Operation Eagle Claw

Desert One, Iran

As the Iranian hostage crisis drags into its second year, 52 Americans are still held captive by the new regime in Tehran, with no resolution in sight. President Carter's threats and sanctions fail to bring them home, and in April 1980 the administration calls on the military. An airborne commando raid involving the US Navy, US Army Rangers, USAF Combat Controllers and aircrews, and the newly-formed Delta Force is launched, but ends in disaster when a RH-53D helicopter collides with a C-130 tanker during refueling procedures at the Desert One landing site. There aren't enough spare helicopters to continue, so the mission is called off amid doubts that it ever could have succeeded in the first place. The result: eight Americans dead, and the hostages no closer to freedom.

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