Charles Alvin Beckwith, who commanded the aborted attempt to free American hostages in 1980 from the embassy in Tehran, died Monday morning at his home in northwest Austin. He was 65.
The highly decorated retired Army colonel died of a heart attack, according to Robert Bayardo, Travis County's chief medical examiner.A former Green Beret and a veteran of both the Korean and the Vietnam wars, Beckwith first moved into the national spotlight after the failed hostage-rescue mission in 1980, which left eight American servicemen dead. But before those two days in the desert, Beckwith had had a distinguished, 29-year career in the U.S. Army.
Beckwith, who was born in Atlanta and attended the University of Georgia on a four-year football scholarship, first entered the service in 1952, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry. Before he left, he married his college sweetheart, Katherine.
Beckwith served for 16 months in Korea, in 1953 and 1954, and then he began a long series of tours through the war-torn jungles of Southeast Asia.