1 - The Black Vault

THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
outside references. Facing a 9,800-foot mountain
range and unsure that he could make it back to
the USS Nimitz before running out of fuel, Bluebeard
5 elected to abort his mission and try to
make it back to the Gulf of Oman where the carrier’s
rescue force could pick up the crew from the
water. The crew had come to within 145 miles of
Desert One when it elected to turn back. There
were now six helicopters inbound to Desert One—
Bluebeard 3 in the lead, followed by Bluebeard 4
and Bluebeard 7; 10 minutes behind was Bluebeard
8, and Bluebeards 1 and 2 were 35 minutes
behind the leader. Bluebeard 2, however, was
nursing a sick aircraft that was suffering from severe
hydraulic system problems. 137
* * * * * *
Kyle and the four fixed-wing aircraft were
waiting for the helicopters at Desert One. Nearly
an hour and a half had passed since Uttaro had
landed and set up his refueling point. Fuel for the
C-130s was becoming a problem. Lee Hess was at
Wadi Kena with Ulery and the JTF planning
staff. A quick calculation of fuel required to make
it to the tanker track off the coast of Iran showed
that the Desert One aircraft had to be airborne
within the hour. Hess knew that, with the helicopters
still en route to Desert One, there was no
way that the refueling operation would be completed
within that time. After a second reminder
to King, Hess was able to convince King to launch
the standby tankers. At 0020 local two KC-135s
were scrambled at Wadi Kena, launched into the
night, and headed southeast towards the Iranian
coastline. 138 At the same time Bluebeards 3 and 4
landed at Desert One.
Following the marshaling plan for eight helicopters
(Kyle did not know how many helicopters
were still inbound to his location), CCT marshaled
the first two aircraft to Hal Lewis’s tanker.
Because of the loose sand on the LZ, the helicopters
could not ground taxi but rather used a leapfrog
tactic, or held the nose gear off the ground
while moving forward on the main landing gear.
Both maneuvers kicked up a large amount of
dust. When Bluebeard 7 arrived at 0035, he was
marshaled to Republic 5’s location for refueling.
(Bluebeard 7 had turned around when he lost
sight of Bluebeard 5. When he could not find his
wingman in the haboob, Bluebeard 7 assumed
that Bluebeard 5 had crashed in the desert. He
did not know that Bluebeard 5 was en route back
to the carrier. Bluebeard 7 turned around once
again and proceeded to Desert One and was 15
minutes behind the first two helicopters.) When
Bluebeard 8 arrived with the crew of Bluebeard 6
onboard, CCT marshaled it to Republic 4. By 0100
Bluebeards 1 and 2 had landed, with Bluebeard 1
marshaled to Republic 6 (Uttaro) and Bluebeard 2
marshaled to Republic 5 (Tharp). There were now
six helicopters at Desert One, which was the
minimum number required for the mission to continue
as planned. Time was still critical. With another
hour needed to refuel all six helicopters and
a two-hour flight to Delta Force’s drop-off site, the
helicopters could make it to their laager site 45
minutes before sunrise (fig. 33). 139
As Kyle and Beckwith went between the helicopters
to determine their exact status, Bluebeard
2 shutdown behind Tharp’s tanker. The problem
with the second-stage hydraulic system could not
be fixed, and the aircraft was grounded on the
spot. With only five flyable helicopters now available
at Desert One, the mission fell into an abort
status. Kyle went to Beckwith to see if Delta
Force could be reduced, but he was told that it
could not be done. With only five helicopters left,
Kyle had no other choice but to abort the mission.
Beckwith headed for the other helicopters to get
his men off and back on to the fixed-wing aircraft.
Kyle headed for the SATCOM radio to inform
General Vaught of his abort recommendation. 140
With Kyle’s recommendation sent to Vaught at
Wadi Kena, cleanup action at Desert One got under
way. In about 20 minutes Vaught radioed
back approving the abort recommendation and directed
that the number two helicopter be destroyed
in place. The bus passengers were to be
released, and the five flyable helicopters would be
returned to the USS Nimitz. Vaught could have
ordered Bluebeard 2 to continue the mission, but
he respected the crew’s decision and the recommendation
from Kyle. 141
By the time the abort decision had been finalized,
the fixed-wing aircraft had been on the
ground two and one-half hours. The additional
ground time had cut into their fuel reserves.
When Kyle knew for sure that only six helicopters
were going to make it to Desert One, he authorized
the C-130s to pump 1,000 gallons of fuel from
their bladders to their main fuel tanks. Lewis already
had refueled three helicopters, and his fuel
bladder was empty. Thus, he needed to depart
Desert One as soon as possible, or he would not
make it out of Iran before running out of fuel.
Bluebeards 3 and 4 were parked behind Lewis’s
aircraft and had to be moved before Lewis could
taxi for take-off. Otherwise, the dust kicked up by
225