Rescue Operations

RH-53D Helicopter

         President Carter knew that he was in a delicate situation; he didn’t want to lose the lives of any innocent US citizens.  So he and his staff had to find a way to get the Americans back.  Carter knew that military action had too many risk factors so he had to take a different approach.  Carter first froze the Iranian assets in the United States through economic sanctions.  For the first few months, the American public rallied around Carter, who had clearly made freeing the hostages his number one priority.  This changed when no progress had occurred.  Negotiations were failing and a deal couldn’t be produced.  So Carter decided to take a big risk.  President Carter tried to construct a rescue mission that would hopefully take the hostages out of Iran captivity and bring them back to the United States. Carter called the rescue mission Operation Eagle Claw.  On April 11, Operation Eagle Claw was approved.  The rescue mission was officially launched, on April 24th President Carter sent eight RH-53D helicopters and landed on a secret strip of land that the Iranians didn't have control over, the strip was called the Airstrip in the Great Salt Desert. It lied just east of Iran. Unfortunately this attempt failed before it started.  The plan was for all eight helicopters to report to "Desert One" to refuel, but only six of the eight helicopters returned from the overnight air travel. One of the helicopters crashed into a C-130 transport plane while taking off, eight servicemen were killed and three more were injured. [2]

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