Talk:Operation Eagle Claw/Archive 1

This really needs a linkable source to be included
"An investigation from congress found evidence that negotiation from the camp of then candidate Ronald Reagan may have influenced the Iranians to hold the captives until after the US elections. Persons named in this investigation included Donald Rumsfeld, Brent Scowcroft and Oliver North. (see Tower Commision Report)"
 * I think it deserves a linkable source, i'll leave it in the article for a bit, but if no source presents itself, then i'll remove it. Batman2005 06:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

It is clearly not encyclopedic from the start, but a political statement and unsupported by the author's own citation. It belongs in Iran Contra, not here--I have never in 25 years seen a source to verify the allegation, any more than George HW Bush was flown by SR-71 to Moscow to monkey up the works against Carter.--Buckboard 09:18, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

The Holloway Report
I added a link and intro to the official investigation into the incident and the impetus for transformation of the DoD from it's recommendations. PowerPointSamurai 04:14, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Dubious claims need citation
I removed this paragraph:
 * Anecdotal information relayed from special forces personnel suggest a different version of events took place. According to one special forces member, the Iranians had been tipped off of the impending rescue attempt and were waiting for the US forces.  Groundfire is alleged to have been the cause of the aircraft losses - it is noted that this accounts for the large number of bullet holes found in the returning aircraft that have been officially attributed to ordnance touched off by the conflagration from other burning aircraft.  That the US personnel evacuation was done in hostile conditions helps explain why so much sensitive information was left behind.

For a claim such as this, which goes against the widely reported narrative, I think we must insist on a citation. It may well be a theory that somebody has, but who has made the claim and in what published material? --Dhartung | Talk 07:02, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

I find that "anecdotal information" pretty flaky because neither the Holloway Report, nor the article Disaster at Desert One: Catalyst for Change from Parameters Magazine, Aug 1992, nor Command, Control and Communications Lessons Learned: Iranian Rescue, Falkland's Conflict, Grenada Invasion, Libya Raid research report for the Air War College, 1988 mention any such thing, nor even hint that anyone involved made such a claim. I'm a little skeptical of the claim that the Iranians knew anything, that they took ground fire, or that there was some kind of Republican conspiracy unless you find some pretty darned solid evidence. Moreover, it was clearly stated in all three articles that this operation partly failed because it was so tightly compartmentalized and few people knew anything about it--only the President, Sec Def, Sec State, Press Secretary, VP, JCS, and the JTF Commander. Everyone else only knew their piece of the puzzle and nobody really knew anything outside their little sphere. PowerPointSamurai 04:26, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Blue Light or Blue Light Commandos
At the time I remember reading something about the "Blue Light" or "Blue Light Commandos". Was that a cover name for Delta? --Purpleslog 04:08, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Blue Light was the name of the competing counterterrorist unit in Special Forces. I don't know if Delta ever used the name as cover. A quick glance at the index in Beckwith's book suggests they did not, but who knows. Maybe a reporter got the two confused. --VAcharon 21:24, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Empty conjecture
"Anecdotal information relayed from special forces personnel suggest a different version of events took place. According to one special forces member, the Iranians had been tipped off of the impending rescue attempt and were waiting for the US forces. It seems likely that this information must have come from Republican operatives wishing to see the Amercian hostages remain in captivity until at least after the 1980 presidential election."
 * Is a statement like this really appropriate? "It seems likely?"  To whom?  Based on what?  It seems to me that there are any of a number of far more reasonable explanations as to how the Iranians may have learned of Eagle Claw.
 * I agree with much of the above. This statement needs to be presented in a more NPOV way, with   explicit citation - if it is to remain at all.   I have edited the statement to try to soften the POV a bit, and to request citation. C.W. Loney 18:06, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

It isn't conjecture, it's a political statement. Create a section of conspiracy theories spawned by Eagle Claw and throw it in there, but don't leave it as "fact."--Buckboard 09:20, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

It's likely that the USSR tipped the Iranians. This was the timeframe that the Walker spy ring was handing over most of the US crypto keylist. I was on the USS Okinawa running the crypto/radioroom during the rescue mission. All of our comms were compromised and our movements were watched by AGI spy ships and aircraft. The Russians knew more about what was going down than Carter did. Nsaspook 03:49, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Battle Box
It seems really foolish to use the battle box for this. There was no actual contact between Iranian and American forces. I'm going to remove it in about a week (retaining information, of course) if no one objects. --Detruncate 21:29, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

There was no combat only because the rescue mission part of the battle plan failed. We had plans to attack several high value targets (Kharg Island, power plants, etc...). The marines on the ship were ready to go and the ship was at battle-stations. USS Okinawa But Carter send the stand-down message. I still remember the look on the operators face when that TS/SPECAT FLASH started coming across the TTY. I knew that men had been killed but very few people knew what happened. During this time I had been monitoring TASS news agency in Kabul via clear RTTY when the first news report of the failed mission went public. It's ironic that the men on our ship were told about what happened from a russian news report. Nsaspook 06:12, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Nevertheless, now it seems like the iranians were responsible for the casulties. No thats not ok, i remove the box... just some ip

Add Mark Bowden's recent book on the subject to references at the end
It also contains a detailed explanation of Reagan's political team and its actions during the crisis. That would solve the citation issue. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.23.133.238 (talk) 07:18, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

Post-Vietnam U.S. military: Bad shape
The U.S. military budget had been so badly ignored since Vietnam that the military was completely unable to field technologically superior quality equipment. I recall in the early '80's when I was in the ROTC how badly the situation was for the military. The elite troops were still in good shape but the basic troops were simply not in the best condition. It wasn't until the late '80's after President Reagan had made the military a priority from his early days, that the military became the fighting force it is today.

Regardless, the CH-53 helicopters are crap and do worse in desert conditions. The Israeli's improved them but they still have the deadliest helicopter accidents. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jtpaladin (talk • contribs) 00:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC).

Image error
As a matter of encyclopedic accuracy, the "own image" of the landing site is in error. Carney's clandestine survey included turnaround/marshalling areas 800' wide at the end of the strip. The four C-130s were aligned in a single line, two north of the road, two south, with the MC-130 facing southwest on the surveyed runway while the EC-130s faced northeast: ( ^ ^ || ^ v ) Takeoffs would have been impossible in the diagram as shown.--Reedmalloy (talk) 19:23, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Aircraft crash section missing
The section describing the aircraft collision is missing. It exists in the article's history but was deleted? There's a photo of the crash aftermath but no mention in the article. Emike7500 (talk) 06:50, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, it was there not so long ago. It was deleted as this article, like so many in wikipedia fought over by competing agendas, descended into JUNK.

It's there again, from a more authoritative source, one of the MC-130 participants.--Reedmalloy (talk) 19:26, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Stadium name
Can a knowledgeable Iranian editor check the name of the stadium? Is the stadium referred to actually the structure now known as Shahid Shiroudi Stadium? A Google search for "Amjadien Stadium" (which the article currently calls it) seems to only come up with articles about this operation and the two subsequent operation plans; and Google asks me "Did you mean: amjadieh stadium", which does yield more results (including the Shahid Shiroudi Wikipedia article). Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:17, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

The Tehran CIA team exfiltrated Iran
The Tehran CIA team exfiltrated Iran, unaware that their presence had been compromised If they didn't know their presence had been compromised, why did they leave? Did some higher up know their presence was compromised even if they didn't? Was there some other reason?

Anyway, I think that ought to be expanded upon in the article, if possible. TerraFrost (talk) 04:09, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I was confused by the fate of these people, also, though since TerraFrost's comment someone has removed the word "exfiltrated". Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:19, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

Try to make sense when you write...
"...the clandestine smuggling nature of the tanker trunk posed no immediate threat." What the hell does that even mean? that makes no sense whatsoever Does it mean the "clandestine nature of a tanker truck minimised any danger, as they are often used for smuggling."? I'm going to assume that's what you cryptically meant.

GuelphGryphon98 (talk) 15:58, 10 July 2008 (UTC)


 * In no way am I connected to this article or its lack of basic understanding of many elements, but what it/he/they meant was the because it was a smuggler's vehicle, and therefore averse to coming in contact with Iranian authorities itself, it posed no threat of alerting those authorities.--Reedmalloy (talk) 09:08, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

It's post-Vietnam American military English, old chap. Prime purpose: obfuscation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.148.173 (talk) 13:10, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Failure
The word 'failure' is seen from an American perspective. Even though forces of nature were responsible for the mission's lack of success it was a tactical victory for Iran as the Americans didn't acheive their objective. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xenon2 (talk • contribs) 22:27, 22 August 2010 (UTC) I don't know that it was a "tactical" victory for Iran; more like a "strategic" one. It would have been a "tactical" victory for the weather... clearly a tactical, operational, and strategic loss for the U.S., however. - JaimeZX

All capitals in op name
Hi. I reverted a recent change to ALL CAPS for the op names throughout. I am sure there is Wikipedia policy somewhere that discusses this; and if there is, wp policy trumps military practice, though it remains to be seen whether such policy does exist (later edit - please see examples below). If there is a choice, I would prefer it without the caps, which I don't feel sit well in a mostly non-capitalized encyclopaedia. Further, the edit caused "collateral damage" in that it wrecked links to graphics. So I felt it was best reverted initially and then discussed here. My conclusion is that if you want to change this practice you don't start with one article, but with the policy that underlies it. It's a much bigger issue than just wanting one article to be "correct" - it would be a massive change requiring serious discussion, but not here. Best wishes to all DBaK (talk) 08:38, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Well here's one bit of policy: WP:ALLCAPS which says inter alia: "Avoid writing with all capitals. Reduce them to one of the other title cases.". I'd say that that trumps military practice anyway, but I wondered if one of the Wikipedia military projects had anything to add...
 * And another mention here: Manual of Style (capital letters) which sort-of deals with it. That is, it says "Accepted full names of wars, battles, revolts, revolutions, rebellions, mutinies, skirmishes, risings, campaigns, fronts, raids, actions, operations and so forth are capitalized " meaning, in context, caps and lower case, but it doesn't say specifically not to all-cap them, and slightly unhelpfully to my case uses Operation Sea Lion as an example. Nevertheless, taken with the general ALLCAPS line quoted above, I think it's strong enough evidence not to all-capitalize.
 * Finally, the List of military operations article uses caps and lower case. There is very brief, almost tangential mention on its Talk page of this, though nothing like a full discussion.
 * I was asked for sources that might answer this. I have none, aside from the MoS sections referred to above. The issue is that all-caps really sticks out and since the demise of the typewriter (which could only underline or cap the text to highlight), we tend to go easy on it. In addition, all caps is now commonly understood to be "shouting" in conversational text. Unless the military term is very commonly rendered in upper case (say, on google), and would look strange to military readers, it would be prefereble not to all-cap the item. Tony   (talk)  11:37, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure it does look strange to some if not all military readers, but I feel that we are bound by the general view that minority-preferred typographical rules do not have to trump common usage. In other words there may be good reasons why the military likes operation names in all-caps, but there are also good reasons why we don't, and our duty as an encyclopaedia should perhaps overrule our need, if there is one, to look like a military document. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! :) best wishes, DBaK (talk) 12:31, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
 * User:JaimeZX (talk) I guess I'm displaying my ignorance of how Wikipedia works then; my impression was that when you saw something that was incorrect, you edited it to fix it. I would agree that there should be standardization across articles, and I would agree that something like this would be a major undertaking; but it also seems like something that could be done as editors read the various articles and not something to be done all at once. I also think people go to Wikipedia (or an encyclopedia in general) to learn things, and therefore they should be trained on how things are supposed to be done, rather than how most people necessarily *expect* things to be done. In my opinion, doing otherwise is simply training the readers to be mentally lazy. So in the military, once an operation or major exercise gets official go-ahead, the name is put in all caps. Reporting thereupon after that should reflect the nomenclature. Again, that's just my opinion and the purpose of my original edit. I'm not sure how it screwed up the picture link, but my sincere apologies for that. - JaimeZX. 09:57, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the courteous reply and I'm sorry that it's taken me such a very long time to get back to this. No, you were not ignorant, please don't think that - we hear a lot about WP:BOLD and you were Bold and that's good. On the other hand we also hear a lot about WP:BRD and that's what I think has happened here - you were Bold, I Reverted you, and now we are Discussing it. Hurrah, the system works! (Actually looking at WP:BRD I see that this means I have identified myself as a Most Interested Person, which mean oops, the system failed, as I am really not that - more of a sort of Concerned Passerby, which is a type of person not mentioned there.) Oh well. So, let me be honest and say that I am planning to move on after this and trouble you no more anyway, but I think it might be helpful if I try and make one or two more points before I wander off. Firstly, I do honestly believe with all due respect that you are simply wrong - not military-wrong, maybe, but Wikipedia-wrong, and it is the latter which matters here. (long discussion dropped here, it doesn't matter). Secondly, you are absolutely right to try to change things that you think are wrong. Thirdly, you will only do this for big topics by consensus. Fourthly, individual articles are probably the wrong place to build consensus for a massive change such as you propose, and certainly - I promise you this - the wrong place to start making those changes. You will, rightly or wrongly, be seen only as disruptive if you start a crusade on this in individual articles without getting consensus for it. Fifthly, the way to do this will be to build consensus that would be a firm foundation for your work and to which you can refer back if challenged. For that reason I would respectfully but strongly suggest that you should take this to the Military History project and try to build consensus for the change there. Yes, of course: I personally hope, in the very nicest possible way, that you fail (see point 1) but I honestly believe that that is the only way that you could make this work and you will have the satisfaction of a proper discussion with other military-interested editors. Put it this way: if I were still interested in this article, and you came along and changed the op name to all caps as a one-off, then I would revert you. On the other hand, if you came along, and changed it, and put in the edit summary "Changed as part of OpName Capitalization Drive per Link to relevant discussion or whatever" then I would probably go hey wow, follow the link, read it, be impressed, and shut up and leave you alone: no-one will say boo to you if you've got something like that behind you. Because you'd have done the work, gained consensus, and got rightness behind you ... and if I wanted to stop you I would look a complete arse reverting you all over the place against consensus (boot on other foot, see?!), so I would instead have to try to start a new campaign to change consensus ... and I probably wouldn't, and so on. So that's me done. Here's the project: WikiProject_Military_history - it looks interesting and well-run and I am sure you can find like-minded souls to discuss stuff with. I do commend it to you as worth a look and even though I disagree with you over this particular thing I do wish you much pleasure in your participation here. Happy Editing! and bye for now. DBaK (talk) 19:24, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Analysis / Aftermath
Wouldn't the following piece be better placed under Aftermath?

"The failure of the various services to work together with cohesion forced the establishment of a new multi-service organisation. The concept of USSOCOM was born and finally established, and became operational in 1988/1989. Each service subsequently now has its own Special Operations Forces under the overall control of USSOCOM. For example, the Army has its own Army Special Operations Command (ASOC) that controls the Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF)."

Also, it might be worth including that the creation of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) was a direct result of the failure of this mission.


 * I agree and attest from my own research and a associate that the 160th regiment existed as possible creation, in thought of planning stages, though was officially made after the operation. 67.180.241.40 (talk) 09:33, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Marine Airforce
It is widely believed that the event was oversubscribed by a need for all forces to be represented, notably the Job of flying Helicopters was not given to the Army who had countless low flying experience in Vietnam but Marine Air force. This resulted in poor selection and ultimately poor performance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.173.255.107 (talk) 23:51, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Just to be clear, there is never a Marine Air Force, it is just United States Marine Corps Aviation. Contrary to your warped perception or misinformation, marine aviators are indeed trained in low-level flying. And unless you are here to improve this article page, I'd suggest that you come up with source to back up your claim before spewing your nonsensical opinion here. This talk page is not a forum~! Period. -- Dave ♠♣♥♦™№1185©♪♫® 18:50, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

USS Nimitz and RH-53D
USS Nimitz remained underway, without a port call for 144 days - with this operation in the middle of this period. Did all 4 Cruisers listed (USS California (CGN-36), USS South Carolina (CGN-37), USS Texas (CGN-39) and USS Reeves (CG-24)) also complete 144 days continuous at sea? That deployment for those ship probably deserves its own article.

Rh-53D helicopters. For this designation, these particular variant of H-53 has equipment for minesweeping, and are normally owned operated by a US Navy squadron. These helicopters were present in case of Iran mining the straights of Hormuz. yet flown and used my marines during this exercise. Any factor for lack of familiarity on additional equipment within the helicopters. Wfoj2 (talk) 01:18, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Coordinate error
The coordinates need the following fixes: The posted coordinates are about 5 km to the west of the actual site. Here is the correct position N33°6'20.93" E55°42'17.76" Billcheal (talk) 05:08, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Write here


 * Possible, but doubtful and needs source. What is your source for this assertion? Let me note that the sketch map in the article shows the road running through the site running from west by south (just slightly south of due west) to east by north (just slightly north of due east). The road orientation at the location you indicate is the mirror image of that sketch, running from west by north to east by south. I've seen at least one other sketch map that also orients the road as in the one in the article, so I'm doubtful of your coordinates and would respectfully request that you provide your source. —  T RANSPORTER M AN  ( TALK ) 18:42, 3 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I spent a reasonable amount of time in google satellite view looking for signs of the site, on the highways between Yazd and Tabas as mentioned on the "Plan sketch of Desert One." I could find no sign of the site straddling a highway (or something that looked like it might have been a highway) in a non-mountainous region between these two population centers.  Neither could I locate any sign of a possible location in the area pointed to by Billcheal at the top of this section.  Really, I doubt there would be any sign of the place anymore.  The events happened (at the time of this writring) more than 30 years ago and the region is scoured continually by the weather. Mcvoorhis (talk) 14:36, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

Iranian commanders
I have inserted the Iranian commanders: Ayatollah Khomenei and President Banisadr in the Infobox, however User:Citadel48 keeps deleting them, commenting on his/her 1st deletion "There were no iranian commanders; the operation failed before fruition." I don't believe this is correct reasoning, US forces invaded/attacked Iran, taking prisoners (the bus occupants) and killing 1 Iranian before the mission was aborted and so while there was no direct engagement of US and Iranian forces each side had its own command structure in place.Mztourist (talk) 08:38, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I can see his reasoning. The lack of direct engagement isn't the point. The US military DID engage in this operation. The Iranian had no involvement in it. The head of their bus system had more direct involvement. In any case, if we must put someone in from Iran, I'd say pick one. Neither guy had military involvement, so why compound it with two names. I'd also say cut down the 5 names in the US box. We should list overall command, not the command of every element. Niteshift36 (talk) 12:32, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The Iranian command structure was unclear, President Banisadr had nominal command while Ayatollah Khomenei had the real powerMztourist (talk) 17:06, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

This operation only had American commanders, no Iranian commanders were even aware of the operation until it failed.Citadel48 (talk) 21:18, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
 * That is irrelevant, if you have a military infobox you provide the relevant information, which in this case includes the Iranian commanders. Mztourist (talk) 17:06, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
 * There were no Iranian military commanders because the Iranian military was never involved. This is like a guy breaking into a house, stealing a laptop and the owner tracks it down using software, then the mayor takes credit for finding it because the cops who took the report work for the police chief who is appointed by the mayor. Niteshift36 (talk) 17:55, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Exactly, the mayor takes credit, that doesn't mean he actually did anything. Citadel48 (talk) 21:26, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
 * That is very laboured reasoning. The US launched an attack on Iran, Iran had commanders, the US attack was aborted, but that doesn't mean that there is no reason to state the Iranian commanders.Mztourist (talk) 17:50, 24 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I have raised this issue for 3rd opinion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history Mztourist (talk) 08:41, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Given that this operation didn't involve any combat, and was aborted before it really got under way, I'd suggest using Template:Infobox military operation rather than the current infobox. I agree that it's not appropriate to list Iranian figures given that they weren't at all involved. Nick-D (talk) 09:02, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Nick-D the change to the infobox seems sensible, thanks. Mztourist (talk) 10:47, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes I think using Template:Infobox military operation makes sense too. Anotherclown (talk) 12:38, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The switch makes sense. Niteshift36 (talk) 14:21, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Civilian casualty
Who was the civilian killed?122.59.167.152 (talk) 10:40, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Decision to Abort
The article says that Beckwith refused to go with less than six helicopters, and Seiffert refused to use Bluebeard 2. This explanation overlooks the fact that Beckwith outranked Seiffert and could have ordered him to use Bluebeard 2. This is explained in detail in "The Guts to Try". What actually happened was that Bluebeard 2 pilot BJ McGuire was willing to continue the mission with only one hydraulic system, and he told this to Seiffert. Seiffert did not tell this to Beckwith. Beckwith later stated that if he had known McGuire was willing to fly on one hydraulic system, it would have affected his decision of whether or not to abort. The Beckwith/Seiffert relationship was not a good one, which contributed to the mission failure. --Westwind273 (talk) 15:30, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

List of units involved
There's currently no cited sources to support the list of units involved. While I don't doubt that most of the units in the list are legitimately cited, obviously we can't just accept "I was in that unit and we were involved" from some anonymous IP in their edit summary as proof that a unit was part of the operation - and if you look at the edit history, there's more than a few adds of that type present. I'm going to try some research on my own to see how many of these units can be verified. I'd appreciate any help anyone else can give, since I really think the list should be edited down to just verified units at some point. Rockypedia (talk) 20:29, 9 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Update Okay it's been over a year. I'm going through the painstaking process of looking for a reference for each unit listed. If I don't find one, it's gone. Please be patient during this time-consuming effort. Thanks. Rockypedia (talk) 20:34, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Operation Eagle Claw. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091116084305/http://www2.afsoc.af.mil:80/library/afsocheritage/index.asp to http://www2.afsoc.af.mil/library/afsocheritage/index.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 12:55, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

List of sources
FYI, a list of sources on this subject can be found here:. Cla68 (talk) 03:52, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Link appears to be dead. This  is a copy of the same document. Rockypedia (talk) 18:14, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Planning and preparation
the Planning and preparation part had tag for additional citations for verification. I added sources like 1, 2, 3 and 4. So i removed the tag.Lstfllw203 (talk) 18:59, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

revert as Or
Hello.you revert my edition in [] according to OR. but I dont know that where is Or? I write the text myself and with my words.If you could verify your reason then there is no challenge.Thanksm,sharaf (talk) 20:46, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

USS TARAWA LHA-1
I see no mention of Tarawa in this article yet we were all awarded the Irainian Expeditionary Medal. Never really told what role we played, I assume we were support in case everything really hit the fan since we carried a battalion of Marines. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.96.96.225 (talk) 12:55, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * If there's a reliable source available that details the involvement of Tarawa, then you should add it. Otherwise, it doesn't belong in the article.Rockypedia (talk) 20:24, 9 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Iranian Expeditionary Medal? What country is that from? Not the US. Niteshift36 (talk) 20:01, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

I was on the USS Okinawa with the 31st MEU on GONZO station and we were awarded the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. Navy, Army and Air Force personnel were awarded their services expeditionary medal. If you received the Iranian Expeditionary Medal then it would suggest you were on the wrong side. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.56.31.251 (talk) 23:37, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I was on the USS New Orleans LPH-11 ( the Okinawa sister ship )and I also received the Navy Expeditionary Medal. We spent a lot of time in the Indian ocean during this time with our contingent of 1800 Marines and their equipment so I am assuming it was the support roll that earned us the medal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.218.231.23 (talk) 15:38, 26 April 2017 (UTC)


 * That's all great. I don't doubt any of you, but please find a reliable source that states this unit or that unit got this medal or that medal, and it can be added to the page. Users doing drive-bys on this talk page are not considered reliable sources, sorry. Rockypedia (talk) 12:36, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Iranian civilian death?
How did the one Iranian civilian casualty die? Jpatokal (talk) 15:09, 20 June 2009 (UTC)


 * For that matter, how did the US soldiers die? The article tells us that a small force of helicopters landed in the desert, and then - poof - "the survivors" are whisked away by transport aircraft. Survivors of what? I know and you know and the rest of the world knows that there was an accident at the staging area, which led to a fire and several deaths, but unless a reader glances at the infobox he would be unaware of this. Even if there's a massive edit war related to the theory at the top of this talk page, someone should have the decency to put "according to the official report, at this point etc", instead of a blank space. Up until that point the article is decent; that omission completely destroys it. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 13:56, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

he saw the seen and troops killed him. otherwise he would tell authorities and mission would have been jeopardized.Mxgp (talk) 00:13, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

Date format
I'm not entirely sure about the date format used here, although there may be a good explanation. This is a US article and it uses US English throughout (rightly). The date format used - 24 April 2018 - is one that I associate with UK English, rather than the more usual US format of April 24, 2018. Is there a reason for this? Many thanks to anyone who can explain. - SchroCat (talk) 11:02, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

The format Day - Month - Year is used in the U.S. as the standard date format by the U.S. Military. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 214.27.58.1 (talk) 23:20, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

more information
I just want to add the involvement of another part of the U.S. Navy. P-3 Orion Long Range Maritime Air Patrol Aircraft. I'm not interested in getting my name known. Just want to point out where others have served unsung. I was an In-Flight Technician with VP-4 based at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. We were deployed to the Phillippines for 6 months. I spent Christmas on Ready Alert at N.A.S. Cubi Point, not far from Manila, and New Years Eve on Ready Alert on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. We were further detached to Oman, patrolling the Iranian coastline. All crews flew with every radar (search, navigation, altitude) on. All the radios were used (UHF, VHF, HF). We activelly transmitted on anything that would show up on their passive electronics. We were quite the firefly on their scopes. Our sensors showed they had their fire control radar active and missles locked on to us as we moved across the sky. Of course we didn't know about the raid that went in under us until later. Several crews, including mine, were awarded Navel Expeditionary awards. A little token that says we played, too. Still haven't been able to figure out what the second one was for, but, hey- we were busy. And an interesting coincidence…after return from deployment I caught a cross-country flight on one of our birds to see friends in D.C. Without planning or knowledge of the other flights, we landed at Anderson AFB in line right behind the returned Hostages and in front of the Vice-presidents plane. The vidoe was on the evening news and no-one could figure out what kind of airplane we were. I got off the base and found a place to park. I stood there on the sidewalk still in my flight suit and watched them go by in the busses.

AT1 Mike Ruisch VP-4 Aircrew United States Navy 207.118.140.223 (talk) 21:46, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Exact figure of US soldiers not specified
Reading through the whole article, one cannot find any information about: How many US soldiers and agents were precisely involved in this operation? The article lacks the information regarding the exact number of soldiers, pilots, agents, special forces and servicemen that actually took part in this operation and flew into Iran. The article,however, describes only and repeatedly the number of aircrafts and helicopters that flew into Iran during the operation, but never specifies the number of crews that actually were in those helicopters and combat airplanes. Wikipedia, as its goal is, should be clear and precise and without any information hidden to the public. Hiding/not providing this important information into this article, makes the article so defected, as if we describe everything about the Parliament but never say how many parliamentarians there are. This statistical figure is extremely vital to the completeness of this article. Since wikipedia has not provided this information, I have been left with no other option, but to go and browse internet to find answer to: How many soldiers, agents, special forces and servicemen actually took part in this operation and flew into Iran and how many actually made it out. So far, there has been only one Iranian website that has provided the exact number of American crews to 90 Commandos. But is that a reliable figure?... I hope that those people who know such factual info should kindly integrate it to the article.
 * Ryan in the book "The Iranian Rescue Mission" states that by D-Day the overall task force number had grown to 250 (from the original estimate of 80) - of which 132 were to be airlifted to Desert One. (Ryan (1985) p. 35.) Of these, 120 were to be airlifted to Desert Two. (Ryan (1985) p. 65.) Added this to the article text. Farawayman (talk) 00:23, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

"Debacle"
Is it NPOV to label the resuklt as a debacle?`Seems to me that this would be the viewpoint of the US, "debacle" having pretty negative connotations, while from the view of their opponents the result would be labeled as a victory or similar. "Failure" or a similar word seems more appropriate to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.91.231.16 (talk) 00:25, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree. I'll change it, suggestions welcome. GA-RT-22 (talk) 05:09, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Survey of Desert-1 landing area dates
The article states that the survey done by Maj Carney took place on 31st March. Carter only approved the mission on 16 April. Was the survey done clandestinely without a presidential finding or are the dates wrong? Opinions / assistance would be appreciated in getting this right as I am doing a copy-edit / cleanup of this article. Farawayman (talk) 16:53, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The survey was done in secret to avoid tipping off the Iranians, but Carter was aware of it. Planning for a rescue mission began on 6 November 1979. Carter, Mondale, and Vance were fully briefed on Eagle Claw by military leaders on 22 March. Approval has to come after the planning and briefing is done, otherwise the President doesn't have full information to base the decision on. I will try to add some of this to the article in the next couple of weeks. GA-RT-22 (talk) 17:34, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

Decision date
We say the decision was made on 16 April: "Carter agreed to continued planning but did not approve the operation until 16 April." There are two citations, NYT Magazine and Ryan. NYT Magazine contradicts this date, says the decision was made on 11 April. I don't have a copy of Ryan. Carter 1982 p. 507 says the decision was made on 11 April. Does anyone have a copy of Ryan and can check what it says on page 50? GA-RT-22 (talk) 21:29, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

Also Ryan talks about punitive air strikes, again on page 50. Carter says nothing about this. GA-RT-22 (talk) 18:45, 7 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Ryan (1985) states:
 * Carter informed his advisors that he had authorised the mission at the National Security Council meeting of Apr 11, 80. (pg. 49). Article text corrected.
 * Re punitive air strike, Ryan says (Pg 50): Carter, still uncertain of the end result, put off his decision by directing planners to devise an alternate plan to the punitive air strike that he would consider and possibly approve at a later date. On 23 April, the day before D-Day, Carter put the matter to rest by ruling out a concurrent air strike  No change made to article on this matter.
 * Farawayman (talk) 23:34, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you! GA-RT-22 (talk) 23:51, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

New Article
An interesting and current (Jan 21) article on Eagle Claw can be found here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38664/what-if-the-iran-hostage-rescue-attempt-hadnt-ended-in-disaster-at-desert-one Farawayman (talk) 22:36, 28 January 2021 (UTC)