US Navy chief behind probe into botched Iran mission dies
James Holloway, a US Navy admiral behind an investigation that strongly criticized the Pentagon’s planning of a failed 1980 mission to spirit out US Embassy personnel held in Iran, died on Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia.
Admiral Holloway, who died at the age of 97, was the US Navy’s senior uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1974 to 1978, serving under three American presidents.
He fought for the US military during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Then US President Jimmy Carter ordered a raid in late April 1980 to free 52 US hostages held in Iran since November 4, 1979.
Pushed for military action by National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brezinzski, Carter ordered Operation Eagle Claw, a clandestine military effort where US special forces were supposed to fly into Iran on board eight helicopters and take the detained embassy staff back into the US.
The operation began in April 1980, when the helicopters successfully entered Iranian territory and landed in central deserts near the city of Tabas before a planned flight to Tehran. From that point, however, the operation turned into a massive failure as a sand storm disabled two of the helicopters and a third one crashed into a transport aircraft the next morning.
Carter was forced to call off the disastrous operation and take responsibility for it in a public speech, which also greatly damaged his chances of re-election.
The saga finally ended after Iran agreed to release the detainees under a deal mediated by Algeria, through which the US undertook not to take hostile action against the Islamic Republic.
Through years, however, Washington has flaunted the agreement and done everything it can to harm Iran and topple the Islamic Republic.
On January 20, 1981, just as former US President Ronald Reagan gave his inauguration speech and celebrated his victory against Carter, the embassy staff were first flown from Iran to Algeria and then left the African country for Germany.
Soon after the failed rescue mission, a six-member panel of senior active and retired US military officers, led by Holloway, was assembled to report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the planning for the raid. A 78-page report, made public in August 1980, was especially critical of command issues.
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