And In the (Historical) “WTF?” and “YGBSM!” Departments . . . .
Remember how Jimmy the Clueless treated the military just “oh so well”? (Yes, that was sarcasm. This article includes much of that.)
The recent mention of Operation EAGLE CLAW here got me curious, so I did a bit of digging. I discovered something I never knew. And as the old Southern expression goes: “Y’all ain’t gonna believe this sh!t!”
Take a look at this list. It does not include an entry for Operation EAGLE CLAW – AKA the Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission.
Now, take a look at this list – specifically, at the 7th entry on the list’s 2nd page. I suspect you’ll be as shocked as I was.
Yes, you’re reading that correctly. Military personnel who actually flew into Iran on that mission DID NOT receive the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM). Instead, they received . . . the Humanitarian Service Medal (HSM).
I wish I was kidding.
I’m not slamming the HSM; humanitarian assistance missions are legit, and they can be dangerous as hell too. We recently lost some Marines on a humanitarian mission in Nepal.
But it just seems to me that going in harm’s way to rescue American citizens and military personnel held hostage as the result of an act of war by a foreign government is fundamentally different than any kind of humanitarian relief operation. IMO serving in such an operation should receive a different kind of recognition.
But it didn’t; don’t ask me why. Only thing I can figure out is that either the Pentagon or the POTUS must have felt attempting to rescue US prisoners held by Iran after they invaded sovereign US territory (the US Embassy in Tehran) was essentially no different than helping resettle the criminals Castro palmed off on us during the Mariel Boat Lift. Or maybe they were afraid of p!ssing off the Iranians even more if they offered appropriate recognition with an AFEM. (Either way, my money’s on the POTUS – but I could be wrong.)
In a bit of historic irony, US military support for resettlement of those Mariel Boat Lift “refugees” is the next operation on the list of officially recognized HSM operations. It started 2 days after Operation EAGLE CLAW.
If this little bit of historical “appropriate recognition” doesn’t fall into the WTF? And YGBSM! categories, I’ll just be damned if I know what does.
Thanks once again “oh so much”, Mr. Peanut.
Category: Historical, Military issues, WTF?
Leftist Libtards. What’cha gonna do with ’em?
I notice that NO ONE ever addresses Little Jimmy by his Navel rank, even though he retired honorably. I presume that this is by his own choice.
Correlation? Things that make you go hhmmmmm. . .
Carter is NOT a military retiree. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946, but resigned his commission after his father’s death in 1953 to manage the family business. He was honorably discharged in October 1953.
His Navel rank? I don’t know. Innie or Outie? ;P
Hondo,
Thanks for ruining my coffee before 0800 and my day in general.
MCPO
“We aim to please.” (smile)
“You aim, too, please.”
He did make my day while looking at the HSM list I found that I earned one that I did not know about.
And for the record it was not Eagle One
That they should have received the AFEM is a no-brainer. But does POTUS chop on these, or is the entire recommendation/approval chain within DOD?
The latter, I believe – at least on paper. But Carter was a micromanager par excellance. IMO there’s no way in hell he wasn’t involved in deciding how to “recognize” the folks who deployed during Eagle Claw.
And even if the decision was made by DoD, last time I checked the POTUS is CINC. He can certainly direct that a decision by the SECDEF be changed.
Bottom line: thank Carter for the fact that those who participated in the Iran Hostage Rescue attempt got the HSM. One way or another, he allowed that to happen.
Snow relief in 1979? Really? Well, where were they helping out? I never saw anything about this on the news.
Yeah, and I have never heard any “I was there” stories from any posers.
“No shit, there I was. The wind drift must have been 12 feet tall. When all of a sudden, my snow shovel handle cracked. A chill went up my spine. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Same kind of a deal my first winter (77-78) at Fort Carson. Had to strip all the track pads off our M113 APC’s and head out onto the eastern Colorado prairie to Peyton, Calhan, Ellicott and Yoder to rescue all those recently re-located, ill-prepared, bedroom community residing, hippies/yuppies who had tried to make it into Colorado Springs in their Mercedes SEL450’s and Beemers for a morning Starbucks.
Ended up blowing our entire fuel allocation for the Fiscal Year doing those rescues and freezing our asses off in the process, but orders are orders, and you take two salt pills and drive on.
I see by the list that Snow Blow/Snow Blow II (26 Jan 78 – 18 Feb 78) has eight states listed, but Colorado is not included.
I have lots of time on my hands. Maybe I’ll petition the DOD to have CO added to the list and request a retroactive award of the HSM.
Till then, just issue me another TS Slip.
That was 1977-1978. That was a snippy winter, yes, but 1978-1979 was the one that shut down O’Hare Airport. It was so bad that the snow was up to the tops of fences along the sidewalks and the buses were constantly late, mailboxes were buried and couldn’t be found, and if you needed to get to the grocery store for anything, you had to either hire a cab or hope there was one close enough to walk to it.
Despite the heavy snows, I do not recall any news service reporting military assistance for stranded motorists or air/train passengers or even truckers on the highways.
Yes, I remember that one also. Wasn’t that like the third winter in a row that IL/IN had been hammered?
I do remember that the news reported the murder rate in Chicago dropped by 35% during the period,but the “Snow Babies” that were born the following Oct/Nov were 27% more than usual.
So I guess it all evens out in the end.
I’m thinking that the troops that were called up were IL National Guard.
I’m betting, though, that at least 50% of those called up were clerk typists/yeoman types that typed up all the fraudulent snow removal claims that were submitted when it was all said and done. /sarc
Had the mission been successful, the award(s) may have been different. The HSM was probably punishment since the administration knew they had to give them something…
Fucking politics.
If I recall correctly, there were some young men who were supposed to seize the place where the hostages were held, transport them to a local football field where they would be met by helicopters and fly them out. IIRC those young men had a pretty serious combat load. They could not shoot their way in, that would get the hostages killed. But they had enough combat power to shoot their way out. I suppose that someone – even Jimmah – could call that humanitarian but with all of those guns and bullets it doesn’t sound humanitarian to me.
I read about that operation over the years. It always seems kind of “odd” – like the joint training was not done. Someone here must know someone who participated in it. What did they think about it? I’m thinking about the goal, plans, resources, training – stuff like that. Was the plan reasonable? Was the goal attainable? Did they train enough? Did they train jointly? Did they have the right people? I know the bad that came out of Desert 1, did any good come out of it?
I know that all of you really wish that Jimmah was reelected in 1980 so restrain yourself in your lavish praise for the previous winner of “the worst president in history” award.
I once knew a guy who claimed he’d been on that mission. Based on some other stuff I learned later, I’m not sure he actually was. But he did know about the guy who “bailed out without a ‘chute” at Desert One, so maybe he was telling the truth.
I wasn’t there, and wasn’t involved in any way with the operation. However, everything I’ve read about the operation makes me believe it should have been named Operation Joint Compromise. IMO it was pretty much a cluster – an overly complex plan, insufficient prior training, and organized to give each service a “piece of the action” vice to maximize chances for success. All of those flaws combined to bite us right in the ass at Desert One.
I was around the HM guys back in those days, and having listened to them, they weren’t too happy about the whole shebang from the get go. This OP was the reason Joint training really took hold; back then, the individual services held their assets/missions tight to their vest. But, when called, all responded as best they could. Which was, crudely applicable, a cluster f***.
I read about the bailing without a chute in Eric Haney’s book. The guy’s reply after he was asked about it made me laugh.
Well, he did get himself out of the burning plane . . . . (smile)
One problem at a time sarge, one problem at a time.
1SFOD-D CO COL Charlie Beckwith out of despair just totally lost his temper, and ripped the members of the unit for saving their own skins & leaving costly weapons & gear to burn in the stricken C-130….just tons & tons of frustration, and anguish that fateful day.
“Chargin Charlie” the only guy who flunked Nuclear Tactics at CGSC was out of his element on this one.
Read ‘Guests of the Ayatollah’ by Mark Bowden of Blackhawk Down fame, or this article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/05/the-desert-one-debacle/304803/.
The bottom line was that none of the services alone possessed all of the required capability, and there was no single hq capable of planning and executing. So, SFOD-D got the DA mission but had to rely on Navy and USMC helos for the assault. The USN and USMC pilots, while brave and skilled, did not have the training or experience to support SOF raids.
It was also very complex and had a very low threshold for failure- the helos were key and they were not up to the long flight through the the desert. Thus, the requirement for a capability like the 160th SOAR
The lack of an overall SOF command and control and planning structure was a primary reason for the eventual formation of Special Operations Command, which in turn enabled the survival of certain special operations units and the creation of others- except for the Marine Corps, who declined to participate.
Specifically, the lack of true special ops rotary wing aviation led to the creation of the 160th SOAR (AKA the Nightstalkers).
However, the need for true ‘Jointness’ for all was highlighted by the debacle that was Grenada. This led to Goldwater-Nichols, which created the Unified Command Plan and the Combatant Commands (SOCOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, etc) that we know and love today.
As I recall, nobody ever referred to Jimmy Carter as a Rokat Signtist. NEVER!!!
Actually, Carter may have been one of the brighter US Presidents in terms of his engineering/scientific abilities. He was one of the early Navy nuke officers, having been selected for by Rickover. He was reputedly quite good at math/sci/eng stuff.
But common sense and national leadership? Um, not so much his forte.
If he was so goddamned bright, how come he couldn’t keep the words Calvary or cavalry straight, and always said “nuke-you-ler”. Man could fuck up a wet dream and a one car funeral on the same day.
That’s how the word “nuclear” is pronounced by people his age from rural south-central Georgia. Other interesting local pronunciations from that state are the names of the towns of “Martinez” and “Buena Vista”.
No argument with your second sentence. While bright, the phrase “Jimmah the Clueless” fits him perfectly. The man didn’t have enough common sense to pour p!ss out of a boot, and didn’t seem to understand how the world beyond his little corner of Georgia actually worked.
…Other interesting local pronunciations from that state are the names of the towns of “Martinez” and “Buena Vista”….
Byoo-na Vissta.
And don’t forget “bidness.”
“Squeal” or “Squeeeeel!!!”
I see by the list that the fire fighting mission to Red Bluff,CA that my outfit went on is recognized.
Firefighting,Western United States 19 Aug 88 – 6 Oct 88.
Did the mission, no HSM’s awarded. I guess the NTC rotation prep period we started on immediately upon return to Fort Carson took precedence over activating the awards mill.
But I was able to come out of the deal with four pair of those really good yellow Forestry Service gloves and two 14″ bastard files, so all I need now is to have my TS slip punched by a non-denominational Chaplain and we can let the memory of the mission fade into obscurity.
But at least you got to visit Red Bluff, Claw. That’s almost as cool as visiting Modesto twice.
It’s a sad contrast with Operation Ivory Coast, the attempted rescue of POWs in Vietnam, which went off flawlessly except for one minor little thing: The POWs weren’t there. But except for that aspect of it went off like clockwork with only a couple of minor injuries on the part of the assault team.
From what I’ve read, the CIA and DOD pretty much knew/suspected that the POWs had been moved, but they didn’t want to cancel the raid because they thought there might be a possibility that SOME prisoners had been left behind and it would have been devastating if they found out later that there were prisoners there they could have rescued but didn’t.
Nevertheless, the stark contrast between Ivory Coast and Eagle Claw shows how much military “talent” had been lost in the decade between 1970 and 1980.
Sh!t – I can’t believe I forgot this.
Yeah, Carter was indeed the reason the folks on Eagle Claw got the HSM. Want proof? Read this:
http://millercenter.org/president/carter/speeches/speech-3936
Mr. Peanut himself publicly declared the operation to have been a “humanitarian mission” in his speech announcing its failure on 25 April 1980. After that, what the hell else was the Pentagon going to do but authorize the HSM?
I have read several books about military blunders and Eagle Claw was listed in, at least, one of them. According to the author, Carter was looking for a military solution to the Tehran disaster from day one without appearing to look for a military solution. Carter wanted the world to see how his diplomatic efforts were going to settle everything.
This, to me, makes the HSM consistent.
AFEM = military
HSM = diplomacy
Please don’t think I’m saying anything bad about the HSM; I’m not. Many people have worked very hard to get the HSM.
Carter’s reaction to Tehran is strikingly similar to current events.
WTF! YGBFSM! Son of a bitch anyway! This pisses me off! I had to go TDY to Minot, ND once…just once. Because after that dead of winter 6 week adventure, I would have massaged the First Shirt’s balls to keep from going again! There I was, a highly trained SAC Missile Silo Comm Tech who was shoveling one shit load of snow off one hell of a lot of Command Post sidewalks! Every…Fucking…Morning!!! Never got an AFEM or a HSM for it either. Guess I should have gone TDY to Illinois. By the way, I HIGHLY deserved at least the HSM for my work! I remember my hard ass work saving the 250+ pound, butt ugly, WAF the Commander seemed to REALLY and I mean…REALLY like, from a possible parking lot, ass over tea kettle slip and fall and the resulting small ND earthquake which would have registered on the farthest silo’s ground sensors. Are you’re asking if she was big and ugly? Uh…Hell Yea…and then some! I think the Commander had that “fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go round”, fetish thing going on. Anyway, I made it through 6 weeks and actually saw some silo time. Never had to go TDY up north again either.
Minot, where men are men, and sheep run scared. 🙂
Minot,
Why not.
Oh, you betcha.
I always was under the impression that Jimmy saw himself as the western version of Gandhi.