how the massive rescue operation unfolded<\/a> and outlined new details of the risky, high-stakes operation.\t\t<\/p>\nTrump, who spoke alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, called the successful operation \u201cone of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat \u2026 search and rescue mission[s] ever attempted by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n
He attributed the mission\u2019s success to the \u201cgreat talent\u201d and \u201cgenius\u201d of those involved, the breadth of the military and CIA\u2019s joint response, and \u201ca little luck too, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a rescue that\u2019s very historic,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019ll go down in the books.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emergency began in the early morning hours of April 3 local time\u2014late April 2 on the U.S. East Coast\u2014when an Iranian missile slammed into a two-seater F-15E which bore the call sign DUDE 44.<\/p>\n
Trump later said that while U.S. forces had eliminated Iran\u2019s anti-aircraft capability in the area, an Iranian service member \u201cgot lucky\u201d with a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile that \u201cgot sucked right in by the engine\u201d of the F-15.\t\t<\/p>\n
At 4:40 a.m. local time in Iran, Caine said the military\u2019s Joint Personnel Recovery Center declared the F-15\u2019s two crew members\u2014a pilot and a weapons system officer\u2014were down in hostile territory. They had safely ejected, Caine said, but were isolated behind enemy lines.<\/p>\n
The military confirmed their rescue beacons were active, Caine said, and on Hegseth and Trump\u2019s orders, launched a mission to bring them both safely home.<\/p>\n
Within a few hours of the F-15\u2019s crash, Trump said, 21 military aircraft flew into hostile airspace, operating for seven hours in broad daylight, making the operation even more perilous. Many flew at such a low altitude they were being shot at by rifles, Trump said, and all faced heavy enemy fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a helicopter that\u2019s got a lot of bullets in it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. We just realized how good those weapons are, those machines. The flight crews and warfighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caine said that combat search and rescue task force included A-10 Warthogs, HC-130 Combat King IIs, HH-60W Jolly Green II rescue helicopters, drones, and special warfare Airmen such as combat rescue officers and pararescuemen. Caine confirmed the veracity of videos showing the helicopters refueling from the HC-130s to penetrate further into Iranian territory.\t\t<\/p>\n
The A-10s were carrying out the Warthogs\u2019 traditional combat search-and-rescue mission, referred to as \u201cSandy,\u201d laying down withering, close-quarters suppressing fire to keep Iranian forces away from the pilot, Caine said.<\/p>\n
One A-10, whose pilot had been in contact with the downed F-15 pilot, was hit by enemy fire, Caine said. The pilot kept fighting, Caine said, and after exiting the battlespace, concluded the plane could not be safely landed. That pilot bailed out over Kuwait and was safely rescued soon afterwards.<\/p>\n
Caine said the A-10 force and other rescuers performed admirably in rescuing the pilot.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Sandy has one mission: Get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward, and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy,\u201d Caine said. \u201cThey are committed to this. This is what they live for, and this is what they\u2019ve trained for over many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first wave of rescuers reached the F-15E pilot\u2014dubbed DUDE 44 Alpha\u2014and safely recovered him aboard an HH-60W under close range gunfire.\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n
But they weren\u2019t yet out of the woods. The HH-60W \u201cwas engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon,\u201d Caine said. Another helicopter trailing behind took several hits from small arms fire, he said. A crew member aboard that helicopter sustained a minor injury, Caine said, but will be fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an incredibly dangerous mission, an incredibly dangerous undertaking,\u201d Caine said. \u201cBut a filled promise made to every American warfighter that you will not be left behind. We will always come find you, and we will always bring you home.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the fight to save the WSO had just begun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DUDE 44 Bravo<\/p>\n
The second Airman, dubbed DUDE 44 Bravo, is a colonel who Trump said is \u201chighly respected.\u201d He had landed a significant distance away from the pilot\u2014and he was \u201cinjured quite badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse, Trump said, the area was \u201cteeming\u201d with Iranian personnel\u2014including forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia, and local authorities\u2014who were aggressively hunting the WSO.\t\t<\/p>\n
Iran was eager to capture the WSO, which would have given its government both a powerful bargaining chip to use against the U.S. as well as a tremendous propaganda victory. Iran\u2019s government placed a large bounty out to capture the WSO, and local communities were looking for him.<\/p>\n
The WSO followed his training, Trump said, and started moving away from his ejection site to evade capture. Despite his injuries, Trump said, the WSO started climbing into \u201ctreacherous mountain terrain\u201d to reach a higher altitude\u2014scaling cliffs while \u201cbleeding rather profusely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once the WSO was at a safer spot in his \u201cmountain holdout,\u201d Trump said he treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military swung into action. The second rescue wave was even more massive than the first, encompassing 155 aircraft, Trump said. That included four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, among others, flying for another seven hours in darkness.<\/p>\n
Subterfuge was a crucial component of the operation, Trump said. The CIA helped deceive and confuse Iran to send them in the opposite direction from where the WSO actually was. And Trump said the deception operation also included sending aircraft to different sites to lure Iranian forces away from where the WSO really was.<\/p>\n
At one point, Trump said, the U.S. flew nine planes over another location 25 miles away from the WSO\u2019s actual hiding spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to have them think he was in a different location, because they had a vast military force out there,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThousands of people were looking. \u2026 They had seven different locations where they thought\u2014and they were very confused. They said, \u2018well, wait a minute, they\u2019ve got groups here, they\u2019ve got groups there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency used both human assets and sophisticated intelligence technologies to help find the WSO while misdirecting Iranian forces.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trump said, the WSO kept climbing to even more remote spots on the mountain to become even harder for the Iranians to find. Ratcliffe said that on the morning of April 4, the CIA confirmed the WSO was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump said Ratcliffe told him U.S. forces had trained a camera on the WSO\u2019s suspected location from 40 miles away, watching for the downed aviator to move. He stayed remarkably still, however, concealed in thick mountaintop bushes and trees, and it was unclear if he was actually there. Finally, after about 45 minutes, the WSO stood up from his cover and the CIA knew it was him.<\/p>\n
As night fell, the time had come to pull him out, once and for all.<\/p>\n
It was a massive logistical effort. Two MC-130J Air Force Special Operations planes flew in vast amounts of equipment needed to reach the mountaintop. Trump said that included three \u201csmall, unbelievably powerful\u201d helicopters\u2014likely referring to MH-6 Little Bird helicopters\u2014which were rapidly assembled on site. Photographs<\/a> emerged on social media afterwards showing wreckage of the Little Birds, which appear to have been destroyed by the U.S. rather than be extracted.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/240804-F-QE874-1128-1024x681.jpeg\")
A U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II, assigned to the 492nd Special Operations Wing, lands on Highway 63 during Emerald Warrior 24 FTX II in Bono, Arkansas, August 4, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ty Pilgrim<\/p>\n
The rescue force also battled poor weather. The MC-130s became bogged down in the wet, sandy surface and later could not fly out, so they were also destroyed to prevent adversaries from examining U.S. air defenses and other technologies, Trump said.<\/p>\n
Joint U.S. forces continued to pound Iranian forces to keep them away from the WSO, Caine said, and A-10s once again flew Sandy protection missions throughout the night on April 4 into the morning of April 5.<\/p>\n
In what Trump called \u201ca breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality, and force,\u201d U.S. forces engaged Iranian forces near the WSO\u2019s mountaintop sanctuary and rescued him. DUDE 44 Bravo had been on the run, bleeding and alone, for nearly 48 hours.<\/p>\n
Caine said that during all that time, the WSO evaded capture from Iranian forces \u201cusing every means available.\u201d Both aviators showed \u201cgrit and warfighting tenacity,\u201d Caine said, and that spirit was the deciding factor in their safe recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe single most important contributor to a successful rescue operation is the spirit of attack inside the heart of that downed aviator,\u201d Caine said. \u201cTheir will to survive, their will to evade, their will to recover is everything. In this case, the [WSO\u2019s] absolute commitment to surviving made much of our efforts possible.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2268,21718,21719,2654,12742,34,212,1525],"class_list":{"0":"post-54829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-cia","9":"tag-combat-search-and-rescue","10":"tag-csar","11":"tag-epic-fury","12":"tag-gen-dan-caine","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-operation-epic-fury","15":"tag-president-donald-j-trump"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116359995234446084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}