1 - The Black Vault

The 1st SOW maintained the four gunship detachment
on Guam for the next four months, redeploying
to Hurlburt Field on 3 March 1980. 16
The gunship mission envisioned by OPG involved
a punitive strike against a coastal target in
Iran. After deploying from Guam to Diego Garcia,
the gunship force would fly a 21-hour round-trip
mission from there to its target along Iran’s coast.
Navy carrier-based fighter aircraft and SAC KC-
135 tankers would support the strike. Retaliatory
strikes were planned by OPG in the event that
Khomeini’s terrorists in the embassy began killing
the hostages, a threat that had been made
early in the crisis. Two other OPG scenarios included
the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz at the
entrance to the Persian Gulf and the seizure of Iran’s
Kharg Island oil refinery complex. If retaliatory
strikes were executed, SOD’s rescue option would
no longer be viable. 17
Combat Talon Is Selected
for the Rescue Mission
The distances from Diego Garcia and Egypt
were enormous. Kyle and his small SOD staff
looked at possible weapons systems that could do
the job. There was only one aircraft capable of
in-flight refueling, covert penetration of hostile
airspace, and precision navigation to some point
in the heart of Iran, and that aircraft was the
MC-130E Combat Talon. Kyle briefed Vaught on
his Talon requirements, and on 14 November
Vaught approved Kyle’s request to bring three
planners familiar with the weapons system to
Washington. The next stop for Kyle was Lee Hess,
who recommended Lt Col Les Smith (the operations
officer of the 8th SOS), Maj Doug Ulery (a
highly experienced Combat Talon navigator and
mission planner), and Maj Paul Gorsky (a highly
experienced navigator assigned to TAC headquarters).
Hess reasoned that Smith could return
t o Hurlburt Field to put the Combat Talon package
together after initial planning and would
transition to be the JTF’s point of contact for the
squadron. Ulery was well known by both Kyle and
Hess, all three having worked together on Korean
issues while they were assigned to the Pacific.
Gorsky had been previously assigned to the
Heavy Chain program (1198th OT&E Squadron)
and participated in the initial flight tests and verifi -
cation of the MOD-70 upgrade. He would act as
the JTF liaison officer to TAC as the preparation for
the mission progressed. 18 Hess also connected Kyle
__________
*Kyle and Turczynski both served on the PACAF staff and trusted each other’s judgment.
THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
with Turczynski. During a 15 November secure
telephone call, Kyle asked Turczynski to continue
the no-light landings that the squadron had begun
on 7 November.* Kyle also authorized Turczynski
to brief the 18th TFW/DO on the mission and
gave him Col Bob Pinard’s name as the 1st SOW
point of contact at Hurlburt Field.
The three Combat Talon planners arrived in
Washington on 16 November. Kyle and Hess immediately
briefed them, and they began looking
at possible ingress and egress routes. The SOD
plan had evolved into a two-night operation that
included both USAF Combat Talons and US Navy
RH-53D helicopters. Night One would utilize an
isolated airfield in southern Egypt, known as
Wadi Kena (also identified as location Alpha),
from which Combat Talons and KC-135 tankers
would launch. From Wadi Kena, the force would
fly down the Red Sea clear of Saudi Arabian airspace
and refuel over international waters abeam
South Yemen. The force would continue eastward
along the coast of Saudi Arabia and turn north
near Masirah Island over the Gulf of Oman. The
Combat Talons would cross the Gulf of Oman and
fly east of the Strait of Hormuz at low level, penetrating
Iranian airspace at a point where intelligence
indicated a gap in radar coverage. Once
over land, options to either drop fuel or airland
were still to be worked out. Planners were instructed
to build their low-level route to a point
300–400 NM from Tehran. Further refinement of
the overland portion of the mission would be done
after helicopter rendezvous and refueling options
were finalized. 19 A different egress route would be
flown after refueling the helicopters, with all
Combat Talons landing back at Wadi Kena after a
second air refueling (fig. 30).
Utilizing Saudi Arabian airspace, Night Two
would depart Wadi Kena and cross Saudi Arabia
north of Riyadh, where an aerial refueling would
take place with KC-135 tankers. After refueling,
the Combat Talons would continue on to the Persian
Gulf, enter low level, and penetrate Iranian
airspace east of Kuwait. Available intelligence
had not pinpointed any gaps in Iranian coastal
defenses in the northern Persian Gulf area, so
from the penetration point onward, the route was
initially left unplanned. In the event Egypt denied
use of Wadi Kena, an alternate plan was
developed that called for launch and recovery
from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, then lowlevel
penetration of the Iranian coast near the
same point as planned from Egypt. 20
185