Newly declassified footage has been released, showing the historic rescue mission for two US Air Force F-15 pilots who were downed in Iran earlier this year.
In a segment on 60 Minutes, host Norah O’Donnell spoke to Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, who walked her through footage of the rescues of Dude 44 Alpha, the first pilot recovered, and Dude 44 Bravo, the second.
“Anytime you go behind enemy lines in daylight, it’s going to be dicey. We would much rather go at night,” Caine said, discussing the rescue of Alpha, where the US sent over 20 aircraft behind enemy lines in broad daylight. “Given the threat to 44 Alpha, the decision was taken to boldly go behind enemy lines in daylight to make sure that we could get to him before anybody else could.”
Video from Bravo’s rescue shows US strikes against Iranian forces in the area before a US helicopter locates him atop a hill. The Iranians can be seen running away before being disintegrated.
Two special forces troops jump out of a helicopter, grab Bravo, and carry him home.
The mission remains so secretive that the military blurred the helicopter in the declassified footage in case “the United States ever needs to use them again,” Caine said. “I don’t want you to know what kind of helicopter that is. Yeah, because we retain, we want to retain our most bespoke capabilities.”
When asked about Bravo scaling the mountain to an elevation of about 7,000 feet, despite being seriously injured in the ejection from his F-15, Caine explained, “You want to get to the high ground. You want to isolate the threat below you, so that you can see and observe anybody that’s coming to get you, and make a decision on what you’re going to do to evade them.”
Via CBS:
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, an F-15E was shot down over Iran on April 3. A search and rescue operation quickly began to find the two pilots, one of whom spent roughly two days in enemy territory, hiding from Iranian fighters.
After a nearly 48-hour search and rescue effort, the pilot of a downed F-15E Strike Eagle was rescued from inside Iran.
One crew member was initially rescued on Friday after the crash, US officials say.
“WE GOT HIM!” President Trump announced following the rescue, describing the mission as “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History.”
“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,” Trump said.
It was later revealed that the US military and Central Intelligence Agency used “Ghost Murmer” technology to trace the electromagnetic fingerprint of the pilot’s heartbeat and locate him in the massive desert.
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