has

This success of this search and rescue operation is deeply humiliating for the IRGC. For the continuity of their home front and to back up their claims that boots on the ground will be a meat grinder for the Americans, they needed to do everything in their power to make sure that pilots downed in a military aircraft were swiftly captured by their own troops. Its mindboggling to me that they did not have the ability to track where the pilots landed and have them detained upon landing. But given this grievous military blunder, they should have been able to predict that the US military will obviously send boots on the ground to rescue their troops and make sure they were met with a formidable force that made it impossible for them to complete their mission. If US firepower was enough to ward off the IRGC military from even coming close to a tiny cohort of US troops, on what basis are they assuming a much larger and better equipped battalion wouldn’t be able to do the same and more? When Aragchi said “we are waiting for them…” to do what exactly? Let them have a stroll in the Iranian mountains and enjoy the scenery? If the US had previously decided against boots on the ground, they are certainly far more emboldened now.

After the pilot was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airmen, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands." -NYT

Wheels up all friendlies out. C130 got a wheel stuck in the sand at the FARP and a Delta element had to come in and blow it in place. Whole op sounds dicey as hell but they pulled it off. Goodnight.