How the US executed a ‘miracle rescue mission’ behind enemy lines
“WE GOT HIM!” Donald Trump Victory was declared early on Sunday morning.
“Over the past few hours, the U.S. military has conducted one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history… I am thrilled to report this to you. [our missing airman] it is now SAFE and LOUD!”
The president’s Truth Social post marked the end of a 36-hour drama that will go down proudly in United States military history.
After the US air force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet shot down The pilot was rescued almost immediately in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province on Friday. However, the weapons officer was missing.
What followed was a race against time between the United States and Iran to rescue the stranded colonel. At stake was not only the airman’s life and the lives of dozens of special forces soldiers who risked everything to save him, but also the reputation of the U.S. military.
Mr Trump said: “Such raids are rarely attempted because of the danger to ‘people and equipment’. It doesn’t happen!”
Video footage from the area showed a mountainous region deep in southern Iran where the airman landed after pulling the yellow side lever on his ejection seat.
The seat’s ejection system, which uses solid CKU-5 rocket fuel to blast a jet’s canopy at nearly 200 meters per second, is one of the most complex systems, but carries a high likelihood of spinal fractures and other injuries.
The US president confirmed Sunday afternoon that the airman was “seriously injured.” He had previously said the colonel was “sustained injuries but will recover”.
“This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, hunted by our enemies who were getting closer with every hour,” said Mr. Trump, who later called the airman’s rescue “a miracle.”
Iranian media shared this unconfirmed image of the ejection seat on Saturday, which is consistent with the model used on the F-15E fighter jet.
Iranian media shows part of F-15 that Tehran claims to have shot down
The airman will have received his own rights survival, evasion, resistance and escape Instructions playing in (Sere’s) head.
But armed with only a gun, beacon and secure communications device, everything depended on US special forces reaching him before Iranian forces approached.
He was unable to use his beacon because Iranian forces might have detected him. However, the use of the encrypted communication device caused confusion.
Mr. Trump told Israeli television that the rescue was delayed because the colonel sent a “God is good” message.
Trump told Channel 12 that the United States was concerned that the Iranians had taken the downed sailor hostage and forced him to ambush American rescue forces.
He added that it took the United States several hours to determine that the religious colonel spoke of his own volition.
Any moment lost could be fatal.
Iran had offered a reward to anyone who found the police officer, and a video shared on social media on Friday showed dozens of armed locals rising to the challenge, scouring the countryside.
It wasn’t an academic risk. Immediately after the F-15E crashed on Friday, Black Hawk helicopters tasked with extracting the first of the two airmen (the pilot) were fired upon from the ground. Video footage showed one of the two helicopters following the smoke as it retreated into Iraq.
Tasked with rescuing the remaining airmen was the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or “Seal Team 6” as it is known.
A specialized commando unit tasked with carrying out complex and particularly dangerous missions, it is used by the United States in counter-terrorism, reconnaissance and short-duration strike operations, as well as rescue missions.
It was established shortly after Operation Eagle Claw, the US military’s attempt to rescue 53 embassy personnel held captive by Iran in 1980; That’s something that will make Saturday night success especially sweet.
Ultimately, extracting the second airman was a difficult task and not everything went as planned.
The extraction operation was launched after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) located the airman and conducted a “deception operation” to make the Iranians believe that he was already elsewhere and that they were trying to get him out of the country via a port.
Agency used fake radio broadcasts to fool IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] The pilot believed he had moved to various decoy locations, effectively drawing search parties away from the mountains where he was actually hiding and giving the extraction team more time.
Some reports suggested that they used distress signals as decoys to further distract Iranian forces in the first hours of the airman’s disappearance.
The actual rescue mission involved more than 100 special forces commandos flying in specialist MC-130J troop carriers and landing on a makeshift agricultural airstrip normally used by crop sprayers and other light aircraft. This runway was just 30 miles from Isfahan, one of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities.
MQ-9 Reaper drones and fast jets provided air cover, striking down any military-age males believed to pose a threat within a three-kilometer radius.
The injured colonel reportedly climbed a hill 7,000 ft above sea level, while US forces dropped bombs and opened fire on approaching Iranian fighters.
Only in the final moments did he hide and make a “bold move to meet the rescue team,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
The feint worked, but there was a final drama when two of the MC-130Js, costing $100 million (£75.6 million) each, became bogged down on the unpaved runway and had to be destroyed to prevent them falling into enemy hands.
“A Little Bird [an MH-6 helicopter] he flew to the top of the mountain and rescued the WSO [weapon systems officer] and I brought it back to the landing pad. And of course, the nose gears of both C-130s were stuck in the ground. A few hours later they had to bring in three AFSOCs. [Air Force Special Operations Command] A US military official told American journalist and author Michael Weiss that the Dash-8s would fly the rescued WSO and up to 100 personnel involved in the operation.
‘There were no casualties in the USA’
“The operation basically cost $300 million because they had to abandon two AFSOC C-130s and four MH-6 Little Birds. Then the US air force had to use multiple bombs to blow up all the planes they abandoned on that airstrip. And the Iranians shot down two MQ-9s.” [Reaper drones that were providing cover]”.
The official added: “Fortunately, the US did not suffer any casualties and we had to use multiple bombs and missiles to blow up IRGC vehicles trying to climb the mountain, as well as vehicles trying to get to the airstrip.”
Following his rescue, the airman was said to have been immediately taken to a hospital in Kuwait for treatment.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing unnamed sources in Iran’s military headquarters, initially claimed that “several enemy American aircraft in the southern Isfahan area were destroyed by Islamic fighters and the pilot rescue operation failed.”
The White House and Pentagon remained uncharacteristically quiet for the 36 hours after the F-15E was shot down. But they were working overtime in the background.
The president remained in the Oval Office throughout the series, constantly receiving updates from officials. Pete HegsethU.S. secretary of defense, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Mr. Trump is expected to hold a formal news conference on the rescue on Monday.
On Sunday, sources close to the Israeli military claimed that Israel played an unspecified role in the rescue operation; Mr Trump later partially confirmed this, telling Channel 12 they had helped “a little bit”.
Benjamin NetanyahuThe Israeli prime minister said the rescue operation “proved that free societies can face seemingly insurmountable challenges when they muster their courage and determination.”
Facing a general election in October, he added: “As a nation that repeatedly carried out daring rescue operations, and as someone who was wounded in such a mission and lost a brother in the Entebbe rescue, Israelis and I, we know what a bold decision you took”.
The operation thwarted a potentially crucial propaganda victory for Iran, but the regime was making the most of a bad batch by pointing out that Mr.
In an attempt to salvage what little victory they had, Iranian officials on Sunday also released images of the charred remains of one of the two burned-out MC-130Js.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Galibaf, wrote in a social media post: “The USA will be completely ruined if it gets three more victories like this.”
But Mr. Trump praised the mission as one for the ages. He wrote: “For the first time in military memory, two US pilots were separately rescued deep in Enemy Territory. WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARRIOR BEHIND!”
Saying that the Iranians were “lucky” to shoot down the F-15E fighter jet, he told the Axios news outlet that they used nothing other than a “shoulder-launched missile.”
Mr Trump said the rescue was “a STUNNING display of courage and skill by everyone”.
