From "Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Rescues Officer From Downed Fighter Jet in Iran, Trump Says" (NYT)
Here's how Trump put it, at Truth Social:
WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND! This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue. At my direction, the U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine. This miraculous Search and Rescue Operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave Pilot, yesterday, which we did not confirm, because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation. This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory. WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND! The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies. This is a moment that ALL Americans, Republican, Democrat, and everyone else, should be proud of and united around. We truly have the best, most professional, and lethal Military in the History of the World. GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!
Happy Easter.
Posts
88 comments:
Happy Easter
Our Special Operators are second to none.
It’s a bit of a coup for Iran that they finally managed to shoot down a plane (something Kuwait pulled off weeks ago by accident), but going in and rescuing the pilot is a far greater achievement.
Happy Easter.
The pundits celebrate this remarkable accomplishment until roughly early afternoon, then begin to pick it apart with caveats and criticisms.
@tim, I look at this as the blind pig finding an acorn.
I would love to hear the details of the rescue operation, but I’m willing to wait until this is over.
I am glad our Special Operators did not follow Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Commie) suggestion and view any of their orders as illegal.
does AI compute this as 'boots on ground'
Democrats hardest hit. Sad, but unfortunately, true.
Hallelujah!
The appetite of the media, left and right both, for this crap is discouraging.
Well, Presidential purple prose aside, I am impressed. Nice job. - Z.O., USAF Ret.
"We could hit it and it would be gone, and there's not a thing they could do about it. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated," Trump assured us on live TV about 48 hours prior to Iran popping our fighter jets out of the sky.
Knowing that Trump cannot tell a lie, how in the hell did they rebuild so fast?
RSW - You lie. The World knows DJT is not constrained by words.
Nice detailed account quoted on the PowerLine blog too. I think this is the outcome we were all hoping for (praying for even), and it is good to hear early Easter morning.
He’s risen.
How much did this cost the US taxpayers? Seriously, I haven't been this excited since Team USA scored a golden goal to beat Canada in the Olympics. Glad the boys got to have an adventure in Iran using all their training and war toys, and the boomer cheerleaders like ann and meade growing their victory gardens have something to cheer for this easter morning before they head out for chinese food for the big family meal... lol.
Let's call it a won war and wrap this up already. We're not in the war against Lebanon, or paying to grow the Jewish state.
Worshipping false gods, jewish Mike is...
I'm happy that the guy was rescued, but I shudder to think of how easily this could have replicated Jimmy Carter's failed 1980 Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission in Iran. Every combat mission has a non-zero risk of failure and death.
The initial Israeli / US strikes sought regime change by decapitating leadership. That didn't work, so Middle-East mission creep here we come. Sal at "What's Going on With Shipping" asks "Have We Gone Full Looney Tunes?":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-xS8EyFiE4
Amazed and relieved. Great job, Hegseth, Caine, and Cooper!
RJ trying so hard to introduce a skunk to the garden party. Sorry Hanoi Jane, we have reason (many reasons) to celebrate today and the stale criticism of Trump was just lame. Even for you.
I read an unconfirmed report as I went to bed last night. It kept me up for a while. I prayed and hoped, as though this were personal. I am filled with pride. God bless the USA and our troops, and this mission. Happy Easter!
Our military is amazing. Hope the rescued pilot has a speedy recovery.
Happy Easter everyone.
I legit think he was hacked. I can’t believe that’s a real post. To the best of my knowledge, he has never used the word “f**n’” in public in his life. Very low confidence that was him.
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Benghazi!
RJW said...
"We could hit it and it would be gone, and there's not a thing they could do about it. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated."
[...]
Knowing that Trump cannot tell a lie, how in the hell did they rebuild so fast?
4/5/26, 7:13 AM
I'm sure, in time, we will get the full detail of the shoot down and rescue. But....rebuild? All it would take would be one well-placed MANPAD/Stinger which, kind of by definition, are extremely portable.
The real question to ask is whether we can operate helos and A10s over their territory with a low probability of being shot down. If the answer is yes (which it is), then they effectively have no anti-air defenses to speak of. Note that this is not the same as saying that it is completely safe to fly into their territory. Every sortie has a chance to end poorly due to enemy action, even without a bespoke AA system.
I assume you are just pretending to be ignorant to try to make a political statement, I hear Colbert's show may have an opening soon where you could get paid to do that. Highly recommend applying.
Such good news on Easter morning. We were all praying. He is risen.
You are a ghoul otto
Attempted rescue of Americans in Iran (1979) by a Democrat president = complete FAILURE which is characteristic of all Democrat ideas.
Attempted rescue of Americans in Iran by a MAGA president = complete SUCCESS.
It's like a basketball game where the score is 99 to 2, and the media analysts keep yapping about how that stupid captain said that it would be a wipeout.
"He said they would keep them scoreless and they just made a lay-up."
"Horrible coaching. He ought to be fired."
I think Trump is inspired by all the hatred so keep it up, please.
Happy Easter and God bless America.
It's moments like this that remind us we have a serious mental health issue in this country. TDS is real, and dangerous.
It is great news, but just like the fifth columnists shouldn’t harp on hostages and small numbers of casualties, Trump shouldn’t harp on the success of rescuing one guy. Both reinforce the false idea that we can do surgical pain free war. We can’t. Some of the rough men standing ready in the night will die or worse. But we’re okay with it, because we’re rough. You should be too. CC, JSM
Yes, Happy Easter. And it is good news. Particularly for his family. Too bad he was put in danger in the first place. Hopefully, Trump will come to his senses and stop this unneccesary amoral war.
"The appetite of the media, left and right both, for this crap is discouraging."
Maybe a judge somewhere can order the man sent back into the Iranian mountains to brighten your day.
The Sludge Soros left are sad and angry.
This is great news. It is heartening to see an instinct and mindset like this, "WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!" As Stonethrower mentioned above the contrast between this mindset and the one behind the American response, or rather lack thereof, in Benghazi is dramatic. I'm pretty sure I know which one Americans will prefer.
This is isn't as hard as people think. They knew where the jet went down. And you can deduce where the pilot landed with X square miles. Since we have total air superiority it was a matter of finding him, and whisking him away without taking too many losses.
The Carter disaster was due to having an incredibly complex plan where everything had to go right in order to work.
Not leaving the dead and wounded is what the Ancient Greeks did. We are the heirs of the Greeks and keep Western Civilization alive.
I got it from the mouth of a Nebraska state senator who had been to the front lines in Ukraine, Russia leaves it dead to rot on the field of battle. I wish the media reported that.
It's nothing short of astonishing that the U.S. military can pull off in the real world a rescue operation that used to be possible only with giant eagles and a white wizard.
Rh is just being a contrarian. Its his speciality.
American rescued, leftists hardest hit.
"Russia leaves it dead to rot on the field of battle."
Sorry, they don't do that. Go look at the exchanges of dead bodies between Russia and Ukraine. The ratio is litterally 10-1. The Russians retrieve and bury their dead. The Ukrainians dont - no doubt because they don't control the battlefield.
From Grok:
"Russia and Ukraine regularly exchange the remains of fallen soldiers to allow for honorable burials, with a notable February 2026 exchange involving Russia returning 1,000 Ukrainian bodies in exchange for 35 of its own. These operations often occur at the front line, sometimes mediated by the International Committee of the Red cross".
so, the F-15E Strike Eagle is a fighterbomber
(UNLIKE the F-15 Eagle that it is based on, which was pure fighter)
This means, that the purpose of the F-15E is BOMBS ON TARGET.
and that means, being closer to the ground missiles.
way back in the day, the USAF used F-105 fighterbombers for this role.
Serious Question: how long would/did it take LBJ to lose a F-105?
of ALL the F-105s' built, how many did we lose?
"..As a matter of fact, in the April-July period, 48 F-105s were lost over North Vietnam, plus six operational losses. Three aircraft were lost over Laos, making a total of 57. In this respect, the authors of the July “Summary of Air Operations Southeast Asia” remarked that, if F-105 losses would continue as they had during that period, the entire Southeast Asia (SEA) F-105 force would be lost and require replacement aircraft in about an eight-month period..."
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-f-105-loss-rate-during-rolling-thunder-was-so-high-that-usaf-risked-losing-the-entire-sea-thud-force/
of course; THAT WAS DIFFERENT!
North Vietnam had the support of both Communist China AND the USSR.. Oh wait! maybe not so different after all.
Except, that (so far, and GOD willing), we've only lost one
(well, FOUR, if you count "friendly fire").
ground attack planes get shot.. This is an unfortunant fact.
RC Cola - You try rescuing someone behind enemy lines - you Jew hating moron.
Among the many questions one should have the answers to BEFORE going to war are: What if the other side just refuses to quit?; and What happens when the other side captures some of ours, and does bad things to them?
Fortunately, we haven’t had to find out just yet how we gamed out the second scenario.
RCO:
Nebraska state senator Tom Brewer told me the stench was unbearable. I believe him over Grok. First hand eyewitness with high credibility.
"Last night, our Special Operations forces executed an extraction. The operation involved hundreds of personnel, dozens of warplanes and helicopters providing overwhelming air cover, and intense support from intelligence, cyber, and other assets."
I can't imagine the sense of relief that the navigator must have felt when he heard the helicopters.
I heard that Iran may have placed 6000+ sea mines in the Straight of Hormuz.
Such a nice neighbor. Reminds me of Joe Biden/corrupt dems and their type behavior.
An officer involved in monitoring the CSAR in southern Iran describing the aviator’s incredible tenacity: “He evaded up a 7k ridge. They’ve been schwackin’ dudes chasing him all day. Was nuts.”
The loss and recovery is an internal military matter, not a media matter. There's one military death per day from accidents in the ordinary course of events what somehow doesn't get any notice. No media orgy potential. No clicks.
"This is isn't as hard as people think."
We are just regular people without your advanced knowledge and experience. Please excuse our mindless exuberance.
Tankers have negotiated the straits shipping channels, as well as less official ones both north and south, with and without Iranian "permission". There are no known cases of a ship being mined as yet. Given that, the idea that there are 6000 mines across that small area is implausible.
"There's one military death per day from accidents in the ordinary course of events"
Which is another reason this was an exceptional accomplishment.
People dying from common accidents is not news.
I have friends in the Air Force who work on A-10s to keep them running. The complexity of our war machines and what goes into them is daunting. We now have unmatched experience at war with our advanced equipment, and have learned a lot about keeping it alive and well. I think our global adversaries envy that and respect it. It certainly wasn't free, but I'm glad we have it.
US military has the best hide-and-seek training academies in the world- Fairchild SERE and a few others. Aviators get real good at it…
I'm happy to pay for an advanced war machine.
I'm not happy about the corrupt/inept left's massive trillion dollar entitlement structures that leave everyone worse off.
Extraction of a dictator from Venezuela. Extraction of our soldier from Iran. Good job, boys and girls. Forward, Trump.
USA!
"This is isn't as hard as people think."
yep, not hard at all..
of course, it was beyond the range of the rescue copters;
so first, IN ONE DAY, we had to build an international airport*
then, fly in HC130s, extra fuel, and the copters..
AND defend ALL those people while getting set..
AND confuse the Islamists and their radios (and radars)..
and FINALLY, "whisking him away"
if ANYONE, EVER thought that RCOCEAN wasn't a Complete idiot.
please rethink your thinking now
an international airport* not a particularly Good on, as it turned out. Stupid Sand! (which, by the way, was The Same thing that ruined Carter's rescue too)
Seems like the Hegseth-is-just-a-drunk-Fox-News-moron narrative hasn't held up too well.
He has removed all doubt
Now bring the dead Iranian schoolgirls back to life and we'll have a pro life Easter lesson to cheer. Only parity in the region will bring peace. You idiot boomers clapping like trained seals are too stupid to understand the costs of war and the smell of dead bodies.
Peachy, you're not paying.
Future taxpayers will be serving Israel and paying the costs of these wars for years to come. Keep shoveling dollars into the death machine and killing the children. Dawn knows dead schoolgirls is not winning. Anybody remember Dawn today, poor sweet thing, sacrificed before her time?
Happy Easter, Althousians! It's been quite a challenge not commenting for the past forty days but I've been grateful to be with you.
Not the best thread for this, I know.
I gather that the rescue operation had to burn two or three airplanes that couldn't get off the ground at the improvised airport--sort of like Carter's failure some 46 years ago. Still the point is that the US military will gladly do whatever it takes to rescue a downed pilot. The Iranians will claim a great victory--General Sand is tough to beat.
RCOCEAN II said...
"This is isn't as hard as people think. "
Oh, good. Then you do it.
"But, but, but.........................."
Yeah. Thought so.
"I shudder to think of how easily this could have replicated Jimmy Carter's failed 1980 Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission in Iran."
Sure it could have replicated the 1980 mission if we still had midwits in charge of our military.
Read the details about why"Eagle Claw" was a fluster-cluck thanks in no small part to the Carter touch.
Compare and contrast with this mission under that (per the left) unqualified POTUS and "drunkard" Sec. of War.
If you can be honest about it, rethink your comment.
It's like trump is Jesus and the downed pilot was his little lost lamb, huh? Father god djt brought him home. Now you too can celebrate Easter with a clean heart, eh ann? Lol
According to the NY Post, "US special operations forces and Air Force pararescue teams engaged in a fierce firefight with Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Basij fighters searching for the downed crew member."
Yeah, a piece of cake.
Re: suppressed air defenses, my own father was shot down by ONE bullet from an enemy rifle. Every machine has a weak spot. Luckily he landed on a beach in friendly territory, so no big drama.
The Leave No One Behind ethos...
An acquaintance of mine has a DFC, Distinguished Flying Cross, ostensibly for aggressive and skillful attacking. The official citation does not mention the real reason for the award, which was the "do not leave your wingman" behavior (literally) so important to actual combat.
F15E Strike Eagle down.
Serbia? Disable the infrastructure, carve a novel nation.
Libya where Americans were forgotten.
Obama's grifting in the Iran-Hamas Affair was a "burden"... burden aborted with a well-placed missile up an Iranian asset and cleanup on the Strait of Hormuz.
Beckwith was sharp but there was a lack of coordination certai
In the 1950s Curtis Lemay's task at SAC was to bomb Russia but he had no bombers at the time that could make the round trip. So he created the 8th Air rescue Squadron.
One of the missions, which I have never found much on, was to rescue bomber crews in Siberia.
The bomber would fly to Russia, bomb and start flying back. When they were down to 15 minutes fuel the crew would bail out. The plane would continue, crashing 100 miles away. A special C-47 (DC-3) would fly in under 100' altitude, locate and board the crew and fly them home. Pilots trained by flying constantly at under 100' (one had over 2,000 hours below 100')
Barrett Tillman's excellent bio of Lemay has a coulple pages on it.
The exploits of SAR teams in Vietnam were legendary and well documented. There was a pretty good movie, Bat 21 about one rescue.
Point being, this was not our first rodeo. we train especially for these kinds of rescues.
Imagine being able to build an airfield 25 miles from a city of 2mm without being detected.
To quote Team America: "America, Fuck yeah!"
Would a Brandon, Obama or even a Bush even have tried this?
John Henry
RCOCEAN II said...
Yes, Happy Easter. And it is good news. Particularly for his family. Too bad he was put in danger in the first place. Hopefully, Trump will come to his senses and stop this unneccesary amoral war.
All wars are amoral.
Morality is what short sighted stupid people refer to when they are wrong about something.
General ripper was a real savage caricature of lemay
RCOCEAN II said...
This is isn't as hard as people think. They knew where the jet went down. And you can deduce where the pilot landed with X square miles. Since we have total air superiority it was a matter of finding him, and whisking him away without taking too many losses.
The Carter disaster was due to having an incredibly complex plan where everything had to go right in order to work.
This is what I would expect from someone who sits on a couch and was never a part of a rescue mission before.
It is complicated. People have no idea how much better our military is than anything ever created.
They take a lot for granted.
OT but I remember having a conversation with a Naval Aviator in the 80s about the clusterfarg in the desert. This was a Commander or maybe Captain who had done multiple combat tours in VN flown a bunch of missions off of carriers and had the medals to prove it.
He told me that helicopters scrared the crap out of him and he would never voluntarily fly in one. But what I remembered was his explanation why:
"In a helicopter there are hundreds of things that can go wrong and any one of them can kill you.
In an F-4, there are hundreds of things that can go wrong but you can have a couple dozen and still get home. You can have a couple dozen more and still eject."
John Henry
I figured the usual suspects would come around to dump on the amazing and successful effort because The Jooooos! and being butthurt they didn't get their "it's a quagmire!" photos of our flyer being paraded by the IRCG, and I was not disappointed.
narciso said...
General ripper was a real savage caricature of lemay
You say that like it is a bad thing.
"I we ever go to war there is nobody that I would rather have lead than General Curtis Lemay. But there is no way I would want him deciding whether to go to war."
President John kennedy (quote from Memory)
Point being, when you do go, you want not just a pitbull, but a vicious, fierce, pit bull leading
John Henry
Well you lose one of rotors and youre in deep trouble
The other day some French general said that Americans must be on cocaine if we think we can build an airfield in hostile territory. We laughed at his stupidity then, even more now that we have done it again. (See Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okiniawa, Chinese B-29 bases et al)
Now I wonder if he was in on it and his statement was misdirection?
Probably not.
John Henry
Well they suggested he was crazy, but they probably would have thought the same of bomber harris
He didnt have a direct soviet analog
Perhaps marshal biryanov
I was hoping the American people might be wised up to the price of war, but no such luck. It is not costing us anything, and the military warriors have something to fight against other than the bottle and their marital vows. How long will the taxpayers keep buying them new expensive toys to break and kill civilians with? This will never rebound on our civilians or our infrastructure.... we've got nothing to lose, right boomers?
During my time in the service, the Air Force never made proper use of my insights into tactics and strategy. Here is my suggestion for this current situation: The Air Force should drop parts of some wrecked aircraft in an isolated region of Iran. Have some kind of primitive transponder start beeping. Tell the NYT and BBC in strictest confidence that an aircraft has been downed in Iran and extensive rescue operations are underway. Kill the assorted Iranians who show up looking for the downed airman in that isolated region. Does this a couple of times. The next time a plane goes down, the Iranians will evacuate the area.
John henry said...
"In a helicopter there are hundreds of things that can go wrong and any one of them can kill you.
In an F-4, there are hundreds of things that can go wrong but you can have a couple dozen and still get home. You can have a couple dozen more and still eject."
John Henry
Apt.
Helicopters give you vtol. That is it.
We have been trying to replace them for a long time.
"The operation took commandos deep inside Iran and involved hundreds of special operations troops. There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said. The rescued officer had 'sustained injuries, but he will be just fine.
Can't win 'em all, Freder. Better luck next time.
Enigma said...
I'm happy that the guy was rescued, but I shudder to think of how easily this could have replicated Jimmy Carter's failed 1980 Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission in Iran.
The difference here is the leadership at the top.
It was never going to go the way of Carter's failure, because Trump isn't the pathetic loser that Carter was.
Jimmy starved the military, then expected them to succeed on a shoestring.
Trump feeds the military, and then told them to get the job done with whatever was needed.
And that's the difference between failure and success
So the wrap-up is:
No good guys dead
Thousands of bad guys dead (among other things: CIA conned Iranians to think he was in a different location, where they sent a bunch of their thugs. How the US then killed)
Iranian civilians apparently created road jams to slow the Iranian gov't down when it tried to capture him
Total cost: less than 2024 Somalia fraud in Minneapolis
America,
Fuck yeah!
Comin' again to save the motherfuckin' day, yeah!
America,
FUCK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way, yeah!
Terrorists, your game is through,
'Cause now you have to answer to
America,
FUCK YEAH!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls
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