By 
Today was the day in 1980 when eight servicemen died in a clusterfuck of a military operation.
The dramatic attempt to free the hostages began yesterday when six Hercules C130 transport planes set off to rendezvous with a group of nine helicopters at a remote desert airstrip, south-east of Tehran.
But the mission ran into trouble almost as soon as it had started
Two helicopters went down with engine trouble, and a third was diverted to help.
Then another helicopter was damaged as it landed on the airstrip, leaving only five workable helicopters. The mission had become impossible.
President Carter ordered the operation to abort. It was then that the farce became a tragedy.
As the aircraft took off again, another helicopter crashed into one of the C130 aircraft and burst into flames. Eight soldiers died, and another four men suffered burns.-ThirdWaveDave
The Iran hostage crisis went on for another nine months. The incompetent President who ordered Eagle Claw, James Earl Carter, was shown the door by voters a little over six months after that dreadful day in the Iranian desert.
I was at Gilbert H. Johnson when Eagle Claw went down. My memory of it isn’t as strong as that of the Beirut Barracks bombing that took place in 1983. Mostly because I got to treat some of the survivors while working at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Hat tip- Doug at Below the Beltway
9:20 am on April 25th, 2010 1
I was in elementary school during the Iranian Revolution, so it's something that never really made any sense to me, and now I look at the country today, with all the pro-American young people (whom Bush pissed off by lumping them with Iraq to make an "Axis of Evil"), and I wonder when things will change again. They were so close recently, but I think people are now just waiting for the next election.
9:45 am on April 25th, 2010 2
Americans have that knack of lumping everyone into something bad, and pissing everyone off.
10:18 am on April 25th, 2010 3
The North Korean propaganda machine that is Tom. It is funny to hear you talk about the U.S. when your own Country is at war. The North Koreans share the same blood as you. People across the world look at Korea as being one of the strangest places on earth where Koreans in the north and south would kill each other any chance they get. Now, you can blame it on the U.S. or Russia all you want but I will say the same thing I read in an earlier post of yours, you have a choice. Korea can kick the U.S. out and can come together like East and West Germany but fact is…it won't happen because Koreans are the starngest people on earth. What a joke you are Tom…
11:24 am on April 25th, 2010 4
Kind of like an angry little Korean man who lumps all GIs and Americans into a stereotype of criminals and degenerates. I'm sure the Irony is totally lost on you.
11:32 am on April 25th, 2010 5
"it never really made any sence to me" Look it up! Your a smart boy! Jimmy Carter (democrat) really messed that one up. Talk about pissing off the "pro-american young people" (too funny). Nothing like trying to rescue civilian and military Hostages from the "pro-american"
Iranians to really piss them off.
So obvious that you do not WANT to understand. Let me guess, it was Bushes falt right
. I really had no idea that bush had SO much power 
Well, at last Jimmy Carter will not be the worst President in American History. Obama is WELL on his way to taking that position.
Sadly for me, I will have to admit that I voted for Jimmy Carter. Oh the SHAME. Never again!
"just waiting for the next election", you got that chit right. November can't come fast enough.
11:33 am on April 25th, 2010 6
American presidents have a history of nievity and false agendas with unrealistic outcomes. Its usually military personnel who pay the price.
The military will always step up to the task, because that is what they are supposed to do. However after years of minimum budgets and minimum training, who should bear the blame for the outcome of this mission.
I believe it was given to the Task force leader in this case. And all the politicos walked away whistleing a tune of not me. Not my fault. Politicians are killers of servicemen and women.
11:36 am on April 25th, 2010 7
AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA that was me laughing at you making TOM sound like a JOKE!!! AAAAHAHAHAHAHA
11:38 am on April 25th, 2010 8
(Fault)
Thought I'd save you the time of correcting me.
12:07 pm on April 25th, 2010 9
Hamilton, you come from the biggest corrupted country in the history of the world. I was reading the article on Goldman Sachs and how the people inside looted your country and the world, with the help of the US government who rewarded them with countless bailouts.
http://sites.google.com/site/disclosuredelta/
They created the crisis knowingly to profit from the fake products they were selling to the world, knowing full well it was going to come down. But as long as they profited from it, their attitude was who cares.
Face it, your country is in the gutters, morally and financially. The best thing that could happen to all of us is for the corrupt US empire to collapse, and let the new world order take place.
12:12 pm on April 25th, 2010 10
Wrong. American presidents are bought by the US Federal Reserves. Without their secret endorsements, they would not be able to get elected.
12:16 pm on April 25th, 2010 11
Give it a break. I was stationed in Korea during most of the Iranian hostage crisis. I remember there were a lot of commander-in-chief wannabes spouting off 'solutions' like "let's just go in there and just kick their asses," or "nuke that sand into glass parking lot." None of them came across to me as an idea that would get those hostages out alive.
I found nothing to fault Jimmy Carter on, in that situation. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. He relied on the best advice he was given.
Having read several books with comments from planners and operators involved, the bottom line was there was no joint task force in the military at the time was trained or equipped to deal with that type of situation. The result was part of the impetus for creating Delta Force.
However, even 10 years after, in Kuwait-Iraq, and 20 years hence in Afganistan-Iraq, it seems we hadn't advanced far with improving equipment reliability in desert sands. So, I'm not sure we could even successfully handle a similar situation today.
12:27 pm on April 25th, 2010 12
Tom, you read? Wonders never cease. It's amazing you have never come across a single article on something good the US has done. However, I suspect you are a very slow reader and you can't take your hate glasses off long enough to admit you are a racist and hypocrite of bibical proportions.
I could respond to your lumping the entire US in with a single company and make comparisons with Daewoo, Hyundai or Samsung scandals but I'm not you. Again you seem to miss the irony of "lumping" everything in. You really don't know how stupid you sound do you?
12:38 pm on April 25th, 2010 13
Hamilton, Daewoo, Hyundai, or Samsung scandals does not even compare in size to the amount of crookedness of the entire Wall Street, US government, greedy and lazy American consumers, if not the entire crony Western capitalism which is the underlying cause of the current global financial crisis. Koreans had to listen to American and Western lectures during the 1997 Korean financial crisis (which the report that I just posted above eloquently portrayed how the American Wall Street undermines entire nations finances and f*ck the people over. Now it is your turn to just shut the h*ll up and listen to what I am telling you.
12:40 pm on April 25th, 2010 14
What the fu¢k are you ranting about, old man?
I realize I'm not always the clearest writer, but if you're not sure what I'm getting at, you can ask instead of launching into some demented tirade.
The pro-American Iranians I was referring to are the Iranians who were born since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, who see the theocracy as an undemocratic group of throwbacks with knee-jerk anti-American sentiment.
Look at the huge bulge in Iran's population pyramid [LINK] and see how many people were born after the Iranian Revolution or were just kids like me when it happened and therefore have no real emotional connection to whatever it is they were trying to do.
George W. Bush, who went out of his way to push the notion of Islam as a religion of peace under threat of being hijacked by extremists, tossed out a lot of good will among young Iranians by lumping them in to some fictional axis of evil in cahoots with their worst enemy, Iraq, so in 2006 there was just enough backlash which allowed Ahmedinejad to get elected over the pro-West moderate guy. That's why there was so much anger over the perceived stealing of the election by Ahmedinejad last year, so by the next election, things my change, and they'll want the unelected theocrats to have less or no power anymore.
12:56 pm on April 25th, 2010 15
What could/should have Carter done differently for a favorable outcome?
1:57 pm on April 25th, 2010 16
What Carter could have done differently started day one of his administration. If you want a rescue operation you need to fund the military units that could conduct it continuously. The Carter defense budget slashed training and maintenance dollars. When I entered military service we were still recovering from his budgets. He was not alone in nearly breaking military readiness, Ford cut the budget for his last year.
Carter did increase the budget for the last two years of his Presidency but military readiness is hard to rebuild quickly. Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen who haven't really trained for several years now instruct new members. Tanks, Aircraft and Ships that had maintenance deferred due to lack of budget cost much more to bring back to FMC than periodic maintenace does. Go ahead and skip oil changes on your car for 30,000 miles and get a taste of what I'm talking about.
Carter shouldn't take all the blame, Ford had already begun some cuts and Congress approved the defense budgets. The plan was challenging, and surprisingly came close to success. I think we will always wonder if lack of flying hours (better trained personnel) and better maintained equipment might have led to a successful outcome, not to mention re-dundant airframes!. Carter does deserve some of the blame, he tasked a military he underbudgeted for four years with an amazingly complex dangerous mission.
2:29 pm on April 25th, 2010 17
You say "old man" like it's a bad thing. If your lucky you might just MAKE IT to my age
I knew friends that didn't. 
Good of you to clear up your subject. Makes abit of sence now.
2:43 pm on April 25th, 2010 18
No Tom, your intellect is too small to understand what happened during the 1997 financial crisis. The US and westerners didn’t needlessly criticize Korea. They offered a loan from the IMF to stabilize the Korean economy and save good industries and millions of jobs. In order to guarantee that loan they required Korea to stop double book keeping and other corrupt practices. Korea wisely took the loan, stabilized the economy and repaid the loan ahead of schedule. This was a great success story. Only you could cheapen a success story like that which is what makes you so intellectually dishonest and loathsome.
Flash ahead to now. Do sectors of the US deserve criticism? Of course and they are getting it in buckets. However, you and the Russian do not offer any constructive criticism you just gloat with glee that the US will crash down, millions will lose their jobs and I suspect starve to death. You are a ghoul, a toad, and a destroyer there is nothing you have ever contributed that builds, praises or is helpful. Luckily many Koreans are not like you and are decent people.
2:55 pm on April 25th, 2010 19
I didn't know Carter was even on the ground in Iran. The way Bill writes and places the blame soley on Carter is the way history is skewed and miswritten. From reading the books and reports of the participants like Charlie Beckwith, a different picture is painted from what Bill writes. The best I can recall no one more competent ran that operation. Charlie Beckwith, who Bill probably needs to Google, only regretted he didn't have more time to train as a single force instead of training individually. Beckwith recalls with passion the individual heroism of the Rangers, SF, Marines and Aif Force.
Bill, your being a republican is clearly evident when you omit Bush as the worst president in American history because he did noting to secure the nation, stole trillions of dollars from the coffers of the people and redistributed it to the wealtihiest 1%. You don't fall into that 1% and you are too ignorant to understand what the republican's agenda actually is so this clearly debunks your article inwhole that Carter is to blame for Desert One and that BO is the worst president in history.
I'm glad you don't write history books, but disappointed that you don't read them either.
5:48 pm on April 25th, 2010 20
I agree.
I'm really confused by the Tea Party stuff. Where were these people when Bush was in the office?
5:53 pm on April 25th, 2010 21
I guess you had to have been there (in the military) at the time, to get the context.
Ford and Carter, were post-Vietnam presidents. The country was in no mood to pour money into the military. The country was also coming out of an oil embargo and in a recession.
Even within the military, you also had to understand that, at the time, there was NO appreciation among military leadership for large scale, sustained special operation forces as we know it today. Special operators were considered undisciplined cowboys and had little constituency for influence or funding in the military.
We were still a Cold War, large force on large force mindset military. So even if the military could have been given money for whatever it wanted, it is almost certain it would not have gone to the equipment and training needed for that type of mission.
SOCOM itself, only came about as an afterthought from that failed operation.
7:28 pm on April 25th, 2010 22
[...] known as the Iran hostage rescue attempt. Our very own Third Wave Dave wrote about it here as did Rokdrop. Tragically, it devolved into a disaster leaving 8 Americans dead and Iranians who tried to help [...]
10:56 pm on April 25th, 2010 23
LEMMY, I usuall agree with your comments. But when you say that "Bush did nothing to secure the Nation" you loose me.
As for the comment that he "stole trillions of dollars from the coffers of the people and redistributed it to the wealtihiest 1%", I need a source LEMMY. If that source is the Huffington Post, no credit will be given.
Please enlighten me on the Republican agenda. Again, Huffungton Post will not count as a source.
Carter is to blame for Desert One because, He was the CIC at the time. Too easy to understand for a military person. Just as the Liberals (you) blame Buse for Iraq, the same logic dictates that Carter is to blame for Desert One.
So easy, even I can understand that one.
You mean BO isn't the worst President? It is still Carter? How sad for Carter!
Please explain further all the good BO has done. I would like to know.
Here is your chance. Impress me. A simple list will do.
Number 1: Number 2: Number 3: and so on. I am but a simple Soldier
11:16 pm on April 25th, 2010 24
I'm not a registered Republican. Actually I take pot shots at people on the left and right. What other blogger do you know who has been called a 'hysterical right winger' by Daily Kos and a moonbat by Michelle Malkin? Just yours truly.
11:17 pm on April 25th, 2010 25
Almost forgot. If the President has to ask his 13 year old what the most important issue is, I don't think he should be President any longer. Now THAT was a good example of Stupid on stage. Unbelievable
2:34 am on April 26th, 2010 26
Oh, and let's say a prayer for the families who lost loved ones during the debacle and for those Americans now protecting America and those ungrateful Koreans too.
3:09 am on April 26th, 2010 27
Funny…. I thought Bush lumped the Iranian government into the axis of evil…
4:22 am on April 26th, 2010 28
I thought that as well.
4:38 am on April 26th, 2010 29
Funny, not only Iraqi government people died when the US invaded Iraq. People in Iran were not only insulted by the stupid association of their country with the a-hole who invaded and brutalized them back in the 1980s, but that association looked like it might be used as a pretext for a US attack or invasion on Iran. Bush's extremely foolish choice of words fueled such fears and emboldened and strengthened viciously anti-American candidate Ahmidinejad, pushing him into office.
These pro-American or pro-Western Iranians had elected Mohammad Khatami, a reformer who wanted to have dialogue and normalized relations with the US but who was snubbed. He was always hobbled by the non-elected Supreme Leader, who appoints the Guardian Council, but he pushed through reforms anyway. When Bush, who sort of snubbed Khatami anyway, talked up the Axis of Evil and threatened Iranians' security, Khatami was seen as a failure for his efforts to appease and befriend the West.
People voted for Ahmedinejad (yes, they vote for presidents in Iran, and except for this most recent one, they're actually fairly legitimate, which is how a reformist critical of the Guardian Council and Supreme Leader's power got elected in the first place) but soon had buyer's remorse, which is why so many voted for Mousavi and took to the streets when he "lost" (the election was already strained by the Guardian Council blocking so many reformist candidates from running).
5:45 am on April 26th, 2010 30
You see Retired GI, you lose because I am not a liberal, but that is what you try to label me because you believe that to call someone a liberal is to call that person a deragatory term and to call someone a conservative is a compliment.
I don't think labeling someone a conservative is a compliment. I laugh at people who would allow Rush Limbaugh to perform anal intercourse on them or Rachel Madow (I don't know who to put as a liberal talk show personality because I don't listen to any political talk show idiot liberal, conservative or in between.)
If you have a job that provides a paycheck and you align yourself with the Republican party you are stupid plain and simple. You think the RP is about abortion, praying, less government, less taxes blah, blah, blah. These topics are the smoke and mirrors of politicians. They couldn't care any less. Bush had or allowed his girlfriend get an abortion. Stupid people believe Bush was a christian, but no one knows what church he attended before he took office during his office and not now. People who align themselves with the RP turn a blind eye to the relationship Bush had with the Saudi's and they never mention the Saudi royal family flying on 12 September 2001, the only airplane in the sky that day. Bush not only lied to the people of the US, but he lied to the world about the reason to invade Iraq. (Just ask Colin Powell about that one). CentGas hired Karsai to broker the pipeline deal with the taliban to build a pipelie through Afghanistan. Additionally, Texas oil men called the taliban to texas to court them into building the pipeline. They called the taliban to Texas knowing they harbored Osama Bin Laden and this is after several countries kicked OBL out of their country because the US threatened to cut off funding. Yet, here the taliban are in Texas courted by Bush and the like. You see, when the taliban refused to allow Centgas / Unical to build a pipeline how would theyget the gas from the Caspian? I know, when the US invades Afghanistan, get Karsai the guy who tried to broker a deal before, to be president. The president of afghanistan can do what ever he wants. And wala, the pipeline is being built as we speak. Then how do you open the oil reserves of Iraq, I know, invade the country and take control of the oil. Just scare the stupid people by saying something like there are WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTIONS that sounds scary and no one would dare go against WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION so thats an easy lock. Of course when there are no WMD, just say the WMD were taken to Iran or Syria and "poof" theres your smoke and mirrors. Meanwhile, with all the smoke and mirrors of the wars, the banks on wall street sent their people to washington to run the federal reserve and treasury. There they enacted small pieces of regulations benign to the casual observer and then on a Friday afternoon, Paulson drives to capital hill with a 3 page document. The document again scared the hell out of people by saying THE WORLDS FINANCES WILL COLLAPSE WITHOUT $700 billion. Again, stupid people (who already had lost 50% of their net worth under the tutalage of Bush as the PRESIDENT) now thought they would lose all their money because of the scare tacticts Paulson Geitner and crew now used.
So two buzz words:
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Financial Collapse
These two phrases conjur up nightmares in every American and Bush and wall street played on the fear factor to get what they wanted.
Please tell me what Bush did for you Retired GI. Did he lower your taxes? Did he make abortion a crime? Did he mandate prayer in schools? Did he repeal China's most favored nation status? Did he revoke the NAFTA? Did he create a lot of jobs here in America? Did he do anything to curb illegal immigration? What did Bush do? please tell me because I'm looking real hard to find out what he did, but I can't see anything.
To compare Carter/Desert One to Bush invading Iraq is something an idiot would try to argue (again just ask Colin Powell about those aluminum tubes). Please explain what Carter should have done with the hostage situation because "arm chair quarterbacks" are always correct.
I have to say BO passing healthcare is a pretty good start. Just like Social Security, Medicare and Medicade, this healthcare reform what ever it is wasn't easy to get passed, but BO did it. BO pissing Karsai off is another thing BO has done well. Reinvorgorating country relationships with the US is another thing BO has done well. Though often overlooked, the world hated the US because of Bush. For confirmation of that, ask any of the 3 billion people on the face of the earth.
A simple list would never do for someone like you who doesn't want to look at complex issues. You see the world in black and white and want the simplest answer for these complex questions.
Continue voting a straight republican ticket and brag about doing so. You aren't impressing me you're just relenquishing control of common sense.
You are certainly correct when you claim you are a simple soldier. You can shorten that and claim you are just a simpleton.
5:47 am on April 26th, 2010 31
Retired GI, you know good and well history will regard Bush as one of the worst US Presidents. Were you pulling my leg?
7:09 am on April 26th, 2010 32
Indeed. Iran has always been our strongest ally. Bushitler should apologize to the Iranians. America is bad. Bad. Iran's government is good.
Thanks for clearing that up.
8:50 am on April 26th, 2010 33
We have always been at war with Eastasia. Eurasia is our ally.
Seriously though, what's the big deal with Khatami? Sure, he was a decent enough sort, but post-revolution Iranian presidents have always been essentially powerless. The real power is in the form of a cabal of Mullahs. It just happens their current front man is in lock step with them.
9:15 am on April 26th, 2010 34
http://payvand.com/news/09/jan/1248.html
Looks like President Bush wasn't all that bad when it came to the Iranian people. Certainly much better than Obama who gave them the bird when they went into the streets. Of course he had to as he didn't want to ruin his budding relationship with fellow America and Jew hater Ahmidinejad.
9:55 am on April 26th, 2010 35
You can't really believe Obama (America) would have been doing those opposition protesters any favors if we took a more proactive position in their election dispute?
10:39 am on April 26th, 2010 36
Yes, I do.
12:50 pm on April 26th, 2010 37
I might have told this here before. But I think it's apropos to many aspects of this topic.
I was in Korea, for months before the time of the Iranian hostage crisis, while Pak Cheong Hee was still president. I had a Korean martial arts instructor who became my friend. One day he asked me what I thought about Jimmy Carter. At that time, every private business must have been required to have a picture of President Pak prominently displayed and I looked at that picture in my friend's gym and was instinctively leery about talking politics. I told my friend I didn't have an opinion on Carter.
In case you didn't know, Carter was a big proponent of international human rights. Sometimes he publicly criticized some of the actions of President Pak. My friend went on to tell me how he thought many Koreans felt about Carter.
He said most Koreans understood that Carter meant well and cared about their personal interests when he criticized Pak, but Koreans dislike more, hearing their president and by reflection, their country criticized internationally.
That conversation has forever stuck with me. It taught me something about popular nationalism that I didn't understand before. It's like family relations. Most people like to keep their scandals and squabbles inside the family circle and resent when outsiders and neighbors butt in.
My point is, during the Iranian election, as with most political upheavals, many people are apathetic; they don't take a strong position one way or the other. But, let it be shown that outsiders are butting in, then nationalism will flare up.
If we had been seen as active supporters of the opposition in that election, the opposition would have been considered foreign agents and it would have been a sure ways to align the entire country against them.
2:43 pm on April 26th, 2010 38
KUSHIBO, I get it—Bush = BAD. yada-yada-yada.
Oh and there is nothing "funny" about people dying. Just so you know.
2:58 pm on April 26th, 2010 39
Retired GI, you know I can't resist when you cast stones at things BO says. You're right, BO looked stupid asking his daughter what the most important issue is. However you know Bush had his problems. But I have to wonder if Bush was just plain stupid. Looking back on his life I don't buy into the argument that Bush just got tongue twisted. He had a 2.0 GPA in college and when he opened his mouth it was like the republican party was mocking the American people by saying "look how stupid this guy is, but he signs everything we want him to and there's nothing you can do about it."
Anyway, here are two things GW said. Go ahead and make excuses about how smart Bush is, but he just can't speak blah, blah, blah. (I know of no one who has bought that reasoning)
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job"
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushism…
You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." –to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/multimedi…
3:22 pm on April 26th, 2010 40
Wow. So I can't make any criticism of Bush at all without someone jumping to such a simple-minded conclusion?
Did you miss the complimentary first half of the sentence: George W. Bush, who went out of his way to push the notion of Islam as a religion of peace under threat of being hijacked by extremists … ?
As for the "funny" thing, I was simply answering sarcasm with sarcasm. There is nothing funny about a bunch of people dying, and this is exactly why a lot of Iranian youth who were inclined to be pro-American were $hitting bricks after Bush's axis of evil comment and invasion.
I don't say "Bush = bad." I talk about individual acts and utterances, and the axis of evil was something that bought him and our country a lot of bad will. He may have been great (or not) on everything else, but that was foolish.