William and others: I was present during those aborted attempts. I lay the blame solely on Carter. He had cut the military budget to the bone. We were cannibalizing parts off one aircraft to get another flying. Then after the mission putting that part back on the original aircraft. Items that were meeting the replace specs were being left in service due to there being no replacement parts availiable. Those Aircraft that went down in the dessert would not have been flying under those conditions during Fords and Reagans times. They would have had the faulty parts that caused the crashes replaced and been able to complete the mission.
If those faulty aircraft had not have crashed there would have been other problems jumping up. Our Special Ops forces were not properly equiped at that time as well. Carter refused to gove them the funding they needed. All military branches was hurting at that time.
Today "Carter is a legend in his own mind". Until Jan 2009 he was the sorriest president we ever had during my lifetime. Truman forward. Now we are stuck with an Illigal Alian, and
Chicago Street Thug in that office.
I may be getting old and forgetful but i do not recall any lack of parts or weapons to repair during his term. All exercise firings were carried out as usual, weapons rebuilt and turned around. ships operational schedules were normal Moral was better than under nixon who was the great leader who said the military was to be proud to forgo pay raises in the battle against inflation while he and congress took their raises with a big smile. carter was a pretty sorry pres. but at least he tried to do something not like clinton who ignored attack after attack by the fanatical moslems
