BREAKING: Missing US airman RESCUED from Iran: 'WE GOT HIM'

What many are calling an Easter miracle, the second American airman who is missing

for 48 hours behind enemy lines has been rescued. President Trump calling it one of the most daring search and rescue operations in our nation's history.

It's amazing. Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yinks has the latest from Tel Aviv. Trey, we woke up to this this morning and we thought it was exactly that, an Easter miracle.

What a remarkable rescue operation. Tell us what you know about it.

Yeah, guys, good morning and happy Easter. The U.S. crew member who was missing in southwestern Iran after his F-15 fighter jet was shot down has been rescued. The successful extraction was announced by President Trump overnight on Truth Social. The president simply said we got him before providing new details that dozens of US military aircraft were used to retrieve him as US leadership tracked his location. It was a daring operation

that included hundreds of US forces racing against the clock to rescue the crew member. Fox News has learned that after the fighter jet was shot down on Friday, the weapons systems officer hiked to an elevated mountain ridge where he hid and waited for retrieval. The pilot of the jet was rescued by US Special Forces on Friday, but President Trump said they waited to confirm as to not jeopardize this second operation. The president added quote, this is the first time in military

memory that two US pilots have been rescued separately deep in enemy territory. The IDF said they avoided striking this area as American planes and helicopters flew at a low altitude, hoping to find any sign of the service member. Israeli forces, however, ramped up airstrikes over the weekend in other areas, targeting Iran's petrochemical plants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added this about the operation.

I promised you that we would continue to crush the terrorist regime in Tehran, and that is exactly what we are doing. After we destroyed 70% of their steel production capacity, which serves as raw material for their weapons, today we struck the petrochemical plants.

While Israel went on the offensive, they also took numerous incoming ballistic missiles over the weekend. Despite mostly hitting civilian targets in Israel, Iran has threatened to ramp up attacks with newer, more advanced missiles. They're also threatening to shoot down additional U.S. planes.

The enemy should know that we rely on new air defense systems built by the young, knowledgeable and proud people of this country, unveiling them one after another in the field. We will certainly achieve full control of our country's skies and prove the humiliation of the weak enemy to the world more than ever.

The Iranians can say what they want. The reality is thousands of U.S. and Israeli sorties have flown through the skies of Iran, striking military targets across the country, and overnight the excellence of the U.S. military on display, sending special forces in to rescue that crew member.

Guys? Trey, the excellence is an understatement. This is by far going to be one of the combat search and rescue missions, a CSAR that will be studied for years to come in the complexity of the number of personnel and service members that were involved. We hear the CIA helped locate. We know special forces were on the ground. There was a sort of deception ruse to throw the Iranians off.

Talk to us a little bit about what you know about the complexity of what it took to pull this off.

Yeah, absolutely. This was an incredibly complex operation. I've been speaking with Israeli officials asking what role the Israelis played in this operation and they continue to just give credit to the American forces, saying that when one pilot in the region is shot down, it's everyone's pilot and job to rescue them. What took place was nothing short of extraordinary.

The CIA was using deception tactics on the ground to make the Iranians think that they'd already located the pilot. Remember, this second crew member was inside of enemy territory for almost 48 hours. And the Iranians were not only actively looking for this crew member on the ground, but they were also offering a reward of thousands of dollars

to any Iranian civilians who could capture him and then take him into IRGC hands. The United States knew this was taking place. And so as these Iranian forces approached this crew member where they were hiding along a mountain ridge, according to Fox's Jennifer Griffin, there were strikes that took place

against the Iranians to not only ensure that these forces couldn't reach the crew member, but also ensure that on the ground they couldn't get forces close to this location. Remember when these pilots or crew members are ejecting from a plane, they have these systems within them that allow intelligence to track their location. But they have to be very careful, understanding they often just have a sidearm with them,

and they're not able to defend themselves solely on the ground. But what the president talked about last night in his post on True Social was that this crew member was never alone. The United States of America, including the president himself and top military leadership, each and every hour at the White House tracking the location of this crew member and then sending in hundreds of special forces, dozens of U.S. military planes to identify the exact location and ultimately rescue this U.S. service member.

You know, Trey, we were sitting on the couch yesterday when we heard the news that this second airman was missing after the other one was rescued. And it was palpable on the couch, the sense of fear for him, of what this would do to the morale of our troops. I mean, it was palpable. As you said, there was a $60,000 bounty on the head.

We were worried that if he was found by the Iranians, that if he was alive, that they would do something to him, or if he was dead, that they would desecrate his body. Now this amazing rescue, I mean, really on the level, I mean, we thought we were impressed with the Maduro rescue. I mean, this is yet another rescue

that has left the world in awe of our military and our special forces. And frankly, not awe of our military and our special forces and frankly not just of our president but of Pete Hexeth, our war secretary who would have taken the blame had anything gone wrong here and therefore he also deserves the credit here. Talk to me about what this does to the war, the prospects of the war, the morale of the

troops and what it looks like moving forward now that this amazing thing happened.

The rescue of this crew member and the pilot on Friday will go down in military history books as a successful operation that displayed the power and intelligence of the U.S. military. When we think about what happened here, according to reports, U.S. special forces landed just south of the Iranian city of Isfahan, an area where there are many IRGC military structures guarding not only nuclear facilities, but also military sites. The fact that U.S. special forces were able to land in enemy territory with hundreds of

operators on the ground and then go and retrieve their fellow U.S. service member is nothing short of extraordinary because again it speaks to the intelligence behind the scenes not only to locate where this individual was and hiding in a ridge line, but also to get those special forces in and then safely extracted. Now we do understand that at least one U.S. transport plane had a malfunction on the ground and it was ultimately destroyed by U.S. forces as to make sure it didn't fall into the hands of the Iranians. But again, when you think about the coordination of what

took place, this is an operation on a variety of levels that combined intelligence, special forces operators, and also the ability of the U.S. military from the ground and the air to ensure that these forces could get in and rescue this crew member and then safely get out of Iranian territory. As all of this was taking place, we understand the president was working in the Oval Office

along with top generals and military officials to ensure that the operation moved forward smoothly. You speak about the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and others. There were contingency plans for this to take place. I'm told by Israeli officials they were surprised this didn't happen earlier, just given the thousands

of flights that were taking place over Iranian territory. But again, they were prepared for this possibility. And this perfectly executed mission allowed this US service member to get out of Iranian territory safely, along with the special forces that went in to rescue him. This does also speak, though, to the air superiority of the United States over the skies of Iran.

To be able to get hundreds of U.S. special forces on the ground to conduct this operation shows that the Iranians do not have control of their skies. They still have some air defense systems and they can shoot at US planes. But again, there are thousands of sorties flying over Iran. Since operation epic fury began, there was this one incident, but again, US special forces going in and executing the operation just as they planned. And again, this will go down in the history books as a successful US military operation to rescue not only the pilot on Friday, but this crew

member overnight.

Hey, Trey, real quickly, I just want to get you to weigh in on this. You talked about the coordination and the collaboration between the US and our partners in Israel. Does that continue even beyond what people are going to be hearing about with respect to this particular rescue? And I'm asking that because I have seen the coordination at a level that I don't think many people understood. Not just the high level coordination between

our two sides, but also the technical and the granular details that have been happening to make sure that rescues like this could happen as well.

Absolutely. I spoke with a senior Israeli official this morning who said what we witnessed last night was courageous, bold leadership. The official went on to say the level of coordination between air assets, the precision in timing and the discipline under pressure stood out immediately. I asked this official about the role of Israel and they simply responded, when you watch an operation like that unfold in real time, the distinction between their pilot and our pilot becomes less relevant.

The expectation is the same, you bring him home. We understand that this level of coordination will continue at an extremely high level, understanding that US and Israeli pilots are flying side by side over the skies of Iran, not only to take out the country's military leadership, but also the infrastructure that has allowed Iran to build a military base with drones and ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that are not only threatening U.S. forces, but allies across the region.

And so, again, the success of Operation Epic Fury, you can look at it at a variety of levels. But when you zoom out to what happened overnight, this was a display of U.S. Special Forces and air excellence and their ability to control the skies of Iran send in us Special Forces and to conduct a successful operation to rescue their colleague.

And they did they did so Trey without a single casualty that is what is remarkable let me just move it forward a tad bit though and ask you if you have any sense we are now 24 hours away from the president's deadline. Otherwise Iran has been told they will face total obliteration. Their you know negotiations about Iran coming to the table. Do we have any sense for how now after this successful mission it may impact

the negotiations as the clock ticks on the president's deadline tomorrow.

What's remarkable is that more than a month into Operation Epic Fury, Iranian officials still don't appear to be taking President Trump at his word, despite the fact that every time he says he's going to do something, he doesn't. And given the opportunity for diplomatic de-escalation, the Iranians just are not taking the olive branch that the president is giving them. They didn't take it before Operation Epic Fury began, and it doesn't appear that they're

taking it now. Despite the reports that they're willing to engage in negotiations, they are still launching drones and missiles at regional Gulf countries like Kuwait overnight, and also ballistic missiles at Israel just a few minutes ago targeting the southern city of Beersheba. And so the president appears very serious in his willingness to target Iran's energy infrastructure and power grids given the fact that the Iranians are not de-escalating their

attacks across the region and if these special forces were not successful in their operation overnight, Iranian forces were trying to capture this US pilot after the plane was shot down in southwestern Iran. And so at this point, the Iranians do not appear to be serious at the negotiating table. And the president taking to Tru Social over the weekend,

saying they have just 48 hours to change their tune, or these US and Israeli strikes will ramp up in the hours and days ahead.

All right. Trey Yinks, live force in Tel Training slide force until the trade great insight. Thank you. We'll check back in with you.

It's about the morning.

Thank you.

I'm Steve Doocy.

I'm Brian kill me.

And I mean, clear heart and click here to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page to catch our hottest interviews and most Fox News YouTube page to catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis.