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Message: <blockquote data-quote="menotyou" data-source="post: 1101986" data-attributes="member: 24535">I still remember that.  I remember the controversy surrounding this.Carter had planned the Mission to happen this way: Six aircraft and eight helicopters were to fly from the USS Nimitz i n the Arabian Sea, and land on an airfield in Southern Iran. From there the helicopters would fly into a stadium adjacent to the United States Embassy compound and troops would force an entry into the embassy, rescue the hostages and return to the USS Nimitz. Unfortunately, two of the helicopters were lost due to technical failures in the first leg of the mission. This left the bare minimum of helicopters needed to rescue all the hostages. When a terrible accident resulted in the destruction of another helicopter and a cargo plane and the death of eight officers, Carter aborted the mission. Due to all of this the negotiations were slowed further. Helicopters from the USS Nimitz took off from the flight deck on April 24, 1980, with hopes to rendezvous with Air Force C-130's at a location known as Desert One. From there, they were to re-fuel, then fly to a second site known as Desert 2. After an short stay there, they were to assault the American Embassy, and re-capture the hostages. RH-53s being pre-flighted  aboard USS Nimitz before launching on the mission where they would be stymied by dust clouds and various systems failures. Eagle Claw was aborted when three helicopters could not complete the mission. Eight men died during the aborted attempt to rescue American hostages held captive in Iran. Five of them were airmen from the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla. They  were Marine helicopter crewmen. “Take solace in the fact that what they did only a few could even attempt,” said Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, the commander of Alaskan Command, at a 20th anniversary commemorative ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla. “What they did was keep the promise. They had the guts to try.” <img src="http://www.theodoresworld.net/HostageRescueAttempt/MarkerImage2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> This is the Memorial Marker for the Brave Men that gave their lives in service to their country on April 25, 1980, during what has become known as the Hostage Rescue Attempt  dedicated to those men that died, and to those men that served with them in trying to rescue those Americans held illegally by the Iranian Government for 444 days. Let us remember these names always. These men gave their lives trying to free good men and women. They did not die in vain. Three of these men were United States Marines: Sgt. John D. Harvey, 21 Cpl. George N. Holmes, 22 SSgt. Dewey L. Johnson, 31 all who died in or trying to escape their RH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter. 5 of them were members of the United States Air Force: Maj. Richard friend. Bakke, 33 Maj. Harold L. Lewis, 35 TSgt. Joel C. Mayo, 34 Capt. Lyn D. McIntosh, 33 Capt. Charles T. McMillan, 28, who died in the cockpit of their C-130 Hercules transport.</blockquote>

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