1 - The Black Vault

THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
the 1st SOS crews would fly sea surveillance mis -
sions over the Gulf of Oman to provide a cover for
the actual mission. From Wadi Kena one MC-
130E and the three EC-130E aircraft would further
deploy to Masirah Island. Thus, there would
be four MC-130Es and three EC-130Es at
Masirah Island, with one of the 1st SOS Talons
serving as a spare for the mission.
On Night One, three MC-130Es would depart
Masirah Island loaded with Delta Force and a
ranger roadblock team tasked to secure the dirt
road that ran through the landing zone. The
Talons would carry Farsi-speaking translators,
a special assault team to take down the minis -
try of foreign affairs where Bruce Langen and
three others were being held, and a team of
combat controllers. In all there would be 139
personnel on the three aircraft. Just before sunset
the first MC-130E would launch from
Masirah Island, followed one hour later by the
two Talons and the three EC-130Es. The Talons
would lead two separate formations with the
EC-130Es and would be responsible for navigating
to Desert One. 94
Concurrently, with the launch of the fixedwing
aircraft from Masirah Island, eight RH-
53D helicopters would depart the USS Nimitz,
which would be in a position approximately 50
miles off the coast of Iran in the Gulf of Oman.
The timing was such that the first MC-130E
would arrive at Desert One well ahead of the
rest of the force and would survey the area utilizing
the aircraft’s FLIR equipment. The lights
that Carney had buried in the desert would be
remotely activated by the first Combat Talon,
and the aircraft would then land. Once on the
ground, the roadblock team would secure strategic
approaches to the site, and the CCT would
set up a second LZ across the dirt road and parallel
to the original runway. The CCT also
would set up a portable TACAN that would aid
the RH-53Ds in finding the landing area. An
hour after the first Talon touched down, the
numbers two and three Talons would land with
the remainder of Delta Force. 95
After the third Talon was on the ground, two
EC-130Es would land three and six minutes
later, respectively, and the first two Talons
would then take off and return to Masirah Island.
After the first two Talons departed Desert
One, the third EC-130E would land, thus leaving
four aircraft on the ground—two EC-130Es
on the north side of the dirt road and one MC-
130E and the third EC-130E on the south side.
The remaining MC-130E was loaded with three
500-gallon fuel blivets in the event one of the
EC-130Es had problems either getting to Desert
One or pumping fuel once there. With the fourth
aircraft on the ground, the eight helicopters
would arrive 15 minutes after the last fixedwing
aircraft landed and refuel from the three
EC-130Es. As the refueling operation was taking
place, Delta Force would board the helicopters
in preparation for the two-hour flight to the
hide site. The three EC-130Es could carry
18,000 gallons of fuel and could refuel 10 helicopters.
With the MC-130E fuel blivets in reserve,
there would be plenty of fuel for the eight
mission helicopters. 96
The ground helicopter-refueling operation
was scheduled to take 40 minutes. Once complete
the helicopters would depart Desert One
and proceed to a point some 50 miles southeast
of Tehran. There Dick Meadows and his reception
committee would meet Delta Force and isolate
them until time for the Night Two embassy
assault. Meanwhile, the MC-130E and the three
EC-130Es at Desert One would depart the area
and exit Iran by way of a route different from
the one they flew during their ingress. At a loca -
tion 120 miles south of the Iranian coastline in
the Gulf of Oman, KC-135 tankers would refuel
the four aircraft, and they would return to
Masirah Island. 97
At Masirah Island, after the Desert One mis -
sion was complete, three MC-130E crews would
board a C-130 support aircraft and fly as passengers
back to Wadi Kena, Egypt, sleeping en route
with the aide of flight-surgeon-administered
sleeping pills. The flight from Masirah Island
t o Wadi Kena was approximately eight hours
long, which put the three crews in Egypt just
in time to brief and launch for the Night Two
mission. For Night Two, four MC-130Es would
launch from Wadi Kena with a 100-man ranger
airfield seizure force on board. Inbound to Iran
and over Saudi Arabia, the four Talons would
refuel from KC-135 tankers. Shortly after the
Talons departed Wadi Kena, four AC-130H gunships
would also depart and refuel after the
four Combat Talons. One gunship was tasked
to support Beckwith’s embassy assault, with a
second tasked to suppress fighter activity at
Mehrabad Airport. The third gunship supported
the airfield seizure operation at Manzariyeh
and the fourth aircraft served as an airborne
spare. 98
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