President Trump stepped to the White House briefing room lectern just after 1 p.m. on Monday to confirm the successful, high-stakes recovery of two American airmen who had been trapped deep inside Iranian territory.
Flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and members of the Trump family, the President praised the military’s precision, calling the operation a “breathtaking show of skill” and noting that it made for “one of our better Easters.”
The drama began on Good Friday when a U.S. F-15 went down.
One airman was recovered quickly, but a weapons system officer remained on the ground, evading Iranian forces for nearly 48 hours.
Trump described how the officer, despite “bleeding rather profusely,” scaled treacherous mountain cliffs to reach a higher altitude and evade capture. The officer eventually used a “very sophisticated beeper-type apparatus” to signal his location.
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Once the signal was received, the U.S. unleashed a massive rescue force. The operation involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, and 48 refueling tankers. Trump noted that 21 aircraft in the initial wave flew through “very, very heavy enemy fire,” with one helicopter returning riddled with bullets.
While the mission was successful, it hit a snag when heavy planes and the weight of the departing troops became “bogged down” in wet sand. Commanders pivoted to a contingency plan, using “lighter, faster aircraft” to extract the team while destroying the stuck equipment on-site.
However, the briefing took a sharp turn when the President addressed a leak that he says nearly cost the airman his life.
Trump alleged that a media report revealed a second airman was missing while the rescue was still active, tipping off the Iranians. He claimed this leak led Iran to offer a “very big award” for the pilot’s capture, turning a military search into a manhunt involving “millions of people.”
“The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say, and that doesn’t last long,” Trump said, referring to the journalist’s source. He vowed to find the “sick person” responsible for the leak, suggesting that national security interests would justify jailing reporters who refuse to identify their sources.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe described the search as “hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” noting that the U.S. used “subterfuge” and “exquisite technologies” to trick the Iranians into looking in the wrong places.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth added a spiritual note to the recovery, stating that when the airman finally activated his transponder from a cave on Easter Sunday, his first message was: “God is good.”
Hegseth characterized the airman as “reborn” and confirmed that despite the intense combat and difficult terrain, the U.S. took no casualties during the extraction.
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