Operation Eagle Claw (1980).
documentedmilitary_operationJSOC & Special-Access Units
Failed April 1980 Iran hostage rescue whose intelligence and command failures spawned both JSOC and the ISA.
Operation Eagle Claw was the April 24, 1980 attempt to rescue 52 US hostages in Tehran; it collapsed at Desert One when a helicopter struck a C-130, killing eight. The Holloway Commission blamed fragmented joint command and absent ground intelligence. The fallout created JSOC (Dec 1980) and the Field Operations Group that became the ISA (1981), plus the 160th SOAR and the Joint Communications Unit.