THEN AND NOW

Yesterday, in 1980, I was called from the basement of the Pentagon to become part of the Iran Rescue Task Force-a non-existent unit charged with recovering our embassy hostages.?I was the junior officer and hence the gopher/fly on the wall.?I wrote this essay and many others during the course of the event as a form of stress relief.?We have come a long way to the raid to get El-Bagdadi.

???????????????THE PROBLEM

The planners were both tired and hypertensive. They had endured several long days of constant changes, impossible requirements and varying decisions and non-decisions. They were trying to piece together what they perceived to be the planning guidance from the multitude of conversations that had taken place all day with senior executive personalities in and out of uniform.

Their personalities had taken on that state of mental self-defense of people under siege where black humor was the savior and defense of the soul.?

One of the more dogged planners began to write a list of requirements. It was simple and military in form. In other circumstances it would be termed “Commander’s Intent.”

Our Chief of Staff, Jerry King, gathered us (about 20) in the back room and asked out loud:?

"What do we have to do? Think about all the aspects and sound off."

As the organizational gopher, I wrote each comment on a butcher paper flip chart:

It read:

? Fly 15,000 miles around the world; the last 850 miles in hostile airspace and arrive undetected.

? Enter a sprawling metropolitan city of 2,000,000 people in the throes revolutionary fervor.

? Close with and breach the walls of a heavily-guarded, 27-acre compound without altering the neighborhood.

? Free, without injury, 60+ American citizens from their guards without injuring any civilians.

? Do not permit any adversarial forces to be aware of or react to your presence.

I took a second flip chart and wrote: CONDITIONS

? Force does not now exist, it must be created and trained.

? Mission could go in 10 days and must always be ready to execute in 10 days or less.

? No other country can provide aid or assistance.

? The entire program must be kept secret – not only from the Iranians and the Soviets and other nations, but also from the American public and most of the United States government including the majority of the Department of Defense.

? There will be no funding line, nor money directly provided for the program nor normal administrative orders cut.

? Most Service staffs, organizations, agencies or commands or units cannot be approached except through specific points-of-contact.

? Execution of the entire operation must take place in darkness under good weather conditions.

This particular planning/organizational session took only 20 minutes. Everyone involved felt in a better sense of humor when the meeting terminated except myself, who compiled the list.?

I knew the points were correct and that the next briefing would focus on possible solutions was only 2 hours away.

At that point, we were still relatively clueless.?The attendees would be the SecDef, Brezinski from the NSC, Ham Jordan from the White House, the Chairman and the Service Chiefs.?I suspected none of them wanted to hear "No idea" for an answer.