NZFF

Trolly wrote:

QUOTE(Trolly @ Sep 27 2007, 11:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Impressive video.

Why didn't they just use choppers for the evaculation? It seems far more logial, but there must be some reason why they couldn't...

Planned as Operation Rice Bowl, the operation was designed as a complex two-night mission. The first stage of the mission involved establishing a small staging site inside Iran itself, near the Tabas in the Yazd Province (formerly in the south of the Khorasan province) of Iran. The site, known as Desert One, was to be used as a temporary airstrip for the C-130 Hercules transport planes and Navy RH-53D Sea Stallion minesweeper helicopters, flown by Marine Corps aircrews, which would undertake the actual rescue operation. After refuelling the helicopters, the plan was for the ground troops to board the helicopters and fly to Desert Two near Tehran. After locating and extracting the hostages from Tehran, the rescuers and rescued would be transported by helicopter to Manzariyeh Air Base outside of Tehran ( 34°58′58″N, 50°48′20″E), where C-141 transports would take them out of the country under the protection of fighter aircraft.

An unforeseen low-level sandstorm caused two of eight RH-53D helicopters to lose their way en route to Desert One, but only after men and equipment had already been assembled there by USAF C-130s. A third helicopter suffered a mechanical failure after landing and was incapable of continuing with the mission. Additionally a civilian Iranian bus came by on a road shortly after the lead C-130 landed. The driver and all 44 passengers were held captive until the Americans left.

Without enough helicopters to transport men and equipment to Desert Two as planned, Col. Beckwith took the decision to abort the mission. While maneuvering prior to departure, one of the helicopter pilots became disoriented and crashed into a C-130. In the ensuing explosion and fire, eight US servicemen were killed: five USAF aircrew in the C-130, and three USMC aircrew in the RH-53. During the evacuation, five RH-53 helicopters were left behind intact. These helicopters are said to serve with the Iranian Navy, or to have been destroyed in situ by the Iranians after pressure from the USSR. In their haste to quickly evacuate the RH-53s, the Marine aircrews inadvertently left behind classified plans that identified CIA agents within Iran. Two C-141 Medevac aircraft from the rear staging base at Wadi Kena, Egypt, picked up the injured personnel, helicopter crews, and Delta forces from the Omani staging field. The C-141s then returned to Wadi Kena. The injured personnel were then transported to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The Teheran CIA team, led by Richard Meadows, successfully exfiltrated from Iran.