warpath Posted July 11, 2016 Share #1 Posted July 11, 2016 Smith & Wesson Model .41 Magnum Revolver presented in 1979 by Delta Force to Col. Charlie Beckwith, Founder and first commander of Delta Force (1st SFOD-D)...Shown with Col. Beckwith's personal inventory card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronny67 Posted July 11, 2016 Share #2 Posted July 11, 2016 I love it when you post items from beckworths career. He was respected by all who knew him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_bish Posted July 11, 2016 Share #3 Posted July 11, 2016 Another cracker. Amazing peice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpath Posted July 11, 2016 Author Share #4 Posted July 11, 2016 But wait, there's more! I'm going through part of my gun collection and I will try and post more of Col. Beckwith's collection including his duty weapons. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maskman Posted July 12, 2016 Share #5 Posted July 12, 2016 Beckworh was the one who screwed up Carter's ill fated attempt to free the Iranian hostages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpath Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share #6 Posted July 12, 2016 That is an idiotic ill informed statement. I believe you should apologize and rephrase your comment to more adequately reflect the physical and emotional sacrifices that Col. Beckwith and the many brave men under his command suffered. The mission failed largely due to "Murphy's Law" and not from Col. Beckwith screwing up. And use spell check. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronny67 Posted July 12, 2016 Share #7 Posted July 12, 2016 Beckworh was the one who screwed up Carter's ill fated attempt to free the Iranian hostages! I love this. Leave him to me boys: Operation Eagle claw was ANYTHING but Beckworth's fault. Beckworth and his men were the only solid part of the whole plan. The idea was to fly into Teran, rescue the hostages, and then move them across the street to a sports stadium for exfil. Of course this was filled with problems and it has been argued that the failure in the desert that ultimately put the kabosh on the mission saved both the hostages lives and those of the SFOD squadrons involved. Breaching, clearing and moving the hostages would have resulted in hostage deaths- I believe. Not to mention what would have happened once a whole revolutionary city was awoken to the presence of a few US SOCOM personnel.. wait haven't we seen that movie? I digress from hypotheticals... Now on to the actual events. The SFOD boys were highly trained and prepared for the mission. You have no idea what "highly trained" means her; but imagine the finest tuned fighting men, each with 20 plus years of combat SF experience. Then say THEY are highly trained within their spectrum of application. So they were prepared. Very prepared. Beckworth himself once had a famous explosion of temper when he found his men were ONLY firing a few million rounds of ammo per month. He wanted more. He wanted his men beyond perfect. And they were. What happened was essentially the Washington circle jerk of bureaucracy, and the lack of integrated Special Purpose aircraft to deploy the highly trained assaulters and snipers. When the US screamed for the abandonment of Vietnam, the voting public then screamed for de-militarization and funding cuts. Enter the Carter years. This left very few assets available to Beckworth's men when they were given this mission. What they ended up with were tired USMC aircraft with tired and incredibly under trained USMC aircrews unable to fly the mission. The aircraft flew from the carrier, and met at a designated point in the desert to re-fuel for the assault. It was at this time the disaster occurred. Beckworth was working out the last few kinks with his men when a USMC chopper fell from the sky directly into a aviation fuel filled C-130 sitting on the desert. Several SFOD men, including founding member Eric Haney, were sleeping on the fuel bladder when the explosion happened. Remember when I said highly trained? No SFOD personnel were killed in the explosion. Lightning reflexes saved the men sleeping in the C-130. The massive explosion of inflammable av-gas immediately compromised the mission. Beckworth was forced to scrap the whole thing. Turns out the dust kicked up by the chopper rotors in the desert obscured the pilot's view so much that he collided with the sitting C-130. Poor training cost the lives of multiple USMC personnel. 3 men I believe. Now Teir 1 missions are flow by the INCREDIBLE 160th SOAR. Every man I have heard speak of them has spoken of miracles. This mission was why we now have that capability. So you are wrong. It was Washington's fault. I just love how Carter's negotiations saved the hostages, but Reagan was in office just in time for their release, so he got national credit and Carter was soiled with Operation Eagle claw.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwill Posted July 12, 2016 Share #8 Posted July 12, 2016 Would love to see more of Beckwith's guns and no more discussion about the 2nd worst President of all time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronny67 Posted July 12, 2016 Share #9 Posted July 12, 2016 I won't mention Reagan again... Whoops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hink441 Posted July 12, 2016 Share #10 Posted July 12, 2016 Couple of things with the mission series of events. The rescue mission used US Navy Helos, not USMC Helos. The Helos were RH-53Ds from HM-16 and were mostly USMC Pilots with a few USN and USAF pilots. The mishap Helo was taxied into a parked C-130. The aircraft director, directing the taxiing RH-53D, inadvertently left his flashlight wands on, and then turned and walked towards the parked Herc. This caused the RH-53D pilot to believe he needed to add power to catch up to the director's moving wands. This resulted in the deadly collision between the Helo and the Herc. I believe the mission plan, command, lack of training, no communication, and overall mission execution were inadequate and problematic. We learned a costly lesson on how NOT to do future operations. Just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpath Posted January 2, 2017 Author Share #11 Posted January 2, 2017 Anyone familiar with the military can identify with a candid quote from Col. Beckwith: "I learned that Murphy is alive and well. He's in every drawer, under every rock and on top of every hill." Murphy is the constant unknown quantity in any operations. Murphy's law is a popular adage that states that "things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance," or more commonly, "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." wikiquote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpath Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share #12 Posted July 8, 2017 I am always seeking any of Col. Beckwith's personal artifacts, photos of him and related materials and will purchase or trade for them. Also, any Vietnam Project Delta related items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cw1979 Posted July 11, 2017 Share #13 Posted July 11, 2017 Well the 41 Magnum just got a little bit cooler :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpath Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share #14 Posted April 24, 2022 Operation Eagle Claw, the mission to rescue US hostages in Iran, was conducted on April 24, 1980 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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