A winner who knows no victory.

There is no mistake in the title of the article. The most expensive, most pretentious force in the world, the American Delta Force – the Delta Force – is at the same time the most unsuccessful and notorious.

“It’s all gone to hell,” U.S. President Jimmy Carter cried out and threw the phone. It can be understood: he just received a report that the special forces operation authorized by him on the territory of a sovereign foreign country ended in failure. And now he himself threatened to fail in the next presidential election.
On November 4, 1979, a group of Tehran University students, outraged by Washington's illegal actions, took the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 53 of its employees hostage. In exchange for the release of the hostages, students demanded President Carter's extradition of the escaped Iranian Shah and the return of the wealth looted by the Shah. When the U.S. government was convinced that diplomatic settlement measures (i.e. threats and blackmail) had no impact on Tehran, it was decided to let the fist go.
Studying the Iranians was entrusted to the superelite of the U.S. Armed Forces - the special unit "Delta" under the command of Colonel Charles Beckwit, a "cool guy" who seemed to have come down from the movies of the Hollywood fighter about Rambo. Veteran of Vietnam, the "green beret", hanging medals from neck to belt, Beckwit with his own hands created and prepared the "Delta" at the peak of his rivals, English special forces from the 22nd regiment of the Special Airborne Service - 22SAS, a legendary squad that has many brilliant victories on its account.
“Charlie,” observed gently Brigadier Calvert, 22SAS commander, visiting the Delta, “I am afraid your guys have too many muscles...
Beckwit preferred not to hear Calvert's voice (well, the Yankees were the coolest of all!And in vain.
Operation Eagle Knife began on April 24, 1980. Eight transport and landing helicopters SN-53 "Sherebets" and the same number of strike AN-6 launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier "Forrestol", cruising in the Persian Gulf, and took the course to the point "desert-1" - an abandoned English airport halfway to Tehran. Soon to them joined 8 transport aircraft S-130 "Hercules" with landers and additional fuel on board, taking off from the aerodrome of Masir (Oman). Since the range of the helicopters was insufficient, in the "desert-1" they had to refuel from the "Hercules" and take on board the desanters. Further, the helicopters flew to the point "desert-2" - old salt cops 80 km from Tehran. According to the plan of the operation, in the night of April 26, the special forces with the fire support of AN-6 had to take the embassy by assault, release the hostages and with them to retreat to the Tehran stadium, from where the entire company would be taken by the "cravings".
- 50 to 50 - if the equipment and people will work as they need, - assessed the plan mentioned above brigadier Calvert.
did not work.
To begin with, one "Rebec" crashed into the water right on board the aircraft carrier. The second lost in the dark and preferred to return. The third sat in the desert. Thus, without a single shot, the group of transport helicopters reduced to a dangerous limit: in order to take all the hostages and landers, Beckwit needed a minimum of 4 CH-53, taking into account possible losses from anti-aircraft fire. Meanwhile, the boxes continued to climb on each other.
The intelligence swore and worshiped that the "desert-1" is really a desert, i.e. a completely deserted place. In reality, there is a busy highway nearby! The nerves of the "supermen", apparently, have already begun to give up, because the Delta did not come up with anything smarter than to shoot a passing gas car in order to block the road. The raised pillar of the flame was visible from a distance of 70 km! If the surrounding Iranian garrisons until now slept asleep in the sleep of the righteous, the fire burned by the Americans precisely crushed them from their beds. Especially because the driver of the gasoline car managed to hit the passing lighthouse. The Delta persecuted him on motorcycles, but did not catch, shot, but did not hit. The reality is becoming less and less like a Hollywood advertisement.
Meanwhile, there was work at the airport. When refueling the helicopters it turned out that the hose was short, and since the tractor was not at the disposal of the squadron, of course, the helicopters had to go to the tankers by their course. At the same time, one of the "chesters" with the blades of his screw rubbed on the fuel tank of "Hercules".
Now the fire was visible, probably even from Tehran! Both cars burned to the ground together with the crew (8 dead), 4 desanters received heavy burns. For the thin nervous system of the American Rambo, it turned out to be a drop that filled the cup. In front of the eyes of "the coolest guys in the world" already stood the picture of armoured cars burning to the airfield, and fighting face to face with the armoured Iranian motorcycle infantry, having six years of experience in the toughest war behind their shoulders, the delta people didn't smile - it's not about students to shoot. With his teeth scratched, Colonel Beckwit ordered the helicopters to be dropped and the heels to be mowed.
Said is done. The mantra of the Yankees at this point clearly turned into a real panic, because in a rushing escape nobody even took care to burn the correct helicopters! So they got the Iranian army - with weapons, super-secret instruments and equally secret documents of Operation "The Eagle Knife" - on the thrill of the whole world. So, let us repeat, President Carter can be understood...
Beckwit for this failure was early retired, but the fortune of the Delta did not add. Again and again, with surprising persistence, Beckwit's pets managed to fail the tasks set before them. They were beaten in Asia, Africa and Latin America; in Europe they were not beaten just because the Delta was not involved there. After the next failure at Grenada, the American commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, publicly swore that he would no longer agree to involve the Delta in the operations he directed! However, when it was time to invade Iraq, the general was still broken to connect the Delta to the search for Iraqi ballistic missiles, it must be assumed, in order to rehabilitate the many dishonested special forces. Shaking his heart, Schwarzkopf agreed - and the delta brilliantly confirmed his rightness: the only raid with their participation ended in another defeat...
To this day, the Delta Force remains the only special unit in the world of a major power that does not have any noticeable achievements in its asset. The paradox?
At one time, the author of these lines commanded a reconnaissance group of marine special forces - divers divers, or, in general, "fighting swimmers". At the height of the “reconstruction” in our part with an unofficial friendly visit arrived our opponents-colleagues – American combat sailors from the repeatedly advertised group of special forces of the U.S. Navy SEAL, “Marine cats”. The program of the visit provided for the holding, so to speak, a friendly match - competitions in shooting, sports orientation and overcoming the strip of obstacles. And nothing happened!
The standards for the shooting training of our guests were so low that it was simply uncomfortable for our time-fighters to compete with them: it is not good to offend the little ones. Our short-handed gun fighter Makarov must put the bullet in the bullet from a distance of 25 m, and the professional Yankees from the long-walled "beretta" must simply hit the target (no matter where) from 10 m. Therefore, the shooter "duel" had to be quietly put aside. Our strait of obstacles, and I would not call it difficult, caused the guests unfailing horror: how possible! After all, here the soldier can get injured, he will have to pay the insurance (I’m not joking. This is how they prepare their Rambo. In general, the lane of obstacles also had to be put aside.
But the funniest thing happened in the orientation. The guys came to us with their GPS devices, and according to the conditions of the competition, each squad - our and American - relied only on a map and a compass. Both units landed from the helicopters at a previously unknown point for them; they had to, by delineating the map and the terrain, determine their location and perform a march-throw to the meeting point. In our squad, such tasks were filled with a bunch of bodybody; the matter was so simple that during training I entrusted the definition of the terrain to ordinary fighters - myself this game had long been tired, it was like re-reading the old book for the tenth time. So, the cats managed to disappear immediately. And instead of moving along the route, our group had to look for these gor-supermen in the seaside taiga, so that they, don’t give God, don’t bend from hunger or get in the eyes of the soldiers of the Interior Ministry troops or border guards – both people are special, sharply focused on fighting and shooting without reflection. They do right.
When we found the cats, their appearance was, gently speaking, guilty. The program of the visit had to be squeezed and quickly completed in the easiest way - a joint drink. When the “supermen” left our base, my communications fighter summed up:
- M-yes, and the crocodile is flying from them together with the projectile!
“When the Special Forces has too many muscles and equipment,” commented the American confuse, our company commander, Captain Zorin, “he, unnoticed to himself, begins to consider himself omnipotent. And this is full of a loss of sense of reality: such a "tool" is unable to correctly assess the degree of danger and make an adequate decision. It will surely be fought for. The most important muscles of the saboteur are reason and will. And these guys seem to have serious problems...

Sergey Dunaev