Phoenix Rising: From the Ashes of Desert One to the Rebirth of U.S. Special Operations

An insider’s “entertainingly written, brilliantly insightful” account of the Iran hostage rescue attempt—and how it led to today’s special operations forces (General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.)).

Phoenix Rising recounts the paradoxical birth of SOF through the prism of Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue fifty-two American hostages in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. When terrorists captured the embassy on November 4, 1979, the Joint Chiefs of Staff quickly realized that the United States lacked the military capability to launch a rescue. There was no precedent for the mission, a mission that came with extraordinary restrictions and required a unique force to take it on. With no existent command structure or budget, this force would have to be built from scratch in utmost secrecy, and draw on every branch of the U.S. military.

Keith Nightingale, then a major, was Deputy Operations Officer and the junior member of Joint Task Force Eagle Claw, commanded by James Vaught. Based on Nightingale’s detailed diary, Phoenix Rising vividly describes the personalities involved, the issues faced, and the actions taken, from the operation’s conception to its hair-raising launch and execution. His historically significant post-analysis of Eagle Claw gives unparalleled insight into how a dedicated group of people from the Chief of Staff of the Army to lower-ranking personnel subjugated personal ambition to grow the forces necessary to address asymmetrical warfare and the emerging terrorist threat—a threat the majority of uniformed leadership and their political masters denied in 1979. The Special Operations capability of the United States today is the proof of their success.

“Nightingale’s fascinating account of the struggles to stand up the U.S. military’s special operations capability is worth buying just for his first-hand description of the planning behind the effort to rescue the Iran hostages.” —Sean Naylor, New York Times-bestselling author of Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

“Nightingale . . . is a combat leader who has been there and done that in some of the hardest places on the planet. On top of that, he’s a fine and clear writer.” —Thomas E. Ricks, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Fiasco

© 2020 Casemate (Ebook): 9781612008783

Release date

Ebook: 3 July 2020