In April 1980, the U.S. military tried to rescue 52 Americans captured when Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran.\xa0 The rescue attempt was called Operation Eagle Claw and it failed.\xa0 Eagle Claw involved helicopters flying from a Navy ship and fixed wing aircraft carrying the assault force and extra fuel flying from another country.\xa0 All the pieces converged in the middle of the Iranian desert at night in a place called Desert One.\xa0 One of the helicopters collided with one of the aircraft during ground refueling.\xa0 Eight Americans died and seven aircraft were either destroyed or captured.\xa0 Even though the individual pieces of the Eagle Claw plan may have been capable of performing their part, the mission fell apart when the pieces came together.\xa0 According to the author Sean Naylor the U.S. answer to was to have all its counter terrorist pieces from different parts of the military in one standing joint task force.\xa0 The U.S. formed this counter terrorist task force in December 1980 and called it the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).\xa0 JSOC went on to play a central role in the Global War on Terror.\xa0