Operation Eagle Claw: The Disastrous Failed Effort to Rescue American Hostages in Iran

Hey, Disaster Dudes and Divas! Thanks for hopping over to this blog to learn more about episode 3 of the Disaster Queen Podcast. I am super excited to tell you about it because I think it’s one of the least well known disasters for the United States in recent history, but it’s extremely historically significant. Operation Eagle Claw, or Desert One as it’s sometimes known, was a unique disaster in that its failure was felt and impacted people politically, personally, nationally, and militarily.

What is Operation Eagle Claw?

Simply put, Operation Eagle Claw is the failed U.S. military operation to rescue our American hostages in Iran. If you don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to the hostages, you’re in luck: I cover that backstory in the episode! But the short version is that 66 (later whittled down to 52) American diplomats were taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran by militant college students on November 4, 1979. After several months of diplomatic efforts to free them didn’t work, President Jimmy Carter authorized a super-secret, super-complicated rescue mission to free the hostages with military force. It was code named Operation Eagle Claw, but some refer to it by the code name where the failure part of the mission took place, a somewhat desolate stretch of sand in Iran code named “Desert One.” Operation Eagle Claw went into action on April 24, 1980 and ended as a disastrous failure in the wee hours of the morning of April 25th.

Why Was Operation Eagle Claw a Disaster?

I won’t get too specific, but if you don’t want spoilers, make sure you listen to the podcast episode first before you read this next paragraph! Operation Eagle Claw was a failure because of mechanical issues before it was a disaster. President Carter had already aborted the rescue mission, but was hoping it could just be a postponement, when the real disaster happened. A lot of things went wrong that night, including the unexpected presence of Iranian civilians, but the true, tragic disaster occurred when a crash between military vehicles and the ensuing fire killed eight brave American special forces servicemen.

A Big Disaster That Had Big Fallout

Though Americans were glad that Carter had tried to rescue the hostages, the mission’s failure was an embarrassment both to the President and his people. Carter’s failure to secure the hostages’ release by any means was the nail in the coffin of his short presidency. (Side note, Carter had a ridiculous amount of disasters occurring during his short presidency! Mount St. Helens, Three Mile Island, and Operation Eagle Claw are just a LOTTTT for four years!) Americans were incensed at the way the Iranians reacted joyfully to our failure as well. U.S. Special Forces and their leaders were embarrassed to have failed, and of course the families of the lost servicemen deeply grieved their losses. Also, a lot of the hostages’ families were mad as they thought this failed effort put their family members in further jeopardy.
In the end, Carter lost the 1980 Presidential election BUT he did successfully negotiate the hostages’ release after 444 days. Yet, these poor diplomats weren’t freed until about twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. The Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini is said to have really enjoyed sticking it to poor sweet Jimmy Carter in this way.

Operation Eagle Claw’s Legacy

Though the tragedy at Desert One has an awfully sad legacy, there is one good thing that came of it and that is the Special Operations Warriors Fund, which was started after Eagle Claw by the special forces colleagues specifically to pay for the college educations of the 17 children left fatherless after the disaster. Today the foundation continues to fund full educations for the children of Special Operations soldiers who are lost in the line of duty. Major Harold Lewis died at Desert One, and his son was featured in the Desert One documentary talking about how the fund paid for his entire education, from undergrad through medical school, and that he is now a surgeon saving lives thanks to the fund.

Ok, so that’s the skinny on Disaster Queen Podcast episode 3! Please go listen and leave me a comment here to let me know what you think!

XO, Jenny

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Acast

On this episode of the Disaster Queen podcast, we will take a deep dive into the event that President Jimmy Carter says was the worst day of his life: the failed mission to rescue our hostages in Iran, code named Operation Eagle Claw. Not only did the mission fail, but it became a bona fide tragic disaster when eight brave service men died. It was the death knell to Carter’s presidency and a huge embarrassment for our country. This disaster took place on April 24-25, 1980, just 3 short weeks before the eruption of Mount St. Helens, which I covered in episode one.

Here are the sources I used to research this episode:

Book: Guests of the Ayatollah

Book:The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter

Documentary: Desert One

Documentary: Hostages (Max)

Documentary: American Experience: Taken Hostage (PBS)

Articles:

https://coffeeordie.com/operation-eagle-claw-mike-vining/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

The Disaster Queen Podcast is a production of Disaster Queen Productions LLC.

It is produced, researched and written by Jenny Rapson, the Disaster Queen.