U.S. forces safely rescued the second F-15E crew member of a two-seat fighter jet that went down over Iran on Friday, two U.S. officials said late Saturday.
President Donald Trump said the rescue was “an Easter miracle” in a text message to NBC News, and praised U.S. forces for their “strong, decisive” actions.
“The Iranians thought they had him, but it wasn’t even close,” he said. “And remember, we got two, but couldn’t talk about the first in that it would have highlighted that there was a second.”
The U.S. officials said late Saturday that the second airman was pulled from Iran safely, with rescue crews also out of harm’s way.
Trump said in a separate post on his social media platform Truth Social that the airman was “seriously wounded,” adding that he is a “highly respected Colonel.” A news conference will take place on Monday afternoon, he added.
The plane’s pilot had been located shortly after the crash.
A senior Trump administration official told NBC News that second crew member’s rescue was made possible with the help of CIA subterfuge.
The intelligence agency first launched a deception campaign inside Iran, saying U.S. forces had already found the airman alive and were moving him on the ground to remove him from the country, the official said.
“While the Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening, the Agency used its unique, exquisite capabilities to search for — and find — the American,” the official said in a statement. “This was the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack,’ but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA’s capabilities.”
The CIA immediately alerted the defense department and the White House of the crew member’s location, with the president ordering an immediate rescue mission “which the DoW executed with boldness and precision, with CIA continuing to provide real time information,” the official said, using an acronym for Department of War, the administration’s unofficial renaming of the Department of Defense.
The F-15E strike happened as the president and his administration have received heavy criticism over the war. On Saturday, Trump characterized the rescue as a major triumph in the effort.
“The United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History,” he said.
The president credited his military leaders for their diligence, and said he ordered “dozens” of aircraft with lethal weapons to join the search.
“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,” the president said.
Iran’s armed forces and Revolutionary Guard both said that multiple U.S. aircraft had been destroyed during the rescue operation, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency and state media outlet IRNA reported. A…
