1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
and headed west in aircraft 64-0562. Forty-five
minutes after Brenci’s takeoff, Uttaro and Meller
departed Hurlburt Field with five-minute spacing.
Again, a refueling track was established over
north Texas, and Jubelt, Brenci, and Osborne successfully
onloaded 25,000 pounds of fuel each during
a communications-out cell refueling. During
the refueling operation an air traffic controller
questioned why so many C-130s were heading
west at the same time. He openly speculated that
it must be a practice for a possible rescue attempt
of the hostages in Iran. Although he had no
knowledge of the actual mission, he had guessed
exactly what was going on. Later procedures that
did not rely on verbal transmissions to air traffic
control were developed that reduced the possibility
of a lucky guess. One hour after the first
two aircraft had finished refueling, Uttaro and
Meller hit the track and also onloaded 25,000
pounds of fuel. When the second element departed
the tanker track, Jubelt was still three
hours out of Desert Rock. 71
Jubelt’s FLIR approach to Desert Rock went
flawlessly, and he made a planned go-around to
maneuver for landing behind Uttaro. Brenci was
the first to land, touching down on the blackedout
runway exactly one minute after Jubelt’s
FLIR pass. Williford’s rangers departed Brenci’s
aircraft and set about securing the airfield. By
this time, the rangers had acquired enough NVGs
for every soldier to be issued a set. The gun jeep
and the CCT motorcycles also had IR paper lenses
installed over their headlights. The seizure went
like clockwork. Twenty minutes after Brenci’s
landing, Osborne was on the ground with Delta
Force, and five minutes later Jubelt was down
with the rest of Beckwith’s men. With their personnel
downloaded, Jubelt, Brenci, and Osborne
departed the airfield to make room for the two
Exxon aircraft and the RH-53Ds. Ten minutes after
Brenci departed, Uttaro and Meller landed in
five-minute trail formation. The two aircraft taxied
into their planned refueling positions and
waited for the RH-53Ds to arrive. When the helicopters
landed later than planned, the two Combat
Talons backed up using reverse propeller
thrust to reach the static helicopters (planners had
determined that it was safer to back up the Talon
than to taxi the large helicopters near the C-130
and risk contact with the main rotors). Some prob -
lems were encountered during the refueling opera -
tion that were attributed to determining the exact
distance from the helicopters to the Combat Talon
aircraft. Delta Force loaded on to the RH-53Ds
after the refueling operation was completed, and
the rangers collapsed their perimeter defenses and
departed the airfield onboard the two Talons. Inflight
refueling went flawlessly during the return
leg, and all aircraft landed back at Hurlburt Field,
logging an average of 14.5 hours each. 72
Ten hours after Meller’s Talon landed at
Hurlburt Field, the five crews were assembled for
the mission brief for Night Two. All five Combat
Talons were Sealy configured, with a landing sequence
of Meller, Brenci, Uttaro, Osborne, and
Jubelt. As was the case during Night One,
Jubelt’s crew would make an initial FLIR pass
over Indian Springs to determine if the runway
was clear. Meller would be the first to land on the
blacked-out runway. Jubelt was the first to depart
Hurlburt Field, followed three minutes later by
Meller, and then the rest of the formation five
minutes in trail. The in-bound refueling operation
with the KC-135 went as planned. Seven and onehalf
hours after takeoff, Jubelt was making his
FLIR pass over Indian Springs. One minute later
Meller was on the ground, with Brenci landing
one minute after him. Five minutes after Brenci’s
landing, Uttaro landed, followed two minutes
later by Osborne, then Jubelt.
Prior to the arrival of the Talons at Indian
Springs, Delta Force assaulted a simulated embassy
compound that was 30 miles from the airfield.
The helicopter formation that was to extract
Delta Force from the embassy compound was late
arriving, thus causing a delay in transporting
Delta Force to its exfiltration point at Indian
Springs. The helicopters showed up over two hours
late at Indian Springs, and Delta Force , along with
the role-playing hostages, boarded the Talons and
departed the airfield. 73 For both nights’ rehearsals,
the fixed-wing portion of the plan had gone almost
flawlessly. The late arrival of the helicopters on
both nights, however, created some doubt in the
minds of the Talon crews of the helicopter crews’
ability to execute the actual mission on the
planned time line.
As the simulated embassy takedown and exfiltration
operation was taking place, an AC-130H
gunship orbited over Indian Springs to provide
on-call fire support. The entire two-night rehearsal
was considered a huge success by senior
leadership. For the first time since training began
in November, the JTF could savor the satisfaction
of having a workable plan on the shelf. There were
a lot of moving parts, and they all had to mesh.
Weather also had to cooperate to ensure mission
success. A feeling of accomplishment permeated
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