Jack Carr's take on the events of April 24, 1980, nearly 6 months into the Iran hostage crisis

Jack Carr, bestselling author and former Navy SEAL task unit commander and sniper, recounts the events of April 24, 1980, nearly 6 months into the Iran hostage crisis — and why "there is more to it."

Rising from the chaos of the Iranian Revolution and loyal to Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, the Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days (14 were released during captivity). The force would have reconstituted and attempted the rescue in the days ahead — but that was not to be.  The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981 — minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president of the United States.  The lessons learned from the tragedy at Desert One led directly to the establishment of JSOC – the Joint Special Operations Command. Jack Carr is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "The Terminal List" and host of the "Danger Close Podcast." His latest book is "Only the Dead" (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, May 16, 2023). He is a former Navy SEAL Task Unit commander and sniper with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Visit him at officialjackcarr.com and follow along on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @JackCarrUSA. His upcoming nonfiction work, "Targeted: Beirut - The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing: The Untold True Origin Story of the War on Terror," with co-author, military historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist James Scott, will be published in 2024. 

In "The Persian Puzzle," bestselling author Kenneth M. Pollack writes, "For the students who took the embassy, for the Iranian revolutionary officials who supported them, and for much of Iran, the taking of the embassy was a response to the 1953 coup … To some extent, it was about preventing a repeat performance."