1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
Force and the JTF staff to Pope AFB. With the
exception of the C-141 low approaches and the
late helicopters, the rehearsal had been another
success. Postexercise review determined that the
C-141 problem could be eliminated for the actual
mission into Manzariyeh by turning on the runway
lights after the assault force had secured the
airfield. The element of surprise would no longer
be needed since, by that time, Beckwith would
have already freed the hostages from the embassy
compound. 87 As it turned out the March
rehearsal was the last full-scale exercise before
the April mission.
The Pieces of the Puzzle Fall into Place
The JTF intelligence folks had continued to
study the Desert One landing site identified back
in February, and by the end of March, they were
convinced that the site was the answer to the
landing problem. By 1 April Kyle had considered
the desert landing site almost a dead issue since
little additional information had been passed to
him during the workup for the March full-dress
rehearsal. Kyle’s insistence on a landing-zone survey
of Desert One, however, paid off. Unknown to
Kyle in a 22 March 1980 meeting at Camp David,
President Carter approved a reconnaissance mission
to the proposed Desert One landing location.
The president had received his first full-mission
briefing from Jones at that time and thought
enough of the plan to approve the flight. 88
Maj John Carney, a USAF CCT member attached
to the JTF, was selected to fly with two
CIA pilots in a Twin Otter aircraft across Iran to
the landing site. The mission was set for 3 April
1980. Tom Bradley was alerted at Wadi Kena,
and he quickly redeployed his two 7th SOS Combat
Talons from Egypt to Germany for installa -
tion of Fulton STARS equipment. Bradley then
returned to Wadi Kena with the two aircraft in
time to provide an emergency means of extracting
the three Americans from Iran in the event the
CIA aircraft experienced a mechanical problem
and was unable to depart the country.
The survey mission went as planned, with no
aircraft mechanical problems. Bradley’s STARS
backup capability was not needed. After landing
at Desert One, Carney unloaded a small motor cycle
and headed north to survey the area. The plan
had been to land to the south of the dirt road that
ran through the landing zone. Carney soon realized
that the aircraft had actually landed north of
the dirt road, so he backtracked to his starting
location and set off to the south on the motorcycle.
He tested the consistency of the hard-packed sand
and determined that it would support the heavy
C-130 aircraft. It took Carney about an hour to
finish the survey and to bury the landing lights
that had been developed by the CIA specifically
for the rescue mission. While Carney was burying
the lights, four vehicles passed him on the dirt
road. 89 When Carney’s survey was finished, the
three men took off from Desert One and retraced
their ingress route out of Iran. For several days
the intelligence community closely monitored all
available sources to determine if the flight had
been detected. When there was no reaction from
the Iranians, it was clear that the mission had
gone without their knowledge. Another piece of
the puzzle had fallen into place.
With the knowledge that Desert One was C-
130 capable, Kyle shifted training emphasis at
Hurlburt Field to short-field operations into a
dirt strip. (Before their departure back to
Kadena AB, the 1st SOS crews had trained on a
seldom-used dirt strip in the Eglin AFB range
complex named landing zone (LZ) East. By the
time Carney’s mission was completed on 3
April, Turczynski and his two crews were already
back at Kadena AB.) LZ East was located
in the eastern part of the Eglin AFB range, just
a few air miles northeast of Duke Field. The LZ
consisted of hard-packed red clay and was 3,500-
feet long and 60-feet wide. Approach to the dirt
strip was restricted to landing to the southwest
to avoid Duke Field’s landing pattern. The approach
put the aircraft just north of Defuniak
Springs, Florida, as the crew maneuvered for its
Photo courtesy of Roland Guidry
The Twin Otter planned to land to the south of the dirt
road. When John Carney deplaned and headed north to
find the road, he realized that he was, in fact, on the
north side. He retraced his route and crossed the road
near the bend in the road. He buried the landing lights
in the desert floor to help guide the lead Combat Talon
to a successful landing.
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