On April 23, 1980, the men took off in a high altitude plane from Langley, VA, but as they neared their jump point on April 24th, their pilot received a recall order stating Operation Eagle Claw was aborted and to return to base. So, the airplane with the men still aboard returned immediately to Langley, and they returned home to Montana with the hostages still in Iran. But, it wasn’t until April 26th while watching the evening news; they realized why the CIA canceled their mission because as the broadcast continued they discovered an RH-53 helicopter struck the vertical stabilizer of an EC-130’s with its main rotor and crashed into the plane’s wing and the ensuing explosion killed eight servicemen. As soldiers and proud citizens of the United
