Historic Rescue Mission

The U.S. military carried out a “historic” mission over the weekend to rescue an F-15 fighter jet airman who was shot down over Iranian territory, President Donald Trump said on April 6.

“We’re here today to celebrate the success of one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing, combat searches … ever attempted by the military,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Pentagon launched search and rescue missions over the weekend for the pilot and weapons system officer of an F-15E fighter jet that Iran shot down over its mountainous terrain early on Friday.

Trump has given the Iranian regime until 8 p.m. (ET) on April 7 to reach a deal with the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or face the threat of U.S. strikes on its critical power plants and bridges.

Iran, however, has rejected U.S. calls for a military cease-fire, instead emphasizing the need for a permanent end to the war, Iranian state media said on Monday.

The recovery mission for the weapons system officer was particularly “harrowing,” Trump said, as the man evaded capture on the ground in Iran for nearly 48 hours before he was rescued.

“That’s a long time when you’re in tough shape and when you’re bleeding,” Trump said.

The president credited the CIA’s involvement in the recovery efforts as akin to “finding a needle in a haystack.” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency used covert capabilities to find the missing airman.

“At the president’s direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” Ratcliffe said.

The U.S. military was in a “race against the clock” to recover the weapons system officer while keeping Iranian forces misdirected, he added.

“CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airmen,” Ratcliffe said.

The Pentagon also deployed what Trump described as an “unbelievable” contingency plan in response to encountering a problem with Iran’s wet and sandy terrain.

Large jets used to fly in rescue personnel and equipment struggled to take off after landing in Iran, so “we blew up the old planes,” Trump said.

The mission to rescue the weapons system officer involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, Trump said.

While the recovery efforts were underway, news stories reporting on the rescue missions before the Pentagon released confirmation “made it much more difficult for the pilots and for the people going in to search for him,” Trump said.

The president threatened to go to the initial media outlet that ran the story and demand they reveal the source over national security concerns, “or go to jail.”

“All of a sudden, the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life,” Trump said.

The weapons system officer who evaded capture for nearly 48 hours by hiding in a mountain crevice sent a message that read, “God is Good,” once he activated his emergency transponder to notify U.S. forces of his location, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

“In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through,” Hegseth said.

—Jacob Burg

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Many Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrests over the past year have involved criminals. Check out Darlene McCormack Sanchez’s look at 10 such cases involving especially heinous baddies.

Some Chinese media mistakenly reported that the rescue mission of downed American pilots in Iran had failed. Those reports, in turn, were picked up by smaller outlets in the country, and embellished with other factual errors. 

About 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer product passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but the ongoing conflict has restricted how much is getting through. Shipping through the strait has fallen from an average of more than 100 ships daily to fewer than 10, according to the United Nations. 

—Stacy Robinson