American commandos pulled a seriously wounded F-15E crew member out of the Iranian mountains early Sunday morning local time, completing what President Trump called "one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History." The officer, a colonel, according to Trump, had been stranded behind enemy lines for more than a day, armed with nothing but a handgun, while Iranian forces closed in on his position.
The rescue caps a harrowing sequence that began Friday, when Iranian forces shot down the two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle over a remote stretch of southwestern Iran. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered by helicopter that same day. But the second crew member, the weapons systems officer, went missing, triggering a massive search effort that consumed hundreds of special operations personnel, dozens of warplanes and helicopters, and the direct involvement of the CIA.
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the rescue to CBS News, and a White House official separately verified that U.S. commandos recovered the missing crew member in what was described as a complex operation. The rescued officer was flown to Kuwait for treatment. He sustained serious injuries but is expected to recover.
Trump announced the rescue overnight in a pair of Truth Social posts. The first was blunt:
"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!"
In a follow-up post, Trump wrote that the colonel was rescued "from deep inside the mountains of Iran" and that the operation was conducted "in broad daylight" after U.S. forces spent "seven hours over Iran." He said the officer had "sustained injuries, but he will be just fine."
Trump also explained why the administration had been silent about Friday's successful rescue of the pilot. The military, he said, "did not confirm" that recovery "because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation." He said he plans to share more details at a Monday news conference.
That deliberate silence stands out. In an era when every military development leaks within minutes, the White House held the line for days to protect the second airman. The discipline paid off.
A senior Trump administration official told CBS News that the CIA was deeply involved from the start. The agency launched a deception campaign inside Iran before the airman was even located, then used its capabilities to track the crew member to a mountain crevice. The CIA shared his exact coordinates with the Pentagon and the White House, and continued providing real-time intelligence throughout the extraction.
Once the president had the location, he ordered an immediate rescue mission. Trump directed hundreds of special operations forces to the effort and, as he had recently signaled regarding broader military objectives in Iran, put some other operations on pause to prioritize the search.
The extraction itself was anything but clean. Breitbart reported that the mission involved a heavy firefight, with U.S. airstrikes called in to block approaching Iranian and IRGC forces who were also racing to reach the downed airman. Despite the intensity of the engagement, no U.S. personnel were killed.
The operation did not go without cost. Two transport planes that were supposed to fly the rescue crews out of a remote base in Iran could not take off and had to be demolished in place. Three additional aircraft were sent in to extract the commandos. Those three planes flew out of Iran to Kuwait in tight formation, each just a short distance behind the other. The mission was completed just before midnight, with all U.S. forces out of enemy airspace.
The trouble started Friday morning when the F-15E was brought down. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards took credit for the strike, claiming it occurred in southwestern Iran. Iranian media published photos of debris said to show the wreckage.
The pilot ejected and was picked up by two military helicopters. But the recovery was contested. A U.S. chopper carrying the rescued pilot took small arms fire, wounding crew members on board, though it landed safely. An A-10 Warthog that was part of the search mission also took fire and was damaged badly enough that its pilot had to eject over the Persian Gulf. That pilot was successfully recovered.
Fox News reported, citing two senior U.S. officials and regional sources, that U.S. forces ultimately located and evacuated the missing weapons systems officer from behind enemy lines, with all personnel safely out of the country.
The New York Post reported that the airman evaded capture for roughly 15 to 24 hours and was injured during ejection but survived long enough for the extraction team to reach him.
Through all of it, the stranded weapons systems officer had only a handgun to defend himself, according to two U.S. officials.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell, a former F-16 fighter pilot, told The Associated Press that the downing of the F-15E marks the first time a U.S. fighter jet has been shot down in combat in over 20 years. That fact alone signals the severity of what American aviators are facing over Iran.
The Pentagon said at least four U.S. fighter jets have been shot down since the Iran conflict began on February 28. But three of those losses came from a single friendly-fire incident. On March 1, U.S. Central Command disclosed that three American F-15s were "mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses," with no casualties. The fourth, the F-15E downed Friday, was the work of Iranian forces.
The broader military campaign has already placed enormous strain on the region. Gold Star families have urged Trump to finish the job in Iran, and the president has shown no sign of backing down.
On Saturday, Trump warned Iran it had 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway handles roughly 20 percent of all global oil traffic, and its virtual closure has rattled fuel prices worldwide. When asked Friday by The Independent what he might do if the missing crew member were captured by Iran, Trump was measured but firm: "Well, I can't comment on it because, we hope that's not going to happen."
It didn't happen. American forces got there first.
The names of neither the rescued colonel nor the pilot have been released. The exact location of the crash and rescue sites in Iran has not been disclosed. How many crew members aboard the helicopter were wounded by small arms fire on Friday is unclear. The specific unit or command that carried out the extraction has not been identified publicly.
Trump has promised more details Monday. Given the scale of the operation, commandos on the ground in Iran, a CIA deception campaign, dozens of aircraft, a firefight with IRGC forces, demolished transport planes, and a wounded officer hauled out of a mountain crevice, the full accounting should be worth hearing.
The administration's push for a $1.5 trillion defense budget takes on sharper meaning when you see what these missions actually demand. The hardware, the training, the intelligence architecture, the willingness to send Americans into a mountain range inside a hostile country to bring one man home, none of that comes cheap, and none of it happens without a commander in chief willing to give the order.
There is a simple principle at work here, and Trump stated it plainly on Truth Social: the United States does not leave its warfighters behind. This weekend, in the mountains of Iran, under fire, that promise held.
