Rescue Missions In The Iranian Hostage Crisis

Rescue Missions in the Iranian Hostage Crisis Source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB63/doc8.pdf • • • • • • • • • •

Mission was planned for 5.5 months Helicopters were told to maintain radio silence “Desert One” was designated a refueling point where all helicopters would meet; at that point, 6 helicopter would be needed to continue the mission One copter failed due to a rotor blade failure The remaining copters continued on to re-fueling point; one had picked up crew of failed copter The copters hit several waves of unexpected sandstorm They could not avoid the sandstorm due to radio silence Another copter failed and one was severely crippled; at Desert One, there was no way to repair the crippled copter, leaving only five functioning copters The mission was aborted by Pres. Carter at the mission’s leader’s request The Iranian people took the whole affair to be a divine sign of Islam’s correctness and of the U.S. being infidels