Sunday, April 5, 2026

The best news: The second airman has been rescued. UPDATED

Andrea Widburg - American Thinker


"This Passover and Easter season is a time of rescue, liberation, rebirth, and great hope. Here, in the non-religious realm, I cannot think of anything more aligned with this special season than yesterday’s rescue of the weapons systems officer.

"Events unfolded on Friday, when a lucky Iranian shot hit a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, manned by a pilot and a weapons systems officer (WSO). (Contrary to what ill-informed media outlets are saying, this was not a sign that the U.S. and Israel lack air supremacy over Iran. Even with complete air supremacy, it is still possible for an enemy to get lucky.)" . . .

. . . "For the left to pretend that our troops are victims is delusional, as well as demeaning and infantilizing to the men involved. They’ve taken on this risk and, when all goes well, they’ve had an adventure, something young boys were once taught to crave.

"And today, patriotic Americans celebrate that, after a harrowing adventure, everyone made it safely home.

"UPDATE: This tweet has more detailed information, for those who are interested"


The WSO evaded Iranian forces for more than 24 hours, at one point hiking up a 7,000ft ridgeline, a senior U.S. military official said. U.S. attack aircraft dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys to keep them away from the area where the airman was hiding. As U.S. Special Forces converged on the downed airman, they fired their weapons to keep Iranian forces away from the rescue site, but did not engage in a firefight with the Iranians.

In a final twist after the 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 the hands of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

 Full article here

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