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CONFIRMED!!! F-15 Weapons Systems Officer Rescued After Massive Firefight; UPDATED WITH DETAILS – HotAir

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April 4, 2026
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Iran Shoots Down F-15 – HotAir

UPDATED ALREADY! 

I’m writing a new post since the last one got so messy. In fact, I’ve had to edit this post twice already, less than an hour after I first posted it. Never done that before, I think. 





First things first, neither the Air Force nor CENTCOM has made an official announcement, but there are now multiple fairly credible reports that the Weapons System Officer from the F-15 shot down in Iran has been recovered. His condition is unknown, although several reports say he is “safe,” implying that he is alive and not mortally wounded. 

Al Jazeera is the first “mainstream” outlet reporting this news as fact, and their report cites unnamed US government officials, and not much else. 

Fox News just confirmed Al Jazeera’s reporting! 

Fox News can confirm that the 2nd crew member of the downed F15E fighter jet has been rescued and he and the members of the rescue team that extracted him from behind enemy lines in Iran are all safely out of Iran. That according to two senior US officials and multiple well placed sources in the region. The Weapons Systems Officer ejected along with the pilot when their F15E Strike Eagle they were flying was struck Thursday night (early Friday local time) in southwest Iran. 

The WSO used the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training to evade capture, hiding on an elevated ridge after hiking away from the wreckage and putting out an emergency beacon.) US Special Operations rescue forces to include PJs (United States Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs) and many layers of elite rescue forces took part in the complex, layered mission to both find the crew member and also keep the Iranian forces who were hunting the American weapons system operator at bay. There are videos that have appeared from local eyewitnesses that show what appear to have been  injured and dead Iranian members of the IRGC and Basij who were looking for the downed American crew member. Fox has learned there was fighting on the ground but no Americans killed during the operation. “It was a very complex operation to retrieve the downed service member,” a well placed source briefed on the operation told me. Many different branches of the US military were involved in the rescue.

Fox News can confirm the A10 Warthog that crashed Friday was involved in providing cover for the rescue teams searching for the pilot. That A10 crashed in Kuwait (first reported by ABC Friday) but the A10 pilot managed to eject safely and was rescued. There was destruction of aircraft which have sensitive equipment on board, I am told, all part of this complex CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) mission.

The F15E was pretty much destroyed on impact. Two rescue helicopters were hit by enemy fire on  Friday and crew members onboard were injured by enemy fire but managed to make it out of Iran.

There were a lot of elements to this rescue, I am told.





Two congressmen, including Elise Stephanik, had already leaked that the rescue was complete and successful, likely jumping the gun given that the White House wanted the information held close until all the ducks were in a row. 

The breaking reports of the safe rescue of the F-15 WSO are a profound relief to every American. God Bless this brave servicemember who evaded capture in the most challenging circumstances and God Bless the special operations forces who put their lives on the line for this dangerous rescue mission. 

It is a deeply engrained patriotic value that Americans will to go to the ends of the earth (and beyond!) and do whatever it takes including risking it all to bring their fellow Americans home.  

Happy Easter, indeed. ✝️

Also reporting the safe return of the airman were two well-connected independent journalists who are deeply tied into the special forces community and well-respected by their peers. Their report came hours ago, indicating the lag time between success and everybody who needed to be informed privately being complete. 





Many reports of massive firefights and deaths of Basij militia have flowed in, including from Iranian government sources. A hospital in Iran has been treating many people from the fighting and has asked for blood donations, and spoke of martyrs. 

Iranian government sources told civilians to stay at least a kilometer away from the area where a battle was raging. 

Lots of us were scouring the internet, gleaning bits and pieces of information, and, as usual, X is where you find the best and the worst of it, and sorting it out is a herculean task. 





🚨 UPDATE: WSO from downed U.S. F-15E rescued inside Iran.

According to U.S. officials cited by multiple outlets, the weapons systems officer (WSO) from the F-15E shot down over Iran has now been successfully rescued by U.S. special operations forces.

•The rescue followed a high-risk operation inside Iranian territory

•Both crew members are now confirmed to have survived and made contact after ejecting  

•The mission came amid a race against Iranian forces searching for the downed airmen  

Earlier reports had indicated:

•One crew member (pilot) was rescued shortly after the shootdown

•The WSO remained missing for over 24–36 hours during intense search efforts

Somebody at the USAF Special Forces Recruiting is going to lose their job, because a couple of hours ago, they posted about the successful rescue, and officials scrambled to disassociate the Air Force from the site. There is a reason why the government waits to release information—to ensure family members and others who need to know find out first from official channels, not rumors on the internet. 

Somebody jumped the gun, fueling the frenzy of people like me searching for every scrap of information. 

I guess that is what you would call “malinformation;” it’s true, but inconveniently timed. 

Well, now that the president has confirmed this, we can all breathe a sigh of relief! Except that guy who is going to get fired. 

UPDATE: The New York Times provides some interesting details on the rescue:





The mission to save the crew member employed hundreds of special forces troops, dozens of U.S. warplanes, helicopters, and cyber, space and other intelligence capabilities.

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. forces converged on the downed airman, a firefight erupted, two former senior military officials briefed on the operation said.

The airman was equipped with a beacon and a secure communication device for coordinating with forces mounting the rescue.

A senior U.S. military official described the mission to rescue the airman as one of the most challenging and complex in the history of U.S. special operations.

In a final twist after the weapons 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 airmen, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands.

Well, that tells you something about how America fights wars. Hundreds of special operators, and when the C-130s (I assume) got stuck in the sand, we flew in 3 more and blew up the other two. 

Awesome. We’ll do anything to get our men out. 

Think Vlad the Mad Putin or even Emmanuel Macron would? That would be half their air force.

UPDATE:





🚨A senior Trump administration official told me that prior to locating the weapons systems officer and the U.S. military rescue operation, the CIA first launched a deception campaign spreading word inside Iran that U.S. forces had already found him and were moving him on the ground for exfiltration out of the country 

🚨The official said the CIA used its unique capabilities to search for – and find – the weapons systems officer. “This was the ultimate needle in a haystack but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA’s capabilities”, the official said

🚨According to the official the CIA immediately shared the pilot’s exact location with the Pentagon, the U.S. military and The White House

🚨The President ordered an immediate rescue mission, which the Pentagon executed, with the CIA continuing to provide real time information in support of this mission, the official said


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