<p>Another event in 1980 hinted at a changing world even while the old practices of the Cold War continued as before. Fifty-three Americans were being held hostage by revolutionaries in Iran. The effort to rescue them, dubbed Operation Eagle Claw, was the largest special operation ever attempted by the United States.
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<p>In preparations which were themselves as secret as anything the Air Force ever did, a rescue force worked up at Nellis AFB, Nevada in March and April 1980. In late April, the attack force crossed the Atlantic in Lockheed C-130s and then flew on to Masirah, an airfield in Oman.
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<p>The attack force consisted of 93 men from Delta Force to rescue the bulk of the hostages from the chancery grounds in Tehran, and another 13 to rescue three hostages held separately in the Foreign Ministry. On 24 April 1980, the USAF airlifted this team from Masirah to Desert One, a small airstrip 300 miles (480 km) southeast of Tehran, in Lockheed MC-130E Hercules. The MC-130E was a version of the highly successful 'Herk' transport designed for clandestine infiltration missions at low level. Six Hercules reached Desert One, apparently including two which had been specially modified to improve their short take-off capabilities. A planned rendezvous with RH-53D helicopters launched from USS Nimitz (CVN-69) was fouled by sandstorms and timing errors. Because a surplus of RH-53Ds was not available at Desert One (although there was a sufficient number to carry out the mission, with nothing to spare) a decision was made to abort the remainder of the operation, which would have included a final assault in Tehran and extraction from the city's stadium. With the mission already called off, an RH-53D collided with a fuel-laden Hercules, slicing the transport's thin skin with its main rotor and causing explosion, fire and the loss of eight lives.
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<p>'Desert One' came to be the term not so much for a location as for an American catastrophe. It also brought about major changes in the US military and especially the Air Force. Line commanders have always been contemptuous of special operators, but Eagle Claw led to increased emphasis on those units committed to unconventional warfare. The unsuccessful Iran rescue attempt led directly to the 1990 formation of Air Force Special Operations Command, itself a part of the larger US Special Operations Command which has acquired so much 'clout' as to be regarded, by many, as a kind of sixth branch of the armed forces.
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<p>Desert One was also a warning. The Air Force could continue to focus solely on the Cold War, to the exclusion of other needs, only at its peril. A 'raghead' militant in Tehran or a tinhorn dictator in Tripoli threatened the United States, and demanded flexible air power, even as outsiders warned the Air Staff not to focus exclusively on the Soviets. The USAF largely ignored the message of Desert One and the warnings.
