US Army Colonel Charlie A. Beckwith, Brown High class of 1948, in his 27th year of Army service, was assigned the job of ground force commander of the Delta Force troops who were to invade Iran and rescue the hostages. Delta Force is an elite fighting unit created along lines espoused by Colonel Beckwith after his service with the British Commandos. On April 16, 1980, Colonel Beckwith was ordered to attend a meeting in the White House with President Jimmy Carter, Vice-President Mondale, Warren Christopher, Cyrus Vance, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jody Powell, Hamilton Jordan, and other officials, where he briefed the President on his plans for the rescue mission. When the Colonel was introduced to the President Hamilton Jordan said "Mr. President, Colonel Beckwith is a Georgian. He's from south Georgia, from Schley County." Colonel Beckwith replied that actually he had been born in Atlanta, but that his parents were originally from Ellaville. The President said "Well, that's right next to Plains. We must have been neighbors." Then the Colonel outlined the mission. The troops would be airlifted by C-130s from Masirah off of Oman to an isolated area referred to as Desert One. There they would be met by helicopters from USS Nimitz in the Gulf of Oman. On the day of the attack the troops would be taken by helicopter to a hiding spot about 50 miles from Teheran, where they would lie concealed until dark. After sunset six Mercedes trucks and two smaller vehicles from Teheran would take them to the city where they would attack the Embassy walls, kill the Iranian guards, and release the hostages. Delta Force and the released hostages would then assemble at the Terehan soccer stadium to be met by the helicopters, which would take them to Manzariyeh, a city less than 50 miles from Teheran. At Manzariyeh Delta Force would be met by a contingent of US Rangers who would secure the airfield, thus allowing everyone to board large fixed-wing Air Force C-141 StarLifters. The StarLifters would then fly to the island of Masirah off the coast of Oman and to safety. President Carter approved the mission and gave Colonel Beckwith the go-ahead.

From April 16, to April 24, 1980, Colonel Beckwith saw to the details of the mission. By 2200 hours on April 24th he and his troops were on the ground at Desert One waiting for the helicopters from Nimitz. The radio told him that all eight helicopters had launched from the carrier on schedule. The choppers were late. Already it was apparent that the troops would not be able to get to the Hide Site outside Teheran before daylight. The first helicopter straggled in 45 minutes late. The pilot was Major James Schaefer, a man the Colonel knew and whose abilities as a pilot he respected. He said to the pilot "Are we glad to see you. How are you doing?" The pilot replied "Its been a hell of a trip." Then in so many words he told the Colonel that if they had any sense they would ditch the helicopters in the desert, load everybody on the C-130s and go home. The Colonel slapped the pilot on the back to reassure him, not understanding at that time how rough a time the pilot had had, and the pilot did not elaborate on his statement. The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth helicopters straggled in, coming from all points of the compass. The seventh and eighth helicopters never made it. The word was given to load the helicopters. The mission was already ninety minutes behind schedule. Word came that Helicopter Number Two had hydraulic problems and would be unsafe to fly. The mission was down to only five flyable helicopters.

During the planning stages of the mission, as early as January 4, 1980, the decision had been made that the mission would not go forward with less than six helicopters. Less than six helicopters meant that 18 to 20 men would have to be left behind at Desert One. As it was everybody was doing two jobs, sometimes three. Colonel Beckwith relayed this information back to his superiors. He was told to consider going forward with only five helicopters. Colonel Beckwith thought: "...how in the hell can the boss ask me that! He should know it will be a disaster if we go forward with five. There isn't any way. I'd have to leave behind twenty men. In a tight mission no one is expendable before you begin! Which Twenty would I leave?... With five helicopters, Delta, minus twenty men, lands at the hide-site in daylight and then the helos fly to their location in the mountains, but hell, we all knew the eccentricities of choppers. There was a good chance two of them would not crank tomorrow. That would leave three helos to pick up fifty-three hostages freed from the Foreign Ministry Building. What if one of them got hit with small arms fire as it comes in? that would leave two,. Two for 178 people. It was just too close...Stay with the plan...Delta's going home"

Colonel Beckwith gave the order for the troops to debark the helos and load onto the C-130s. The choppers that were able to fly would refuel and return to the Nimitz. A chopper lifted off, then banked into a parked C-130, exploded into flames. Another helo, near the scene, began to cook off in the intense heat. Munitions began to explode. The Americans boarded the C-130s and departed. An air strike was called in to destroy the abandoned helicopters.

Colonel Beckwith recorded his feelings on the way out of Desert One: "All the way back to Misirah, I had felt lifeless. Oh, shit. I felt let down. And I cried. That's when I really sat down and said, Jesus Christ, you know, what a fucking mess. We've just embarrassed our great country. I was at a low ebb. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to do nothing. And shot through all these emotions was the fact that I was highly pissed... It was over. It had been a failure. I sat dazed. After all that time and work and sweat, to come away empty... We had lost eight good and brave men. And now, what would become of the hostages? God Almighty, after all the effort, here we sat, going back to Egypt--all because of those bloody helos."

On Sunday afternoon, April 27, 1980, President Carter met with Colonel Beckwith, amd the men of Delta Force. After certain ceremonies, the President took the Colonel aside and said "I have been remiss in not knowing more about Delta Force. I am very impressed with what I've learned about them and what I've seen today. I didn't know we still had people like this, people who would sacrifice everything for their country. Colonel Beckwith, I am very proud of these men."

Colonel Beckwith appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee in connection with the events at Desert One. Senator Sam Nunn said: "My first question will be directed at Colonel Beckwith. I'm not asking him because he is from my native state, but rather because he was the ground commander and because he happens to be on my right. You know that the people in this country are very concerned about what happended in Iran. We are not doing very well. The Son Tay raid was a dry hole. During the Mayaquez incident, fifteen of our poeple were killed. We are tired of rescue missions which fail. We need something to give us a lift. America needs a win. My question is in two parts. Colonel, what did you learn from this mission and what can we do to preclude this kind of thing happening in the future?"

Colonel Beckwith replied: "Senator, what did I learn from this operation? I learned that Murphy is alive and well. He's in every drawer, under every rock and on top of every hill. Sir, we purely had bad luck. I've known the answer to your second question since I was a captain. What do we need to do in the future? Sir, let me answer you this way... If Coach Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama put his quarterback in Virginia, his backfield in North Carolina, his offensive line in Georgia, and his defense in Texas, and then got Delta Airlines to pick them up and fly them to Birmingham on game day, he wouldn't have his winning record. Coach Bryant's teams, the best he can recruit, practice together, live together, eat together, and play together. He has a team. In Iran we had an ad hoc affair. We went out, found bits and pieces, people and equipment, brought them together occasionally and then asked them to perform a highly complex mission. The parts all performed, but they didn't necessarily perform as a team. Nor did they have the same motivation. My recommendation is to put together an organization which contains everything it will ever need, and organization which would include Delta, the Rangers, Navy SEALS, Air Force pilots, its own staff, its own support people, its own aircraft and helicopters. Make this orgaiization a permanent military unit. Give it a place to call home. Allocate sufficient funds to run it. And give it sufficient time to recruit, assess, and train its people. Otherwise, we are not serious about combating terrorism."

From Delta Force, by Col. Charlie A. Beckwith, USA (Ret.) and Donald Knox,

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1983)

Charlie Beckwith played for Wally Butts at UGA after leaving Brown.

Charlie Beckwith dies at age 65.