Collin Rugg@CollinRugg
NEW: The rescued F-15 crew member said “God is Good” over his radio after ejecting from the aircraft over Iran, according to Axios.
Here are remarkable new details about the rescue, according to Axios:
- The rescued crew member is religious.
- The crew member survived more than 24 hours in the mountains while wounded.
- 200 soldiers from special operations units participated in the rescue.
- The F-15 was shot down with a shoulder-fired missile.
- “Thousands of these savages were hunting him down,” Trump said.
- The officer hid in a crevice in the mountain and was found thanks to U.S. technology.
- The officer said “God is good” after ejecting.
- “The two crew members were spread apart by a couple miles. Hundreds of IRGC soldiers were everywhere,” a defense official said.
“The C.I.A. initiated a deception campaign to try to confuse Iranian forces, and convince them the airman had already been rescued and was moving out of the country in a ground convoy,” the NYT reported.
The airman reportedly evaded Iranian forces by hiking up a 7,000-foot ridgeline.
“U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the area where the airman was hiding,” the NYT continued.
“In a final twist after the weapons officer 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 airman, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands.”
