In and Out Except for Karma 52
The attacks were over so quickly that the air defense weapons not destroyed failed to fire on the American attackers until they had already passed overhead on their way out of the country. But one F-111F (Karma 52) was shot down with the loss of both crew members, pilot Captain Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and Weapon Systems Officer Captain Paul Lorence. There was controversy over the loss of the aircraft and crew but it was the only operational loss during the mission. It has been theorized that the bombs that hit non-targeted structures in Tripoli came from Karma 52. It’s also likely that some of the damage done to the city and its inhabitants was self-inflicted by the guns and missiles fired indiscriminately at depressed levels by the Libyan/Soviet air defense crews.
Forewarned, He Lived to Darken More Days Ahead
One target (or objective) that was missed was Gaddafi himself. It’s been said that he received warning via telephone that the raid was incoming. Whether the call was placed by the Maltese Prime Minister or the Italian Prime Minister is of little consequence now, but when it was learned that Gaddafi beat feet mere moments before the bombs hit his house it seemed to be another case of European tacit approval of Gaddafi and his policies. Whatever the reasoning, Operation Eldorado Canyon left Gaddafi alive but his ability to operate and support terrorism was at least temporarily crimped.
The Propaganda Machine and Continued Support for Terrorism
Almost inevitably, soon after the raid concluded Gaddafi proclaimed that he had “won a spectacular military victory over the United States” and the country was officially renamed the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah.” The Libyans also displayed the wreckage of a Soviet-made SA-3 Goa SAM and said it was the remains of a shot-down F-111. More terrorism and sponsorship of it by Gaddafi followed in the ensuing years; Pan Am 73, the French seizure of the freighter MV Eksund, which was found to be carrying 150 tons of Soviet arms from Libya to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Kidnappings and killings by Abu Nidal and others during the late 1980s. And then, in 1988, Pan Am 103 brought down over Lockerbie in Scotland. Gaddafi was later assassinated on 20 October 2011.
Grumman F-14A Tomcat of VF-102 Diamondbacks flying from USS America (CVA-66)
No Happy Ending But Combat Systems Proven
One story without a truly happy ending, Operation Eldorado Canyon was notable for a number of firsts. It was the first Air Force combat mission since Vietnam and the first flown from the UK since World War II. Both the F-111F and the Pave Tack targeting system saw their first combat. It was also the first of the very few combat uses of the EF-111A Raven electronic countermeasures aircraft. Navy and Marine Corps firsts included the first combat for the F/A-18A Hornet and the first time the High Speed Anti-radiation Missile (HARM) was used in combat.
BONUS VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmpxgdfWAt4kJyBYeu2pxjwEnjoy these videos of F-111s in action uploaded to YouTube by Andy J.
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