The Presidency
On the afternoon of April 24, the sun poured down on an Egyptian airfield where six C-130 transports squatted. The men who would fly the planes to Iran and those who would storm the U.S. embassy compound milled around the craft. The rescue force commander stood in the open beside the elaborate communications gear that linked the tense unit with the White House, the Pentagon and a collection of technical groups spread halfway around the world.
The officer, a veteran of much combat, looked out over the field and felt something entirely different from anything he had felt before...