1 - The Black Vault

Chapter 8
The Iranian Rescue Mission (1979–80)
The credit belongs to the man who is
Actually in the arena; whose face is marred
By dust and sweat and blood; who strives
Valiantly; who errs and comes short again
And again; who knows the great enthusiasms,
The great devotions, and spends himself in a
Worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of
High achievement; and
Who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
Daring greatly.
—Theodore Roosevelt
When aircraft 64-0551 landed in the early evening
of 20 November 1979 on a return flight from
Pope AFB, North Carolina, the question of a rescue
mission to Iran hung heavily in the air of the
crowded cockpit. Colonel Brenci’s comment that
the 8th Special Operations Squadron could become
involved in a rescue attempt was tantalizing,
but no one knew (except perhaps Brenci himself)
what effort it would take to make the mission a
success. The 8th SOS had historically been the
Combat Talon training squadron that provided
aircrews for the two overseas squadrons. The 1st
SOS, stationed at Kadena AB, Japan, had a long
and colorful heritage centered on SEA and the exploits
of the early Stray Goose operators. In recent
years, however, the 7th SOS had enjoyed the bulk
of funding and modernization initiatives as the
cold war in Europe continued, and by late 1979
many considered it as the premier Combat Talon
unit. Throughout the 1970s, the 8th SOS had been
relegated to augmenting these two “operational”
units. As crew members finished their paperwork
after the flight and headed home to their families,
a quick check of the weekly schedule showed no
local flights at Hurlburt Field over the upcoming
Thanksgiving holiday. It would prove to be the
last real break for the 8th SOS over the next 12-
month period.
The next day was Wednesday, 21 November
1979, and Brenci was in the squadron early, as
were several crew members from the previous
night’s mission. Brenci was the chief pilot and assistant
operations officer and was filling in for Lt
Col Less Smith, who had been called away to
Washington, D.C., a few days earlier. Captain
Thigpen, who had flown with Brenci as an instructor
pilot on the flight the evening before, was also
in the squadron. He was working behind the operations
desk finalizing the following week’s schedule
when Brenci called him into his office and closed
the door. Brenci had received a call from Smith in
Washington directing him to begin preparations
for conducting blacked-out NVG landings in the
Combat Talon. The only unit in the 1st SOW that
possessed the relatively rare NVG equipment was
the 20th Special Operations Squadron, which was
the rotary-wing unit assigned to the wing. Brenci
sent Thigpen to the 20th SOS to sign out 10 PVS-5
NVGs so that the squadron could become familiar
with their operation.
Within the hour Thigpen had signed out the
goggles and was back in the squadron. Two things
impressed him regarding the transaction—first,
his hand receipt totaled over $200,000 for the
NVGs, a sizable sum for a captain to be responsible
for, and second, the insistence by 20th SOS
pilots who had said that fixed-wing aircraft could
not be safely landed on NVGs due to the lack of
depth perception and a limited field of view. Several
crew members, including Brenci and Thigpen,
spent the afternoon familiarizing themselves with
proper goggle operation. By utilizing a darkened
room, basic functions of the NVGs, such as turning
them on and off and focusing them both near
and far, were reviewed. A night sortie was scheduled
for the following Monday on TAB-6, a local
auxiliary airfield located just north of Hurlburt
Field on the Eglin AFB range. Since the following
week’s range schedule already had been finalized,
Thigpen had to spend several “green stamps” with
the Eglin AFB range schedulers to get the landing
zone. He was successful, and, with everything set
for the NVG operation on Monday night, the NVGs
were secured in the squadron, and everyone went
home for Thanksgiving.
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