What Was Operation Eagle Claw, the Failed Rescue of American Hostages in Iran?
What Was Operation Eagle Claw, the Failed Rescue of American Hostages in Iran?Answer: For five and a half months beginning two days after Americans were taken hostage, the Pentagon, under Army Maj. Gen. James Vaught, trained for a rescue mission. Once Carter approved the plan, the mission entailed sending in helicopters, planes and ground-based infiltrators to the outskirts of Tehran, then launching an assault on the American embassy compound to claim the hostages. How Operation Eagle Claw Unraveled On the evening of April 24, 1980, eight RH-53 helicopters took off from the aircraft carrier Nimitz, in the Indian Ocean, and began a secret, 600-mile journey at low altitude, below radar detection, to a refueling stop in the Iranian desert, where they’d be met by C-130 Pathfinders flying in from another direction. Two ho
What Was Operation Eagle Claw, the Failed Rescue of American Hostages in Iran?Answer: For five and a half months beginning two days after Americans were taken hostage, the Pentagon, under Army Maj. Gen. James Vaught, trained for a rescue mission. Once Carter approved the plan, the mission entailed sending in helicopters, planes and ground-based infiltrators to the outskirts of Tehran, then launching an assault on the American embassy compound to claim the hostages. How Operation Eagle Claw Unraveled On the evening of April 24, 1980, eight RH-53 helicopters took off from the aircraft carrier Nimitz, in the Indian Ocean, and began a secret, 600-mile journey at low altitude, below radar detection, to a refueling stop in the Iranian desert, where they’d be met by C-130 Pathfinders flying in from another direction. Two hou
