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President after president has expanded
the footprint of U.S. special operations.
-No enemy stands a chance against our special forces.
-How did special ops become so central
to America's war fighting?
-Can special ops keep up the pace?
-The story of how America
became so dependent on these forces
began with an unusual event almost five decades ago...
when someone yelled, "Fire!" on a crowded plane.
-Everybody turns around to look at what's happening there,
and there are two people
who each have a hand grenade in their hand and a gun.
-Suddenly we heard, on the intercom,
a man speaking in English with a German accent
who said that we've changed directions,
but if we'll behave and follow instructions,
nothing bad will happen to us.
-At the end, he said, "Thank you for flying Air France,"
and, you know, hung up.
-The plane had been hijacked by a group of German radicals
and members of a Palestinean liberation organization.
-They want the freedom of 53 prisoners.
If Israel and the other countries
accept to release those prisoners,
no harm will be done to us, they'll release us,
and if not, it'll be different.
-And they finished it with the words,
"Now you know how the mind
of a crazy German revolutionary works."
-2,800 miles later,
the plane touched down in Entebbe, Uganda,
where the hostages were greeted by its leader, Idi Amin.
-He says, "Look.
These terrorists have full support of the Ugandan people."
Now the building is surrounded
with Ugandan soldiers armed with machine guns.
So, you know, I asked my father what's going to happen,
and he told me, you know, we're probably dead meat
because Israel never negotiates.
He even made the argument
it's way too far for Israel to intervene.
♪♪
-Soon, 47 hostages were released in an attempt
to entice the Israeli government to the table.
Olivier Cojot was among them.
-Israeli intelligence, secretly planning an operation,
was waiting for them.
-They started asking me all kinds of questions like,
"How high is the grass out there?
Can you see the lake from where you are?
Which way do the doors open?"
You know, "Is it wall, window?"
-We never, never had to plan an operation
which is so far away with so many soldiers.
I was not afraid of being killed or being hurt.
I was afraid of failure.
-Three days later, lead pilot Joshua Shani
guided a squadron of four Hercules C-130s
through the darkness toward Entebbe Airport.
-We landed normal landing. No big deal.
In the middle of the runway,
paratroopers jumped from the door.
The job was to conquer the control tower.
I made the turn. I saw the terminal.
It was quiet.
The Entebbe situation was based on surprise.
-Out the back of the Israeli plane,
heavily armed commandos quickly drove a convoy
that included a Mercedes chosen to resemble Amin's.
-It took seconds, and they were inside the building.
-Our soldiers were beginning to come in.
Then I thought that there'd be bullets flying,
and I covered myself with a mattress.
-Within 51 minutes, the commandos had killed
all the terrorists and Ugandan soldiers guarding the building.
Then they rushed the 102 remaining hostages
onto the awaiting planes.
-After we were satisfied, my instruction was,
"Take off! Don't wait! Go, go!"
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Four hostages were killed,
as was the commandos' leader,
Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu,
but the world saw the bold operation
as an extraordinary success.
-Immediately, you saw a trend.
We're talking about real countries,
like the U.S., of course,
U.K., Germany, Italian -- all came to learn.
It was like the whole world said,
"Wow. They have chutzpah, these guys.
They are damn good."
Entebbe gave a green light to governments
that there is maybe another way, and not just to surrender.
[ Crowd chanting in native language ]
-One of those governments was the United States.
-Look at this.
One American. Blindfolded, handcuffed.
Today in the courtyard of the American embassy in Tehran,
he and 60-some others still held hostage
and threatened in a country gone out of control.
-Dozens of Americans had been taken hostage
as the Islamic Revolution swept through Iran,
and President Jimmy Carter's administration
looked to Entebbe for a solution.
-Operation Eagle Claw attempted to project
power and special-operations forces
deep into enemy hostile territory,
but while it was sort of in the same spirit as Entebbe,
there were a lot of moving parts for Operation Eagle Claw.
-The daring plan called for U.S. Delta Force commandos
to land in the Iranian desert,
then sneak into the city of Tehran to free the hostages.
-I knew it was going to be complex
and really, really high-risk,
but, you know, if the president was going to order us to go,
then you salute smartly and you go.
-But the mission lacked Entebbe's precision.
Planners hadn't accounted
for the region's punishing dust storms.
Mission helicopters were crippled.
Then there was a crash.
-Good evening.
We tried, we failed, and we have paid a price.
-Left behind in the desert of Iran
are the bodies of eight American servicemen,
seven U.S. aircraft, and many questions.
-To the families of those who died and who were wounded,
I want to express the admiration I feel
for the courage of their loved ones
and the sorrow that I feel personally for their sacrifice.
-In response to the failure,
the U.S. made sweeping changes over the next decade
to how these operations were conducted,
increasing their funding, beefing up the forces,
and putting them under a central command.
-In 1980, there were some 6,000 to 8,000
special-operations people.
Today's count is over 69,000. Unbelievable growth.
Because of Eagle Claw,
we find ourselves much better prepared today.
Many things would not have happened without that failure.
-The United States has conducted an operation
that killed Osama bin Laden.
-But as special operations have become crucial
to U.S. military strategy,
concerns have also emerged that the forces are being overused
and sometimes put in harm's way without a clear, strategic goal.
-Special operations should not be the panacea
for every kind of difficulty
that we find ourselves around the world facing,
to include terrorism.
We should not get to the point
that we become the solution for the United States military.
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