Phoenix Rising : From the Ashes of Desert One to the Rebirth of U. S. Special Operations / Keith M. Nightingale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nightingale, Keith M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Special forces (Military science)--United States.

Special forces (Military science).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Havertown, PA : CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, [2020]

Summary:

An insider's "entertainingly written, brilliantly insightful" account of the Iran hostage rescue attempt-and how it led to today's special operations forces (General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.)). Phoenix Rising recounts the paradoxical birth of SOF through the prism of OperationEagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue fifty-two American hostages in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. When terrorists captured the embassy on November 4, 1979, the Joint Chiefs of Staff quickly realized that the United States lacked the military capability to launch a rescue. There was no precedent for the mission, a mission that came with extraordinary restrictions and required a unique force to take it on. With no existent command structure or budget, this force would have to be built from scratch in utmost secrecy, and draw on every branch of the U.S. military. Keith Nightingale, then a major, was Deputy Operations Officer and the junior member of Joint Task Force Eagle Claw, commanded by James Vaught. Based on Nightingale's detailed diary, Phoenix Risin g vividly describes the personalities involved, the issues faced, and the actions taken, from the operation's conception to its hair-raising launch and execution. His historically significant post-analysis ofEagle Clawgives unparalleled insight into how a dedicated group of people from the Chief of Staff of the Army to lower-ranking personnel subjugated personal ambition to grow the forces necessary to address asymmetrical warfare and the emerging terrorist threat-a threat the majority of uniformed leadership and their political masters denied in 1979. The Special Operations capability of the United States today is the proof of their success. "Nightingale's fascinating account of the struggles to stand up the U.S. military's special operations capability is worth buying just for his first-hand description of the planning behind the effort to rescue the Iran hostages." -Sean Naylor, New York Times -bestselling author of Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command "Nightingale... is a combat leader who has been there and done that in some of the hardest places on the planet. On top of that, he's a fine and clear writer." -Thomas E. Ricks, #1 New York Times -bestselling author of Fiasco

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Author's Note

The Bottom Line

Note Regarding Organization and Text

Part 1: Creation of the Force and Development of a Rescue Plan

In the Beginning

November 1980

The Office

Staff Selection

The New General

Charlie Charges

OPSEC Infinitum

Rules-We Got Lots of Rules

Our Most Valuable Resource

The Problem

Key Questions

The Book

Mobility Assets and Force Selection

Entebbe

The Agency Men

Who Are We Fighting Here?

Myth and Reality

All Ideas Welcome

The Daily Media Feed

Letters, We Get Letters, Stacks and Stacks of Letters

The Truck Option

TIR in Tears

Carcasses-Frozen and Otherwise

The Base Force

Help Wanted! Driver, Knows Tehran and Speaks Farsi

Inside an RH-53

A Typical Day

Graphics

Maps

The Tank

Clandestine Committees

Part of the Problem

Gas!

Ground Planners

Feed the Troops

Eyes on the Target

Scouts Out

Prize Package

Two Sergeants

No Guts-No Glory

The Chairman As Action Officer

Penetration, However Slight

The Shrink

Ego and Evolution

Charlie and the Rangers

Rangers Lead the Way and Sometimes Follow

Getting There Is Half the Fun

Plan B-For Desert One

Selecting Desert One

The Photo Interpreter

Developing Plan B

Panic City

Freedom of the Skies

The Hide Site

An Important Event

The Light Data

A Plan Emerges

The Plan

Part 2: Training and Adjusting

Converting Ideas into Reality

Where Do We Play?

The Training Concept

The Planners' Selection Process

Visitation Rights

Air Taxi Please

Civil Servant

Flying Leathernecks

Heaven

Cotton Gin Rendezvous

Hungry Wolves

Port-A-Potty Pilots

Blivits

A Better Idea

The Pilot

The Navigator

The Sergeant

Silver Bird.

Mr. Wonderful

The Wall

The Midnight Massacre

Finding Pilots

A Matter of Money

Thanksgiving Surprise

Visit to the Nimitz- Disappointment One-December

Slippage-Disappointment Two

Navy Pictures

The General Was Vaught

Two Brave Men

Pierre and the Pause

Part 3: Execution and Events

The Oval Office

Cash and Carry

Small Miracles

Pallets

Waiting and Wondering

A Mistake

Responsibility

Disappointment Three

Nimitz Issues

Demarche

General Vaught's Office

The Carrier

The Combat Information Center

Relative Value

The AGI

The Sea

The Audience

My Kingdom for a Cook

FLIR

Flying the Hood

Desert Crossroad

Rationality

The Timing Map

The Mishap

Report from Air Mobility Command

The Request

The Bunker

The Retrograde

Later

Where Is Fred?

A Royal Debt

Part 4: Aftermath and the Path Forward

The Face of the Enemy

Hammer Captures POTUS

Homecoming

Reflections and Conjecture

The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes-Barely

No Greater Love

Part 5: Congress 1: Bureaucracy 0 The Nation Wins and SOF Becomes a Capable Force

Introduction

Project Honey Badger: In the Beginning

How SOF Got Started on a Very Rocky Road

Part 6: The Strategic Services Command Proposal

The Problem Begins

The Vision

Form of Conflict

The Proposal

The Proposal Fails

Part 7: How We Got to Osama Bin Laden

The Requirements Continue

Evolution and Revolution

Failed Operations and Missed Opportunities

The Battle Joined

The Pentagon-Action and Reaction

The Law

Let the Games Begin

Epilogue-The Irony of it All

From the Phoenix to the Product

Appendix A SOF Chronology

Appendix B Joint Task Force Organization

Appendix C Eagle Claw: What Happened

Appendix D FOG.

Appendix E Memo to General Meyer Ref Joint SOF Airlift Procurement

Appendix F Declassified

F.1: Initial Planning Paper

F.2: Diamonds and Rectangles

F.3: Help Wanted

F.4: Gas

F.5: Operational SitRep

F.6: The Final Solution

F.7: The Plan

F.8: We Go

F.9: The Mishap

F.10: Going Forward

Glossary

Also available by Keith Nightingale.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781612008783

161200878X

OCLC:

1162815947