On Thursday, April 14, at 2:00 p.m., Phillip Hanson, U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Major (Ret.), pictured here while serving as a Green Beret in Thailand in 1971, will present the free program “Operation Eagle Claw: Iran Hostage Rescue Attempt” at the Transylvania County Election Center, 150 South Gaston Street in Brevard. Hanson’s special operations career has spanned more than 50 years, including experience as both an operator and a trainer in the U.S. and in overseas assignments in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In 1980 he served as a member of the Operation Eagle Claw Task Force assigned to rescue the American hostages being held captive by the Islamic government in Tehran, Iran. Hanson’s program on April 14 will review the background of the Iran hostage crisis, which began in November 1979 and culminated in the release of the hostages in January 1981. Hanson will explain the planning, preparation, and execution of Operation Eagle Claw, intended to rescue the hostages in early 1980, as well as the factors that resulted in that operation being aborted midstream, with eight service member fatalities. Analyzing the positive outcomes from that failed undertaking, Hanson will also discuss the many operational changes following Operation Eagle Claw that greatly enhanced the capability of all the U.S. service branches to respond effectively to hostage rescue situations. Hanson was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and began a military career of 20 years in 1969 when he enlisted in the... Read More