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I didn't post this to bum anybody out. In fact, I posted it to lift our spirits. Desert One happened under much different circumstances: A demoralized military still reeling from the Vietnam disaster, an ineffective and indecisive president, and in the wake of Watergate, a populace that had very little faith in their government. Remember that the Desert One debacle set the stage for Ronald Reagan's victory later that year.

It's been 20 years since Ronald Reagan took office and despite the 8 years of Clinton, it has mostly been uphill for our military since. We are now in much better shape to combat the Middle Eastern menace and we have the leadership in place to see this crisis through. During the long war to come, we may have bad days that compare to Desert One but we can be assured that any military losses will not be due to piss-poor planning and from lack of support back home. We can also be assured that our military will do us proud in the end and that we will prevail in this conflict.

I was just 17 years old back in April 1980 when Desert One occurred. I remember those times when America was not united and in fact dysfunctional. We had a "misery" index. Even President Carter was depressing, holed up in the White House ("Rose Garden Strategy") during the entire hostage crisis with bags under his eyes. It was not a proud time to be an American in 1980. We boycotted the summer Olympics in Moscow because, of all things, Russia was fighting Afghanistan! But two good things happened that year. The U.S. beat the Russians to win the Gold Medal in hockey at the winter Olympics and of course, Ronald Reagan was elected as 40th president of the United States. On February 10, 1981, less than a month after President Reagan took office, I entered the United States Marine Corps, feeling good about my new commander-in-chief. And I sure feel good about the one we have today as well!

I was a Sergeant in the Hydraulics shop with HMT-361, a CH-53 (A and D models) squadron at MCAS(H) Tustin in California when this went down. They came in asking for volunteers. At that time you did not volunteer for anything. Usually, for a Sergeant, it meant supervising a buncha PFC's and L/Cpls on a clean-up detail of some kind. A Corporal Davis finally volunteered and only later found out what he had volunteered for. We then spent two days getting everything we could think of ready for him to go on board ship. By that time we all had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

The gates were closed and the base was locked down til the mission was over. I worked for 54 hours straight after that, helping to get everything ready for that little "DET". Corporal Davis and the Hydraulic shop portion of that little exercise were well prepared. Once they were on their way, I remember just crashin' out where I was...onna concrete floor. Keep in mind that the helo community in the Marine Corps were chronically under line T/O strength by a substantial margin at that time.

Among the Marines who died in that clusterfuck were men I'd worked with in the past. The helo community in the Marine Corps is rather small. By the time you become an NCO, if you don't know someone, you know who trained them.

Out of that incident at the embassy in Tehran was born the terrorism we know and finally recognize today. They thought we were weak because we didn't fight. To display any sign of weakness in any way to that culture is to become a victim.

It was not the men or machines who failed in that mission. It was political gamesmanship at the highest levels of the Pentagon, along with lackluster, if not criminal, leadership from our C.I.C.

It began in the evening of April 24, 1980, when a supposedly elite US military force launched a bold but doomed attempt to rescue their fellow American citizens and their nation's honor from captivity in Tehran. In the early hours of April 25, the effort ended in fiery disaster at a remote spot in Iran known ever after as Desert One.

The mission never needed to be a "failure," it was "doomed" because America's so-called "Commander-in-Chief" lacked the testicular fortitude to protect America's interests.

Bringing back the old posts to see the light of day!

I was 14 when this happened but I remember all the t-shirts being sold at the time with a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini in crosshairs and the slogan: "Put a hola in the Ayatollah!"

Funny, still works over 35 years later...

As a result of Desert One the Army put together its own special ops team of helicopter pilots. Taking the best of the best from the experienced helicopter heroes of Vietnam, they put together Task Force 160....now known as 160th SOAR, nicknamed, The NightStalkers.

These pilots were the ones who could land in tiny clearings in the middle of a firefight with barely distance for their rotors to clear.

That tradition continues.

They are now the wings of special operations worldwide.

I performed a wedding a few weeks ago for an old Nightstalker buddy. In attendance were many of our old special operators who got TF160 off the ground. I didn't get to meet everyone there, but I'm told that the dad of SFC Shugart, medal of honor winner of Somalia in the Blackhawk Down incident, was present.

NSDQ

Back To The Future

US hostage killed in rescue bid
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30358665?

Luke Somers was abducted in Yemen in 2013, as the BBC’s Frank Gardner reports

UK-born US journalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie have been killed by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen during a failed rescue bid.

Saturday’s operation was carried out by joint US and Yemeni special forces in the southern Shabwa region