President Trump revealed many of the dramatic details on how the U.S. military scrambled to rescue two members of fighter jet that was shot down deep inside Iran.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Trump today revealed many of the dramatic details about how the U.S. military scrambled to rescue two crew members of a fighter jet that was shot down deep inside Iran. Now, both people are safe and recovering from their injuries. For more, we’re joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hi, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hi. OK, so I understand that President Trump spoke at length about how the military was able to reach these two Air Force officers. Tell us more about how the president explained this whole operation.
MYRE: Yeah. He said it was a massive operation filled with risk from start to finish. The F-15 fighter jet was shot down before dawn Friday, and the two crew members ejected, but they landed far apart. Now, the pilot, call sign DUDE 44 Alpha, was located first, and Trump said 21 aircraft were sent into Iran on an extremely dangerous mission because it was broad daylight, and a lot of these are low slow-flying planes. They rescued him, got him out of Iran, but only after spending seven treacherous hours in Iranian airspace.
CHANG: Wow. What about the second crew member?
MYRE: Yeah, his rescue was even more harrowing. He’s a colonel, a weapons system operator with the call sign DUDE 44 Bravo. Trump said he was badly injured and bleeding profusely, and despite this…
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to evade capture. They want to always go as far away from the site of the shoot down. You want to go as far away ’cause they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you can.
MYRE: So the colonel had a beacon that could transmit his location, but he wasn’t located until the CIA established contact Saturday morning as he was hiding in a mountain crevice.
CHANG: Oh, terrifying. Well, Iran knew that there was a missing American. So how did the U.S. reach him before Iran could find him?
MYRE: Yeah, so this was the challenge. The CIA began spreading false information that the Americans had found him and were evacuating him by land. Trump said 155 aircraft were sent into Iranian airspace. Now, they clustered in seven different areas, so the Iranians wouldn’t know which location was the real site. And they heavily bombed some of the roads leading to the actual site. So he was eventually picked up by a helicopter and taken to a makeshift airstrip on a farm. There were two planes waiting for him, but they were stuck in wet sand. So the military had to call in lighter planes. He was loaded onto one, and those other two planes stuck in the sand were blown up.
CHANG: Wow.
MYRE: Here’s the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, who also spoke at the White House today.
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DAN CAINE: More than 50 hours after the start of this operation, the Joint Personnel Recovery center declared DUDE 44 Bravo, both the front and back seater, returned to friendly territory.
MYRE: And, Ailsa, we still don’t know their names, but they’re receiving treatment at a military hospital in Germany.
CHANG: Just amazing. Greg, can we just take a step back and look at how the U.S. military developed these really remarkable rescue skills, right?
MYRE: Yeah, you would start with a failed U.S. effort in April 1980 to rescue the more than 50 Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Iran. That operation was aborted due to a desert sandstorm in Iran. And as the aircraft were leaving, a U.S. helicopter collided with a U.S. plane, killing eight service members. It was an utter disaster. But that fiasco prompted the military to completely overhaul the special operations forces. Later that year, SEAL Team 6 was established, along with other units. And over the weekend, we saw the results. These special operations teams rescued these two Air Force crew members deep inside the very same country, Iran, 46 years to the month after that earlier operation.
CHANG: And finally, did President Trump give us any sign of how this whole war might end?
MYRE: Well, he – you know, we seem to be at a critical moment, but he offered a contradictory message. He still said Iran must open the Strait of Hormuz tomorrow night or face a massive bombing. He also said talks seem to be going pretty well. In short, he’s simultaneously talking about a possible escalation and de-escalation of the war.
CHANG: That is NPR’s Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa.
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