President Donald Trump announced the successful rescue of two American airmen last week after their F-15E jet was hit by an Iranian missile during a mission over the southern region.
A high-stakes operation involving hundreds of special forces and lethal military aircraft was carried out to rescue the crew members, with Trump describing the mission as one of the most complex in modern military history.
The pilot was rescued during a daylight raid, with 21 military aircraft flying into hostile airspace to find the downed flight crew. A-10 Warthog pilots provided heavy suppressing fire to keep Iranian soldiers away, while one A-10 aircraft took several hits and the pilot bailed out over Kuwait later.
The search team pulled the first pilot into a rescue helicopter safely, with the initial rescue mission lasting 7 hours deep inside Iranian territory. Iranian forces fired rifles at the low-flying helicopters throughout the operation, but the helicopter stayed in the air safely.
The weapons systems officer, a highly respected colonel, remained alone in the mountains for nearly 48 hours after sustaining serious leg injuries. He used his special survival training to treat his own wounds and activated an emergency beacon, but kept his location hidden from the enemy.
The CIA launched a massive deception campaign, spreading false rumors that the US had already found the missing flight crews, and lured Iranian search parties to locations far from the colonel's site. Rescuers watched the colonel through a camera for 45 minutes before the extraction.
The final extraction mission involved two large MC-130 transport planes and many helicopters, but the heavy aircraft became stuck in the wet and sandy Iranian mountain soil and were destroyed to protect sensitive American flight technology secrets.
