The Desert One Debacle

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | May 2006 | Mark Bowden

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I can't read more. I known how it ends.

[Enchante]

"Three times in the past five months, carefully negotiated secret settlements had been ditched by the inscrutable Iranian mullahs, and the administration had been made to look more foolish each time."

Anyone even vaguely familiar with the histories of psychotic totalitarians such as Nazis and Islamists (not to mention commies) should have known that the US government led by Jimmy Carter was being played like a fiddle. The Mullahs were probably loving every minute of it, and gladly prolonging the crisis indefinitely...... DUH.......

[CPOSharky]

To get the range nedded, the sand screens had to be removed from the H-53s. Jimmuh fiddled around until the sand storm season started to send the mission. The helos were on site for about two months.

[CPOSharky]

nedded = needed

[backhoe]

Thank you. I don't forget.

Here's an old article:

The Disasterous "Desert One" Rescue Operation of 1980
Air Force Magazine ^ | Otto Kreisher
Posted on 10/13/2001
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/547308/posts

[shoptalk]

Thank you!

[backhoe]

[Thebaddog]

Restraint means weakness to the sandfleas. How did that "rescue" go again? How many brave American soldiers died for Jimmy's "restraint"?

[Publius]

This day after this disaster, Carter should have resigned.

[ansel12]

Beckwith always blamed Carter for his interference in the details of the operation, such as not allowing him to use Army helicopter pilots.

[ARCADIA]

He should have fallen on his sword, walked the plank, or been shot out of a torpedo tube; whatever the sub service does with disgraced officers.

[6SJ7]

Fascinating and detailed article on that aborted rescue mission. Amazing to read Carter didn't even want deadly force employed during the rescue!

The moment Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released. Reagan would have nuked those Mullah @#^# !@&#'s back to the stone age, and they knew it.

[Publius]

Amazing to read Carter didn't even want deadly force employed during the rescue!

I ran across someting similar the day after the disaster.

I was having lunch with a lady friend who was working in an area peripheral to the film industry. Her father had been a successful New York publisher and Hollywood producer. At this early point in her "career", before reality set in, it looked as though she might become a successful writer. After sitting down at our favorite Jewish deli in West L.A., she opened the conversation by saying, "Today I'm ashamed to be an American."

"Because the rescue mission failed?" I asked.

"No, because we even tried it."

I was too surprised to respond to that. I couldn't quite put myself into that mindset.

Apparently neither could Carter.

[Roccus]

I remember being so disappointed that the rescue had failed and disgusted when I found out why.
I also remember freezing parts of my body off while perched for hours on a standpipe that bitterly cold Jan. day to see the hostages driven up B'way in lower Manhattan. (I had to enlist the help of strangers to get down, I couldn't bend my knees.)

[6SJ7]

...she opened the conversation by saying, "Today I'm ashamed to be an American."

"Because the rescue mission failed?" I asked.

"No, because we even tried it."

Wow! It is scary to think how many Americans, rather than being proud of this country's greatness are, by some peculiar logic, ashamed or embarrassed. But if they really stopped and thought about it, in what other country would they prefer to have been born?

[ErnBatavia]

I can't read more. I known how it ends.

I'm with you, and I don't even like to be reminded that Jimmy Carter was ever President, let alone still alive and comitting acts of sedition on a regular basis.

May he rot in Hell.

[ErnBatavia]

The moment Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released.

I remember the announcement, and from that point on I knew we had someone special at the helm.

[ErnBatavia]

I love your profile page....short, sweet, succinct!! Bravo

[Fatuncle]

... whatever the sub service does with disgraced officers ...

Promotes them.

Sorry, a little personal history there...