CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Monday that Iran was “embarrassed and ultimately humiliated” by the daring rescue mission of a downed U.S. Air Force officer from behind enemy lines on Sunday.
Thursday night, the Iranians shot down an F15-E fighter jet in a mountainous southwest region of their country.
The pilot and his weapons systems officer ejected from the plane. The pilot was recovered that day, but the rescuers could not reach the WSO, code-named “Dude Bravo 44,” who was “injured quite seriously,” the New York Post reported.
The Air Force colonel employed his Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training and, though injured, made his way up a mountainside, avoiding capture for over 48 hours.
“At the president’s direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” Ratcliffe told reporters.
“This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected,” he continued.
.@CIADirector: “CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians, who were desperately hunting for our airmen. On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America’s best and bravest was alive… Following the… pic.twitter.com/HYPXdvhxPf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 6, 2026
“For that reason, in addition to the human and technical assets deployed by the president to find our airman, CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians, who were desperately hunting for our airman,” Ratcliffe said.
Politico reported, “The CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had already found the airman and were exfiltrating him out of the country by ground, according to two senior administration officials.
“The feint bought time for the CIA to locate the downed airman and quietly relay his precise whereabouts to the White House and Pentagon, added the two officials, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media,” the news outlet added.
Ratcliffe told reporters, “On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America’s best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice — still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA.”
“Following the successful exfiltration on Saturday night, our intelligence reflects that the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission,” he explained.
Trump said Monday of the mission, “We’re here today to celebrate one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat searches … ever attempted by the military.”
“We had great talent, and we got a little luck, too, I would say,” he added.
Trump said the decision to rescue both pilots came with great risk “because we could have ended up with a hundred dead, as opposed to one or two.”
A large contingent of U.S. special operations personnel reportedly took part in the rescue.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth could not help noting that the timeline of the rescue operation suggested God may have had a hand in its positive outcome.
When the downed weapons officer activated his transponder, his first message was “God is good,” Hegseth recounted.
.@SecWar: “Shot down on a Friday — Good Friday — hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter.” pic.twitter.com/1GWtaiYoyj
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 6, 2026
The secretary of war noted the officer was “Shot down on a Friday — Good Friday — hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.”
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