THE MAN BEHIND THE MISSION: Ill-fated rescue attempt remembered three decades later

For retired Col. Roland Guidry, the war on terror began 30 years ago.

Guidry, of Destin, was the commander and pilot for an Air Force Special Operations unit that was assigned the task of freeing 53 Americans who were taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

Thursday morning at Hurlburt Field, Guidry served as the guest speaker for an event that memorialized the 30^th anniversary of the event that took place in the midst of the Iran Hostage Crisis: Operation Eagle Claw.

“After Vietnam, the special forces were decimated to almost nothing,” said Guidry. “[The mission] was the spark that was responsible for the build up in special operations. It was responsible for us saying, ‘we better worry about terrorism.’ ”

On Nov. 4, 1979, a group of Islamic students and militants took over the embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. Then, after months of exploring options, President Jimmy Carter and the United States government decided to remove the hostages by force.

The rescue mission, in conjunction with Delta Force and the Army Rangers, took place at a period in global history of relative peace, which actually made the planning and execution of the mission much more difficult. With so little military movement, placement of the necessary equipment for extraction was nearly impossible to hide from the closely watching Russians.

On April 24, eight RH-53D helicopters departed the USS Nimitz in the Indian Ocean to rendezvous with six C-130 cargo planes that left a small island off the coast of Oman.

The two-night mission had the crafts flying to a remote location in the Iranian dessert on the first night. The site was known as “Desert One” and it was chosen as the safest known landing zone for the heavy C-130s.

This site was to be used to refuel helicopters for the next night, when the plan was to extract the hostages, by force, from the embassy.

But Guidry and the other special operators never made it to Tehran.

In the course of flying to Desert One, three choppers experienced mechanical difficulties, leaving five. President Carter, believing that there wasn’t enough firepower, decided to abort the mission. The planes and choppers were to refuel and head back.

The plane and chopper on the outer-most edge of the designated area had finished refueling. As the chopper took flight to move on, a considerable amount of dust was produced, making visibility nearly non-existent. With no directional frame of reference, the pilot steered into the fuel-filled C-130, causing an explosion that immediately took the lives of five Air Force soldiers and three Marines.

“The primary legacy of the event was that it was responsible for the build up of American Special Forces,” said Guidry. “The second legacy has been the creation of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.”

After the tragedy, Ross Perot promised to fund the education of the children of the men who lost their lives in Project Eagle Claw. Out of this promise, the Warrior Foundation was organized with a mission to fund the education of the children of fallen Special Operations’ soldiers.

Of the original eight victims, 17 of their children received a college education. Today, there are 134 students attending colleges across the country through the funding of the foundation, and there are 531 who are not yet old enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

“There is no better legacy to our fallen heroes than this,” said Guidry.

Originally from Breaux Bridge, La., Guidry was commissioned into the Air Force after graduating from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a degree in electrical engineering. He went on to be stationed in Alaska for five years, flying C-130s that were fitted with skis to land in the snow.

From there, he went on to work with unmanned, drone reconnaissance devices that were launched from C-130s in northern Vietnam and China. He then went on to receive his master’s degree in aeronautics.

“The Air Force thought they were going to get all these missions into space, so they were training all of us in aeronautics,” said Guidry. “When NASA got all of it, they asked me where I wanted to go and I said, ‘send me to Eglin.’ ”

Now Guidry resides on Holiday Isle with his wife, Pat. He is best known locally for his involvement in the ongoing beach restoration squabble, but Guidry regularly travels the world as a lecturer on military aviation topics.

“Members of Eagle Claw, I salute you,” Guidry concluded Thursday, before laying a wreath at the Eagle Claw mural.

For more information about the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, visit specialops.org.