As Operation Epic Fury reaches its second week, Iran is desperate for something — anything — to show that they have some kind of capacity to rein in U.S. and Israeli air power.
Thus far, they’ve been at a complete loss. The allies have total air superiority over Iranian airspace, as they did during the 12-Day War last summer.
The only planes the Americans had lost up until Thursday were three F-15Es that were downed by friendly fire in Kuwait. Tehran, meanwhile, has been reduced to desultory missile strikes combined with low-tech drone attacks.
Then on Thursday, news came that a KC-135 tanker had crashed in western Iraq while on a mission. According to the Associated Press, the military said in a statement that the accident did not involve either hostile or friendly fire, but that it was unclear how many of the crew were injured, or were even on board the plane.
On Friday, U.S. Central Command revealed the worst-case scenario had come to pass: “All six crew members aboard a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft that went down in western Iraq are now confirmed deceased,” a brief media release read.
“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” it continued. “The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.”
A tragedy, to be sure — but not a tragedy precipitated by Iranian air defenses, almost certainly.
That didn’t stop Iranian state media from trying, in the most slipshod way possible, to pretend they did it.
In the early hours of Saturday morning Iran time, Press TV — Iran’s state-run international news network — posted what it said were “images of the six US crew members of the refueling aircraft that was downed by resistance forces in western Iraq on Thursday.”
It wasn’t just that they claimed resistance forces allied with Tehran took the plane down. There were even more problems with this announcement that a glance at the image would have revealed.
If you’ve followed the news any time in the past decade and a half, at least one of those photographs — and possibly two — should look familiar. In the upper right is the picture of Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army soldier who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was taken hostage by a Taliban-aligned group. Former President Barack Obama later traded five high-ranking Taliban officials in U.S. custody to get him back.
The Iranians are so bad with their fake claims that they included a photo of Bowe Bergdahl on this. https://t.co/30RHOtNmdS
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 14, 2026
The more eagle-eyed military news followers will recognize the man at the bottom left, meanwhile, as Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts, who received the Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart, among many decorations, for his bravery in Afghanistan.
Absurdly wrong on a sensitive matter.
Top left: Bowe Bergdahl, court-martialed for deserting his post in Afghanistan.
Bottom right: Ryan Pitts, Medal of Honor recipient.
Have to stay vigilant for accounts like this one, which has more than 56K followers. https://t.co/Uan0z45eox
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) March 14, 2026
None of these individuals appear to be the service members killed in the crash, although we don’t know their identities as of Friday night. It’s safe to assume that Bergdahl wasn’t involved in any way, though.
Yeah see that was the Secret Joint Airborne Refueling and Paratrooping & Admin Squadron, led by a guy who deserted to the Taliban.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) March 14, 2026
And what’s perhaps most insulting is how slapdash this all was. As one commenter noted, even the Bergdahl picture appears to be lifted from his Wikipedia page:
Bowe Bergdahl? Really?
You can’t even troll well. pic.twitter.com/ZFEqDRm2GN— GlammaSooz (@GlammaSooz) March 14, 2026
Good work. Sure no one will be able to trace that one.
Considering the amount of poorly done AI slop Iranian-run accounts have put out during the hostilities, they were already running on low trust with anyone who thinks critically about this stuff. Remarkable, then, that they could put out propaganda so awful that it made the slop look good by comparison.
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