Operation El Dorado Canyon

[brett]

The origins of the so called global war on terror, can probably be traced back to the Gulf of Sidra incident on August 19th, 1981.
The Reagan Administrations' obsession with Libya was pursued throughout the eighties in what amounted to an undeclared war.
There is a very interesting read in the January issue of Air and Space Magazine, which offers an insight into the navigation
waypoint error, which had unfortunate consequences for residents of Triploi, on the night of Operation El Dorado Canyon.

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Above--Beyond-Jan09.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/F-111F_GBU-10_bound_for_Libya.jpg/800px-F-111F_GBU-10_bound_for_Libya.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/F-111F_GBU-10_bound_for_Libya.jpg)

[Red River]

This is an interesting article and an even more interesting operation.

[SoCalEMT]

the origins of the so called global war on terror, can probably be traced back to the gulf of sidra incident on august 19th, 1981.


orly????????

[Red River]

orly????????

I would probably say that the global war on terror probably can be traced back farther then that. I would say the global war on terror started with the Iranian Hostage Crisis or possibly the 1972 Munich Massacre.

[brett]

On September 6, 1970, four commercial airliners bound for New York were hijacked by members of the PFLP. Both a TWA B707 from Frankfurt,
and a Swissair DC-8 from Zurich, were flown to a remote desert landing strip in Jordan. The third hijack, an El AL B707 from Amsterdam, failed
when one of the hijackers was shot and killed. His female partner was subdued, and arrested after diverting into London Heathrow. A further
two hijackers [who were originally prevented from boarding the El Al flight] successfully hijacked a fourth airliner, a Pan Am B747, which was
landed in Cairo, after staging through Beirut. Three days later, a fifth airliner, a BOAC VC-10 from Bahrain, was hijacked on September 9, by
a PFLP sympathizer, and also flown to the Jordan desert, to exert pressure on the UK government to release the female hijacker from custody.
The sight of those three airliners blown up by the terrorists at their desert landing strip, became one of the Iconic images of the 20th Century.
But it was the engagement between US Navy and Libyan Air Force fighters, eleven years later, which signalled a major shift in US Doctrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson's_Field_hijackings

http://cnparm.home.texas.net/911/Backg/Dawsons.jpg

[Marshall_Nord]

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Above--Beyond-Jan09.html



Next to each of the KC-10s gassing up, three F-111Fs waited their turn. Flying south amid this spectacle, I hummed Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Awesome! p-)

[G-AWZT]

I was a senior in HS when this happened. I recall the Breaking News shot coming on CBS to announce the airstrike.

[Breakfast in Vegas]

I remember the scandal about not being able to fly over France...

[G-AWZT]

Yeah the F-111's had so so success in their strikes. The USN did better. The denial of overfly rights had an impact.