1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
hostages, the Credible Sport program was terminated.
28 The capability to land in a soccer field
across the street from the American embassy in
Tehran would not become a reality.*
Preparations Continue
for a Return to Iran
As the Credible Sport program got under way in
late July, the 1st and 8th SOS were completing
their Oro Grande deployments. On 23 August
1980, the Holloway Commission released its findings
and recommendations on the Desert One mission.
Within 30 days of the release, the secretary
of defense began action to have the chairman of
the JCS task the three military services to fund,
equip, and man a standing counterterrorism task
force. The new organization was to be based at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The new command’s
charter included assuming responsibility for all
mission planning and operational matters that
were currently assigned to Vaught’s JTF 1-79. As
the new command was being established at Fort
Bragg, Vaught’s JTF/JTD team continued to explore
rescue options and test capabilities that
might be needed for another rescue attempt.
The next major training exercise involving
Combat Talon was scheduled for 13 September at
Moody AFB, Georgia. Turczynski and three of his
crews (commanded by Jubelt, Pearson, and Wilson)
returned from Kadena AB to Hurlburt Field
to participate in the Trainex. Brenci now had five
crews fully qualified in blacked-out NVG opera -
tions (Brenci, Ferkes, Meller, Tharp, and Thigpen).
Uttaro had been drafted into the Credible
Sport program and was no longer involved with
Honey Badger. The Moody Trainex included a
dual-runway airfield seizure operation, with Meller
and Thigpen landing on parallel runways simultaneously
at 2200 local time. Pearson and
Jubelt landed 30 seconds later, thus resulting in
four aircraft being on the ground within the first
minute of the operation. Brenci landed two minutes
behind Jubelt, followed by Wilson six minutes
later. Ferkes and Tharp flew the last two aircraft
scheduled to land, both EC-130E aircraft. During
the departure phase of the exercise, as Jubelt
pulled out on the runway in aircraft 64-0551, the
nose gear collapsed, and the aircraft came to a halt
with its nose resting on the runway. The exercise
was terminated and, upon inspection, maintenance
determined that damage was minimal and
consisted mainly of a crushed nose-gear door.
Once temporary repairs were made, the aircraft
was returned to Hurlburt Field.
Events in Iran were still driving preparations for
a second rescue mission. On 22 September Iraq invaded
Iran to seize the strategically important Shat
al Arab waterway at the confluence of the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers. Charging that the United
States was behind the invasion, Iran suspended all
talks on the release of the hostages. At the same
time, news came to the JTF that the hostages were
being moved back into Tehran for their safety, with
some reports indicating that all were back in the
American embassy. 29 On 1 October 1980, Roland
Guidry departed the 8th SOS for assignment to
Fort Bragg, and Bob Brenci moved up to be the
squadron commander. Lt Col James L. Hobson, who
had arrived in the squadron the previous April, took
Brenci’s place as the operations officer.
The situation in Iran seemed to be driving a
second rescue attempt. From 9 to 16 October, another
combined exercise was held that included
Delta Force, the rangers, USAF CCT, and both
rotary- and fixed-wing assets. What proved to be
the final JTF exercise, code-named Storm Cloud,
was conducted during the last week in November
1980. The majority of the JTF forces were involved
in this large and complex operation. The exercise
was executed during the night of 23–24 November
without deviation from the operational plan and
without any injuries or aircraft incidents. With the
exercise hotwash conducted the next day at the
Pentagon, Vaught was about ready to turn over
his responsibilities to the newly created joint command.
30 The election of Ronald Reagan and the
subsequent softening of Iran’s position towards the
hostages indicated that another rescue mission
would not be required.
Beginning in November General Vaught directed
that all JTF/JTD capabilities developed
during the previous 12 months be compiled into a
document that would be available to all services
for future reference. His motivation was to ensure
that the lessons learned and the capabilities developed
during workup for Desert One and Honey
Badger would not be lost but instead would be
passed on to those in the special operations community.
The resultant document, titled JTF Force
__________
*The second Credible Sport aircraft (74-1686) would later become the test bed for Combat Talon II. Many of the STOL features of Credible Sport
were considered for Combat Talon II, but in the end funding limitations eliminated the modifications from the final CT II aircraft. Credible Sport
aircraft 74-1686 eventually would be donated to the Warner Robins Aircraft Museum and would n ever return to operational status. The third aircraft
(74-2065) would be converted back to its original airlift configuration and returned to the USAF C-130H tactical transport fleet. No additional flights
were conducted utilizing the rocket system after the 29 October 1980 accident.
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