Hundreds of U.S. soldiers rescued the two crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down during a combat mission in Iran on April 3 after they ejected from the jet in a harrowing nearly two-day operation.
“An incredible show of courage and talent by everyone!” President Donald Trump said of the rescue effort in an April 5 post on Truth Social.
President Trump said at a press conference on April 6 that rescuing one crew member was “like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Few details are known, but the U.S. and Iranian forces were searching for the crew, neither of whom have been identified. The US has suspended other combat operations to focus its military efforts on the rescue, the BBC reported.
The CIA also played a role in tracking the crew and misdirecting Iranian search efforts.
The F-15E’s first crew member, the pilot, was rescued by a U.S. military helicopter about six hours after the crash.
The second person, an Air Force colonel in charge of the plane’s weapons systems, was separated from the pilot and injured after ejection. He was rescued more than 36 hours later by U.S. forces, including members of Navy SEAL Team 6 and other special operations forces.
The colonel took refuge in a crevasse in a mountainous area 7,000 feet above sea level in southwestern Iran, evading the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and civilian search teams.
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It started with an ejection from an F-15E.
The F-15E was attacked by Iranian air defense systems shortly after 2:00 p.m. local time on April 3. Both crew members evacuated from the aircraft behind enemy lines.
All jet crews are trained on how to escape from a damaged aircraft, but the experience is fraught with danger. According to Task & Purpose, the ejection system uses a rocket that generates “more than 10 G’s of force within two seconds.”
To avoid a mid-air collision, F-15E crews eject at intervals of less than half a second. The aircraft’s canopy is jettisoned and the weapons systems officer sitting in the rear is the first to eject. Then the pilot sitting in front ejects. Both seats are equipped with parachutes that propel them upward and away from the aircraft.
The F-15E crashed in the mountainous region of southwestern Kogilye and Boyer Ahmad province, near the Zagros Mountains, multiple news sources reported.
The crew carried hand-held weapons, some survival gear, an emergency beacon and other equipment used to communicate with rescue teams.
What we know about the aircraft used in the rescue mission and the aircraft lost
The rescue operation included B-1 bombers dropping 2,000 pounds of satellite-guided bombs and MQ-9 Reaper drones firing fire to lure the Iranians away from the colonel’s position, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The US military reportedly used an improvised airfield south of the Iranian city of Isfahan as a temporary base to rescue the colonel.
However, two large HC-130 transport planes that had landed to take out the rescue team got stuck in the sand and were unable to take off. It was destroyed to prevent its acquisition by Iran.
Additional aircraft flew into Iran and removed personnel in waves.
Two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters, an improved version of the UH-60 Black Hawk, participating in the operation were also destroyed for undisclosed reasons.
At least two of the four AH-6 helicopters used during the rescue operation were reportedly destroyed. They were from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers.
Additionally, on April 3, a single-pilot A-10 Thunderbolt II plane known as the Warthog crashed while searching for an F-15E. The pilot of the plane was able to fly the plane over the Persian Gulf and eject. He made an uneventful recovery, according to CBS News.
How did the CIA help?
The CIA assisted in the Colonel’s rescue in two ways.
The CIA spread information within Iran that the U.S. military had found the crew and was moving them out of the country. This gave authorities time to locate the colonel and convey his position to the military.
The agency used specialized communications equipment to track the colonel’s emergency beacon and worked with other sources to pinpoint his location, which was then provided to the U.S. military.
According to aeronauticsmagazine.com, it was the first F-15E loss in combat for the United States in 23 years. The A-10A was attacked by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile over Baghdad on April 8, 2003.
Contributed by Saman Shafiq, america today
SOURCE USA TODAY NETWORK REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS. Reuters; Tasks and Objectives. military era
