Operation Eagle Claw
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- 1. Painting over the codes will be fun.
Operation Eagle Claw was the code name given for the Iranian hostage rescue attempt. It is more commonly known as Desert One where the mission came apart in explosive and deadly fashion while costing the lives of eight American warriors.
Two US Navy aircraft carriers were part of the mission - USS Nimitz from which the helicopters launched and USS Coral Sea. In order to avoid the possibility of friendly fire since the Imperial Iranian Air Force also flew F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats orders were issued to paint recognition stripes on the right wing of all aircraft. Aircraft with 1xx, 3xx, 5xx, etc had one large red stripe and two black stripes. Aircraft with 2xx, 4xx, etc received one large yellow stripe and two black stripes. So VF-84 "The Jolly Rogers" got to paint more yellow and black on their F-14 Tomcats while VF-41 "Black Aces" had to settle for red and black.
These marking were naturally short lived and so far these are about the only photos I have found.
Update - looking at photos again and it seems VA-27 "The Royal Maces" decided to buck the trend. Their Corsair IIs have 4xx codes but are painted with the red and black stripes. Annotated the pictures to reflect this.
Update II - found another photo on computer of an F-4N with red and black ID stripes about to trap.
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- 1. The AIM-7s have black fins
- 2. Refueling door removed from both aircraft.
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- 1. Guess another VA-27 Corsair II.
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- 1. Rattle can?
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- 1. Photo taken before application of the ID stripes.
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- 1. AIM-7s have white fins.
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- 1. Wait. VA-27. That's supposed to be Yellow and Black, not Red and Black.
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- 1. The black stripes are not the same width.
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- 1. NK 104 of VMFA-323 about to trap.
- 2. Notice the stripes cover the whole folding wing.
Interesting tidbit I did not know! I will have to build one of these subjects...
It really is almost forgotten history.
Very interesting, David @Kahu
Thanks for sharing this nearly forgotten history.
You are welcome. The mission was a failure but the sacrifice or bravery should not be forgotten. So here are the few photos I have managed to find online that were not of the aircraft destroyed or abandoned at Desert One.
Amazing pics, David! Thanks for sharing!
Just trying to make sure they are remembered.
It all started like Greg with me wanting to build a plane from Operation Eagle Claw to remember those who were asked to carry out the mission but the more I searched the more I realized how little photographic evidence existed besides the news photographs of the failure at Desert One.