Iran BRAGGED “We’ve Won”… Until Navy Seals PROVED OTHERWISE

We got him! The US has rescued the downed F-15 pilot who was behind enemy lines for 36 hours.

The US crew member who was missing in southwestern Iran after his F-15 was shot down has been rescued. The successful extraction was announced by President Trump overnight on True Social, who 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 the 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.

And here's the president on this operation. A rescue that's very historic. It'll go down in the books. Late Thursday night, an American F-15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory. Both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil.

I immediately was asked to make a decision. I ordered the US armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home a risky decision Because we could have ended up with a hundred dead as opposed to one or three. It's a hard decision to make But in the United States military We leave no American that's right. We don't do it. Within hours, our armed forces deployed 21 military aircraft

into hostile airspace, many flying at very low altitude, being shot by bullets. This first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located the pilot of the F-15, and he was extracted from enemy territory by an HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopter.

Fabulous machine as our warriors faced gunfire at very close range. It's amazing that when you look at the machinery, what happened, that nobody was even injured.

I know, it's such a success.

Meanwhile, the second crew member, a weapons system officer, highly respected colonel, had landed a significant distance away from the pilot when you're going at those speeds. Even if you go out two or three seconds later, it's miles, it's miles and miles away.

Because you're going fast.

Wow.

He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area, teeming with terrorists from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rough group, as well as besieged militia and local authorities. Wow. Many, on top of everything else, they told the communities actually within side of Iran,

the people of Iran, they were given a tremendous incentive to find this.

I can't believe that.

Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and 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 because they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you can.

Get out of there.

And he was injured and he was an amazing, amazing thing. He scaled cliff faces, treated his own wounds and

contacted American forces to transmit his location.

They have a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus. Apparently it's encrypted. That is on them at all times. And when they go out on these missions, they make sure they have lots of battery space and they're in good shape. That's awesome.

And this one worked really well, amazingly, saved his life. We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout and he kept going higher and higher, the mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and really very, very hard to find. The second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters,

48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have them think he was in a different location. Because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands of people were looking.

So we wanted them to look in different areas. So we were scattered all over like we were right on top of them. We had seven different locations where they thought, and they were very confused. They said, well, wait a minute. They've got groups here. They've got groups there, it's amazing.

Had them in circles.

Thanks, I was listening to these great people, these great generals, General Raisin Cain was amazing, and Pete Hexeth was amazing, but I listened to the whole thing, it was pretty amazing. So they had all these different sites where everybody thought he was located.

We think we have him over there because they have nine planes circling a little area. Wow. That's 25 miles down the coast.

It's deception.

So in a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America's military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats, and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind.

That's awesome.

The heroic F-15 weapons system officer had evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost 48 hours.

That's a long time.

Two days.

When you're in tough shape. When we left, as you probably know, we had two large planes, old, pretty old planes. It carried a lot. We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out, obviously, because going in, we needed to be able to scale mountains. And we had a lot of equipment. But the sand was, it was sandy, wet sand.

So we thought there may be a problem taking off because of the weight of the plane. And then we also had all the men jumping back onto the planes. And they got pretty well bogged down. And we had a contingency plan, which was unbelievable, where lighter, faster aircraft

came in and they took them out. We blew up the old planes.

That's crazy.

We blew them up to smithereens because we had equipment on the planes that frankly we'd like to take, but I don't think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off. We didn't want anybody to have, we have the best, best equipment anywhere in the world.

We didn't want anybody examining our anti-aircraft and other equipment. So these were large planes that were old and pretty old, and we blew them up. And we had faster, lighter planes come in, and they were able to land on the sand. We needed the bigger planes because we had so much equipment that we needed. We took three helicopters over there. Oh, wow.

Which were very strongly used and couldn't have lived without them. They performed unbelievably well. And if you'd see it, you wouldn't believe it. They came off the plane and these guys had them, the rotors were off. They rebuilt these helicopters in less than 10 minutes.

Wow, that's crazy.

And that was one of the more amazing things. These are helicopters, small, unbelievably powerful, but small, very small, so it can get into certain areas. And they got them off the plane and they rebuilt all three of them in a matter of less than, I would say less than ten minutes. It sounds like a million things went wrong but they still pulled it off.

The genius of these people. Wow. Who would think that? You'd think it would take five days to build them. And in some companies it would take five days and they wouldn't do it well. Yeah. But they served us well. As Commander-in-Chief, I never forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle and the genius. I mean, think of it, having a contingency of three planes waiting because we think the sand is so bad that we probably won't be able to take

off. And they say Trump's got no plan. They say he's got us into this war, he doesn't know what he's doing. It's just to stoke his own ego because he's a maniac. I mean, get out of here. He's got 10 plans more than anybody wants

to give him credit for. But to have a contingency as opposed to having to wait two days, can you imagine right in the middle, this was central. This was right, you would call it central casting if you were doing a movie for location. and Probably the toughest area of Iran where we'd be sitting there So these planes came in those pilots came in so fast and so quick and got out of there everybody got bored and just got 15 minute intervals one load out one load out one load out the three it happened and

We were watching and we said that's amazing. Yeah Wow in many ways I was I was almost more impressed by the contingency that we had then The fact that you know if we would have had a runway or decent soil, but it was amazing

That's what's so amazing about this had everything gone perfectly It would be a miracle But the fact that things went wrong that we didn't even hear about during this operation, the fact that rotors came off helicopters, that planes got stuck in the ground, the fact that there were enemy forces and that our special forces were under fire,

all of this happened and it still worked. Yeah, this US military rescue operation will go down in the history books as a successful operation that displayed not only the firepower but the intelligence of the US military. Remember hundreds of US forces landed south of the Iranian city of Isfahan undetected and they were able to make their way to this US crew member who was missing for nearly 48 hours hiding in a mountain range and ultimately rescue their colleague and get him out of enemy territory

The Iranians can say that they have air superiority. The reality is quite different Yeah, US forces not only were able to send in those special operators on the ground, but they were also watching from above This was being monitored by President Trump and top US general That's right for two days straight and whenever Iranians approached this area where the crew member was hiding They were struck Oh and this again speaks to the intelligence and how the United States was watching the president made clear on true social

That's why the regime didn't send their own forces out to locate these pilots right away. What happened? They sent civilians out there. They said hey, we've got a bounty for this pilot go find him So they told their own people to go out there and look for these pilots. And that's what you see on

the screen here. You see these squads marauding with flags. Last night, this US crew member was never alone because the United States had this advanced technology, the beaker inside the suit of this individual so that they could transmit their location to US forces. The CIA was involved. These ground forces and special operators along with dozens of US military aircraft landed there in Iran. This is deep inside enemy territory and were able to take the fight to the Iranians and ensure the suppression fire was accurate so these Iranians were not able to approach. Remember the

Iranians had put out a request for civilians in Iran and a reward of thousands of dollars to capture this US crew member.

They were afraid.

They were unable to do so because of the deception campaign that was waged by the CIA to make the Iranians think that this individual was already in US hands. While that was taking place, a massive operation was underway at the highest levels of the US military and government

to send in these special forces undetected south of this major Iranian city where there are thousands of Iranian military structures. And they were able to ultimately rescue this US crew member and safely get not only the crew member, but all of these special operators

out of Iranian territory.

That just shows you the overwhelming advantage that the United States has right now. Remember, we've been told for several weeks now that Iran's Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their surface to air missile capability is gone. We found out from President Trump himself

that the Iranians got lucky launching a shoulder fired missile, something that a person could carry at a low-flying aircraft. So they don't have some sophisticated defense system set up here.

They've got a few remnants that are hiding, trying to do whatever they can to stay in power, but it's not working.

So he was hiding somewhere in these mountains, which obviously he needed to do in order to not be captured by the people on the ground who were being told by the government, go get him, capture him. First they said kill him, then they said don't kill him, capture him, we want him alive. And they were offering $60,000 in bounty.

But him hiding in these crevices in the mountains, one, had to have made it more difficult for the Americans to rescue him. And I want you to speak to that, Trey. But also, does this operation, I mean, Griff said, you know, this operation confirmed that we did have air superiority. But does it also confirm that we had agents on the ground, spies who were helping our operators?

Probably yes. But here's the thing you gotta remember, air superiority, air supremacy. These are terms that describe how one force controls the battlefield in a given conflict. It doesn't mean that a battlefield is somehow a threat-free environment. It doesn't mean that a battlefield is a safe place all of a sudden. And that's the lie that the mainstream news in America tried pushing out. And it's just incredible some of the stuff that they've said.

Well, certainly the Iranian military's capacity to shoot down an F-15, a stealth fighter jet, certainly shows two things, Lindsey. First, it shows that their air defense systems, which is a multi-layered integrated air defense system, which is historically included, by the way, Russian air defense assets,

that air defense system has not been decimated.

Yeah, there's a lot wrong about that. The F-15, not a stealth fighter. The type of weapon used, not some sophisticated defense system Trump doesn't know about. Nope, shoulder launched missile,

but listen to what the spies are up to.

Beaks to the excellence of the US military and their preparation for an event like this to take place. Thousands of US and Israeli sorties have flown over the skies of Iran since Operation Epic Fury began. And this is the only incident of a US fighter jet being shot down. And again on Friday, the pilot was rescued by US special forces and overnight this US

crew member was rescued. It speaks to the ability of the Americans to prepare for something that can happen during war, a plane being targeted. While much of Iran's air defense systems have been taken out as a result of these successful US strikes, when they are able to shoot at US planes, these special forces are waiting for the call to go in

and rescue a colleague like they did overnight with this U.S. crew member. But when you think about the details of this operation, it was an operation that used the highest levels of U.S. intelligence to launch this deception campaign, but also to locate where this crew member was and ensure that U.S. forces could get to him before the Iranians did.

And when you think about what was taking place, the president was working through the day and night with top generals and military officials, understanding this was a race against the clock. This was not a simple mission. This was incredibly complex.

Do you think President Kamala Harris would have been able to pull that off? I don't think so.

Missing pilot over the course of more than 24 hours as the military sought to bring him to safety. The wreckage. It began on Friday, of course, when the F-15 was shot down. The US got their first communication from the missing weapons service officer later that evening, indicating that he was injured. And then over the next more than 24-hour period, on multiple fronts, the U.S. military sprung into action, organizing a search-and-rescue operation involving both aircraft but also

boots on the ground, as well as generating a misinformation campaign inside Iran to, in effect, throw Iranian authorities or attempt to throw them off the scent saying that both US pilots had by that point already been rescued. Wasn't true. The Iranian government was doing its best to try to find the pilot first, going so far as to encourage residents in the area to look for the pilot, report his location, even offering

a reward. And then that pilot in the midst of this found his way 7,000 feet up a ridgeline, hid there as his location was pinpointed. And then those forces went in again.

Hiding in an elevated location did two things. First, it got this pilot not only away from the crash site, but second, also to an elevated position where he could watch what was going on. Of course, the regime hit squads, they're gonna approach the crash site first,

see if there's anybody still there, check out the airplane, see what they can do, fan out from there and go look for everybody. The third thing it also did was since he's higher up, it means there's not gonna be any interference,

getting his signal to the rescuers to let them know where he was hiding This guy was a fugitive and one of the most dangerous countries ever and he knew exactly what to do low-flying aircraft

including helicopters and fixed-wing So dangerous that in the end the US lost two aircraft. They weren't able to take off They were later destroyed so that they wouldn't fall into Iran. You know, boom up. But that pilot taken to safety, time to treat those injuries, serious injuries, though we are told he will recover. Just a remarkable more than 24 hours with a tremendous outcome for the military, for the pilot, and certainly for his family and loved ones.

And while many people were saying, oh, this proves Trump's been lying. Oh, this proves Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. Playing games with American lives. Look at what it actually means.

Yeah, I was talking to some sources last night when this was all coming together overnight in Iran. And you think about that the past 36 or 48 hours, depending on how you look at it, is going to be made into probably a couple of movies, just in terms of the extraordinary nature

and heroism of what went on.

Probably not, Holly, you don't like any of this.

This was America at its best, right? The covenant between air crews who fly deep behind enemy lines to carry out missions, and the hundreds of men and women who then risk their lives to go find and bring home this one person.

And it wasn't guaranteed that any of those, or all of those hundreds who then went in on the ground, the Delta Force.

That's right, no guarantees.

The Army 160th pilots, the gunship pilots, the A-10 pilots, all who converged there, there was no guarantee they were gonna come home either.

I know.

But they were all willing to risk everything to go in and save this one man.

Yeah.

Absolutely extraordinary what's happened over the past 48 hours. It's something only the United States can do.

That's our country. That's a country we should be proud of. That's a country we shouldn't be ashamed of. That's a country that wouldn't exist if we didn't have the president and the leadership team that we have behind all of this and I don't know how anybody could argue with that. I don't know how anybody could say that this country would be this strong and able to accomplish that stuff if other people were running it right now

while enabling the very regimes that are waging war against us. At one point it appears as though this colonel, injured some 7,000 feet up onto a ridge line to allow the rest of the Air Force to fly in and bomb and keep the IRGC and the Baji militia below that ridge line. So it gave them a free fire zone. And then he waited for this massive to come in. He was waiting for the

helicopter to come in the fire zone, and then he waited for this massive rescue package is what they call it. So gunships refueling aircraft. And then the helicopter with the Delta

and pararescue guys on him to come in. There are reports that there were two, um, planes that the U. S had to burn at a remote airfield in Iran that they may or may not have left. That's unconfirmed. I think, Hannah, the other part of this-

Those planes that got blown up allegedly landed at an airfield in Iran. Now think of that. How can there be a vacant airfield in Iran if Iran, Iran, whatever, if they're in control of their country, if they're in power, if they've got aircraft and military personnel at that airfield, it was abandoned. It was just sitting there and the US used of their country, if they're in power, if they've got aircraft and military personnel at that airfield, it was abandoned. It was just sitting there and the US used it as part of this rescue operation. They're not in control of their country.