Friday, January 21, 2011

30 Years Ago Today …

 

Many people may not remember where they were 30 years ago today as Ronald Wilson Reagan was sworn into office, but I do.

I was working on the factory floor of Sweetheart Cup Corporation at 75th and Kostner ave. in Chicago as Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.

What made the day so special was that 444 days prior to Reagan’s swearing in, seventy Americans were taken hostage by Iranian militants on November 4th, 1970.  At the time of the crisis, Jimmy Carter, then the 39th President seemed powerless if not completely inept and impotent to bringing the crisis to an end. 

Believing that patience and negotiations would bring the crisis to an end, Jimmy Carter refused all military solutions to the problem until the summer of 1980 and an ill-fated poorly planned rescue attempt cost nine brave American servicemen their lives during a sandstorm which caused their helicopter to crash.

It was on this day in January of 1981 as Ronald Wilson Reagan was sworn into office that the rogue Iranian Government led by the Ayatolla Khomeni released the remaining 52 hostages. 

Some foolishly believe Jimmy Carter’s 444 days of “diplomacy” freed the hostages.  Those of us who don’t have our collective heads up our arses know that the Iranian’s were deathly afraid of Reagan and feared an immediate and unforgiving response by the American military to end the crisis.

As I stood there on the factory floor of Sweetheart Cup Corporation on this day, 30 years ago, I was proud to be an American again after four years of disgrace under the Carter Administration.

Much like the complete disdain I have for the current (illegal) occupant of the White House today, the day will come again that I will be proud of my President and my countrymen for having elected them.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Your comment claiming that Carter did nothing is wrong. As a veteran of that era I know very well there was at least three operational exercises in progress in an attempt to rescue the hostages. Carter did not resist them either, he actually attended many of the briefings and traveled to watch practice runs at military bases. I was stationed at one of those bases in Florida.

There were Operations Eagle Claw, Credible Sport and Honey Badger. They were all in various planning stages for more than a year. And if you remember, the hostages were held for 444 days. Again, the timeline that everything transpired refutes your claim that nothing was done by either Carter or the military.

Carter was very pro-military, he was a former naval commander himself. He was especially fond of the special operators who worked 24/7 for months to attempt to pull off these missions. Through Carter's efforts various command and military units were created under his direction to include,

The US Army Nightstalkers.
Delta Force.
US Special Operations Command.
Joint Special Operations Command.

JSOC was created specifically as a result of the problems incurred during Operation Eagle Claw that cost the lives of 8 US servicemen, not 9 as you claim.

One of the biggest lessons learned from that operation was the fact that the Air Force, Navy/Marines and Army all used different equipment, frequencies, callsigns, lingo, etc. Joint Special Operations Command put an end to the inter-service rivalries that had led to the failure of the mission.

But please, continue posting your propaganda and spitting on the graves of those who gave their all to protect ignorant persons like yourself. They were not to blame, Carter was not to blame though he did take responsibility unlike Reagan years later when he was caught trading military arms for hostages with Iran.

By the way, it was Reagan's administration who undermined Operation Honey Badger to the point that it had to be called off.