Word: airfield
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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...
Under Phase 1 of the raid, three C-130s carrying some 90 air commandos and three others transporting fuel for helicopters took off from an airfield in Egypt. Eight Sikorsky RH-53 helicopters, flying in pairs, left the nuclear carrier Nimitz in the Arabian Sea. All were to meet at "Desert One," an unimproved landing strip in the Great Salt Desert southeast of Tehran...
...Thursday afternoon, six of the team's C-130s rose from an undisclosed airfield in Egypt, where Carter's increasingly helpful friend, President Anwar Sadat, made no attempt to deny his nation's involvement in the American mission. Said Sadat later: "I have promised the American people that I shall give facilities for the rescue of the hostages and for the rescue of any Arab state in the Gulf...
...gunmen hijacked an Air France jet to Entebbe Airport on the outskirts of Kampala in Uganda. Holding 106 people hostage, the terrorists demanded the release of 53 prisoners from jails in Israel, Kenya and several European countries. Israeli commandos aboard three C-130 Hercules transports swept down on the airfield at night. Three hostages and one Israeli officer were killed; 103 people were rescued...
Shortly before takeoff, the freed Ambassadors of Venezuela, Israel, Egypt and the Dominican Republic descended the steps of the four-engine Soviet-built Ilyushin jetliner and were driven across the airfield in a speeding bus. One of them, Dominican Ambassador Diogenes Mallol, praised Colombian President Julio César Turbay Ayala for handling "this problem with prudence and calm," adding that "only in the beginning were we in danger because the terrorists were very nervous. Then everything calmed down." Another, Venezuelan Ambassador Virgilio Lovera, jubilantly told reporters: "I feel like running a mile in the Olympics...