Just saw the movie "Argo" today with my wife. I recommend it to ALL of you, especially those of you/us old enough to perhaps remember the American anger, frustration, and "agony of defeat" attendant to the US Embassy hostage crisis of 1979-1981. As with most motion pictures "based on a true story"...don't get up and leave at the end. The "credits portion" of the movie contains much "good stuff" about the real people involved in that particular EXFIL of Americans from Iran, including a pretty nice "voice over" from President Carter about why credit had to reside with the Canadian Government at the time, and some great "side-by-side" photos of the real folks and their movie personna. Pretty damned good casting.
My only complaint: To the average/younger movie-going crowd of today, the film implies that all things in those 444 days ended peacefully and without loss of life. Not quite true.
I kept looking for at least a "readable" salute to the eight gallant American airmen and Marines who lost their lives at "Desert One" during the failed military hostage rescue attempt of April, 1980, known to us as "Operation EAGLE CLAW". I think that not doing that diminished telling "the full story", or at least colored it askew.
So in my own way...a salute. I recall that after the survivors of "Desert One" recovered back to their staging base at Masirah, two British Airmen quietly delivered two cases of beer with the words "To you all, from us all, for having the guts to try" scribbled across the cardboard lid of one of the cases.
So...lest we forget: The five American airmen who died that night were Major Richard L. Bakke, Major Harold L Lewis Jr., TSgt Joel C. Mayo, Major Lyn D. McIntosh, and Captain Charles T. McMillan. The three Marine casualties were Sgt John D. Harvey, Cpl George N. Holmes Jr., and SSgt Dewey L Johnson. "Aim High" and "Semper Fi".