1 - The Black Vault

THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
vertical stabilizer. Daigenault, Meller’s flight engineer,
had stayed busy preflighting the aircraft
and coordinating with maintenance actions required
for the Night Two launch. McBride and
Launder, the two crew navigators, had finetuned
the low-level route to Manzariyeh and
had created mission folders for each crew. Drohan,
Yagher, and Robb (EW officers from Lewis’s,
Uttaro’s, and Meller’s crews, respectively) had
analyzed each route segment and had “shadowed”
each one with known enemy threats so
that the crews could easily determine when the
aircraft would be detected by Iranian radar.
They also coordinated with Meller’s two naviga -
tors to adjust the low-level route if there was
any time that the aircraft entered a lethalthreat
ring. Mink, Meller’s radio operator, spent
his time working with the JTF communications
element refining the execution checklist and
checking out the aircraft’s radios. Chesser and
Thomas, the two primary loadmasters on Meller’s
crew, had flown with Tharp on Republic 5
to Desert One and were not at Wadi Kena. The
third loadmaster on Meller’s crew, Chamness,
was new to Combat Talon, but he was already
highly respected for his knowledge. He inspected
each aircraft and ensured that their cargo compartments
were properly configured for the Night Two
mission.
Meller coordinated his crew’s effort. He knew
that there would be little time for Brenci, Uttaro,
and Lewis to prepare for the Manzariyeh mission,
so he and Thigpen prepared an in-depth briefing
that covered all phases of the flight. His plan was
to brief the Night One crews on the Night Two
mission immediately after their arrival back at
Wadi Kena and provide them the mission folders
containing essential mission details. There was
just enough time to answer questions before takeoff.
Daigenault and Chamness had the aircraft
preflighted and ready to go. The pilots reviewed
every bit of data for the Night Two mission—from
weight and balance forms to the EWO’s threat
assessment to the navigator’s low-level route. By
the time Pinard arrived with the news of the Desert
One disaster, Meller and his crew had the
Night Two mission finalized and were ready to
brief the mission.
With Delta Force and the injured soldiers and
airmen gone from Masirah Island, General Gast,
Kyle, the communications crew, the CCT, and the
five Combat Talon crews were all that remained.
Photo courtesy of J. V. O. Weaver
Night Two Lead Crew. Left to right: Mink, *Chesser, Thigpen, Launder,
Daigenault, Meller, *Thomas, McBride, Williamson, and Robb. Not pictured:
Chamness.
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*Also flew during 24 April Desert One mission.
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