After two failed s, there is now a documentary film called “Desert One” that tells the story of Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 to rescue 52 American hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The failure of the raid claimed the lives of eight members of the U.S. service, five members of the 8 Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field.
Read (April 2019): Hurlburt Field commemorates failure of Iran’s hostage rescue mission in 1980
“It’s a roller coaster of a valuable story, with vital moments about American leadership, courage and relations with Iran, and courage in the face of adversity,” said Barbara, director of “Desert One” and a two-time Oscar winner. Kopple.
Kopple went on to say that he believes that the first “could motivate ourselves in our difficult times. We want a lot of inspiration right now, and I hope a lot of other people see this movie.”
Among his other revelations, “Desert One” features unpublished recordings of President Jimmy Carter talking in real time with army commanders as the rescue project collapses, and includes an interview with Carter, whose presidency has been persecuted by the hostage crisis.
The April 24, 1980 rescue project took place six months after young Iranian revolutionaries took the embassy. The hostages were released shortly after noon on January 20, 1981, moments after Ronald Reagan took over as the new president of the United States.
Some of the profits from the “Desert One” rental will go to the cinemas that offer it for virtual viewing, according to Jim Norton, who operates Pensacola Cinema Art, one of the cinemas through which virtual viewing is offered. This revenue is useful for cinemas whose activities continue to be reduced through the COVID-19 pandemic, Norton said.
Among those interviewed for the documentary is retired Air Force Colonel Roland Guidry. A prominent voice among those involved in Operation Eagle Claw, Guidry had already been contacted twice, through other organizations, about the option of making a documentary. Whatever the reason, Guidry said, none of those attempts were successful.
Guidry, now living in Destiny, is the commander of 4 of the six C-130 aircraft, one of which he flew, concerned about the resupply of helicopters participating in the Desert One project, the call given to the Iranian desert refueling site. where the project ended.
Of the 8 helicopters that started the Mission on April 24, 1980, only six arrived at Desert One, after two were ejected, one through a sandstorm and the moment through a faulty rotor blade. It had been decided in advance that six helicopters were enough to continue the project: getting Delta Force’s infantrymen to approach Tehran to enter the embassy and take out the hostages, but on the floor of Desert One, a hydraulic challenge with one of the helicopters. . reduced the number of helicopters to have and operating well to five, forcing the call to abandon the project.
As the aircraft and the body of the workers left Desert One amid poor visibility, one of the helicopters struck one of the C-130s, causing a large chimney and ammunition explosions that killed 8 people. “Desert One” includes graphic photographs of the failed raid, adding images and films of some of the charred bodies of the dead and Iranians celebrating the bodies. The documentary also features performances through artists representing members suffering to escape the flames.
Because the chimney was so intense and due to the desire to evacuate the site quickly, it is possible that the staff who stay alive in Desert One simply do not wait for the flames to subside in the bodies.
“We did the wrong way to get everyone alive,” Guidry said in an interview this week.
The staff involved in the mission, such as Guidry, were reluctant to communicate in the following years. But last year, one of the normal memories of Operation Eagle Claw at Hurlburt Field, Richard “Taco” Sanchez, at the time an Air Force Staff Sergeant serving aboard one of the C-130s involved in the mission, said simply: arrive and lose eight boys.
But Sanchez noted last year that the project had paved the way for a resurgence of special operations.
“We know we are the ancestors of what we have now,” he said.
Although the project failed, Guidry said, “it was prophetic” in detailing the importance of the aircraft and the training of special operations personnel. After the Vietnam War, Guidry said, special operations garnered little precedence and a negligible budget. Array El was so limited, in fact, that one of the helicopters used in Operation Eagle Claw was a demining aircraft that had to be emptied and reconfigured for the rescue project.
Operation Eagle Claw, Guidry said, “triggered the reconstruction of special operations,” which can be seen on missions such as the May 2, 2011 raid on a Pakistani compound that resulted in the death of The Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden and a ban. about Somali pirates.
In fact, according to Guidry, the highest concentration in special operations in the U.S. military means that today, the special operations workers’ corps “does the same thing we did in Iran almost every night.”
And, as also noted in the documentary, Operation Eagle Claw has a lasting legacy.
In the wake of the tragedy, the surviving staff pledged to provide the college education of the 17 young men who lost their parents in Desert One. This effort grew to become the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provided not only school funding, but also school counseling, personal lessons, school planning, tutoring, and the transition from school to career to more than 1,000 sons and daughters of deceased special operations. Personal.