SAVING THE PENTAGON'S KILLER CHOPPER-PLANE

摘要

Eight RH-53D SEA stallion transport helicopters lift off in twilight from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Gulf of Oman, bound for a makeshift airstrip 600 miles away in the middle of Iran's Dasht-e-Kavir desert. Their clandestine mission, Operation Eagle Claw, is to rescue 53 Americans held hostage in the US embassy in Tehran. At the airstrip, codenamed Desert One, six bumblebee-shaped C-130 Hercules transport planes wait to refuel the Sea Stallions. The helicopters are there to carry Delta Force commandos 270 miles to a staging area in the mountains outside Tehran, then raid the embassy the next night. The mission can't proceed any faster. The Vietnam-era Sea Stallions have limited range and cannot refuel in-air.