52 American diplomats and government workers had been held hostage for nearly six months at the former US Embassy in Iran, and Jimmy Carter (then US President) had tasked the military with mounting a rescue.

In military parlance, Eagle Claw was a "Charlie Foxtrot," i.e. a complete debacle.

Miscommunication, poorly maintained aircraft, and plenty of other factors resulted in the operation being a failure right from the start. And not only did the hostage rescue fail, but 8 US service members were killed.

In the aftermath of Eagle Claw, the US Defense Department took a long, hard look at itself and realized they were poorly equipped to deal with counter-terrorism and hostage rescue missions.

So they decided to create highly trained special operations teams to deal specifically with these types of missions.