An American weapons systems officer spent two days hiding in a mountain crevice in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, with IRGC soldiers closing in, Bakhtiari tribesmen hunting him with rifles, and Iranian convoys rolling toward his position — and the United States military came and got him anyway.
If that doesn’t make you proud to be an American, check your pulse.
The F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron went down over southwestern Iran on April 3, 2026. The pilot was recovered hours after the crash in a daytime operation. But the weapons systems officer — a colonel — escaped into the mountains on foot and vanished. For nearly 48 hours, he hiked a 7,000-foot ridgeline, evaded IRGC patrols, and hid in a crevice while Iranian military units searched for him “in big numbers, and getting close,” as one official described it.
The Iranian government thought they had him cornered. They didn’t know the CIA was already running a deception campaign inside their own country.
CIA operatives spread false reports claiming the airman had already been rescued and was being exfiltrated by ground. While Iran chased ghosts, the CIA used what officials described as “special technology” and “unconventional assisted recovery” — including contacting willing Iranian civilians — to locate the colonel’s actual position in the mountains.
Then the cavalry arrived.
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers. 155 aircraft. Navy SEAL Team Six — DEVGRU — and Army Delta Force operators. They established a forward arming and refueling point on an abandoned agricultural airstrip just 14 miles north of the Iranian city of Shahreza. MQ-9 Reaper drones fired on Iranian convoys that got too close. U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs on approaching IRGC forces to keep them away from the rescue zone.
Two C-130 transport aircraft got stuck on the airfield and had to be destroyed to prevent capture. At least one more C-130 and two helicopters were burned on the ground. The Americans didn’t care. The mission was the man.
And they got him. On April 5, the colonel was pulled out with nothing worse than a sprained ankle.
President Trump posted two words on Truth Social that said everything: “WE GOT HIM!”
The rescued airman transmitted three words that said even more: “God is good.”
This was the first publicly acknowledged U.S. ground operation inside Iran since Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 — Jimmy Carter’s disastrous attempt to rescue the hostages in Tehran that ended with eight Americans dead and a burned-out helicopter in the desert. That mission became a symbol of American weakness. This one is the opposite.
Officials are calling it “one of the most challenging and complex missions in the history of U.S. special operations.” No American servicemembers were killed. The IRGC was outmaneuvered on its own soil. The CIA made the Iranian military chase a phantom while Delta and SEAL Team Six walked through the back door.
Forty-six years ago, a failed rescue in Iran humiliated America. This week, the United States sent hundreds of its best operators deep into enemy territory, deceived an entire country’s military apparatus, and brought an American home from a mountain crevice in the Zagros range.
That’s the scoreboard. One colonel. Two days. 155 aircraft. Zero Americans lost. And three words from a man who spent 48 hours hiding in a crack in a mountain with the entire Iranian military hunting him: “God is good.”
We got him. And they never will.
