The Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C., now has on display an EC-130E that participated in Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 mission that attempted to rescue the Americans held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran, Iran. The aircraft, No. 62-1857, is on loan from the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, states the Charlotte museum’s Oct. 19 announcement. “Operation Eagle Claw is only one of thousands of missions this aircraft flew,” said Shawn Dorsch, the museum’s president. “Most of the rest remain classified, and probably will for a long time,” said Dorsch. Spending most of its career flying special operations missions, this EC-130E participated in operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Grenada, and Iraq, states the release. (Click here for history of this EC-130E.) (See also Charlotte Observer report with account from retired Lt. Col. Russell Tharp, one of the aircraft’s pilots on the rescue mission.)
The Islamic State’s Khorasan branch, responsible for the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Kabul, could develop the capacity to strike outside Afghanistan within “six to 12 months,” Undersecretary of Defense for policy Colin Kahl warned. Testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee on…