Inside the 48-Hour Rescue: How the U.S. Saved a Downed Colonel in Iran I China Insights

In the early hours of Easter on April 5th, Trump announced on Truth Social, we got him. A U.S. Army colonel, wounded and armed with only a handgun, was hunted for 48 hours in the mountains of Iran until the early morning of Easter. The U.S. military rescued him from behind enemy lines in Iran. To save this one American soldier, the U.S. deployed several hundred special forces troops, dozens of fighter jets, transport planes and helicopters established a temporary forward base deep inside Iran, engaged in firefights with Iranian ground forces and in the end even had to destroy two MC-130J aircraft worth over $100 million each. Special operations transport planes and an MH-6 special operations helicopter were also involved. The total value of the military assets deployed in the entire operation amounted to several hundred million dollars, mobilizing the top forces from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and even Space Force. This is a real-life version of Saving Private Ryan, a life-and-death rescue that took place in the mountains of Iran just 48 hours ago. It is even more thrilling than any war blockbuster because every single detail is real. In the next 10 minutes, I will walk you through the entire process. On April 3rd, in the early hours of the morning local time, the night was deep in southwestern Iran with visibility as low as in a rainforest. An F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet from the 494th Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing was carrying out a night-time airstrike mission. This aircraft departed from RAF Lackanheath in the UK and was forward deployed in Jordan, making it the most active combat unit in Operation Epic Road. The F-15E is a twin-seat fighter bomber. The pilot in the front seat is responsible for flying while the weapons systems officer sits in the back. That night, Iran's air defense system locked onto this fighter jet and a After the plane was hit, both crew members almost simultaneously pulled the handles of the Aces II ejection seats. The canopy opened, the rocket motors ignited, and both of them were ejected from the cockpit with their parachutes opening in the night sky. Below them was a pitch-black mountainous area. No lights, no roads, only endless outlines of mountain ridges. Ejection is an extremely violent process for the human body. The instantaneous acceleration can cause spinal compression and neck injuries. The weapons systems officer in the back seat, who was also a colonel, was seriously injured during the ejection, but he was still able to move. Due to the time difference in their ejections and the high-altitude wind direction, the two of them landed in different locations. The pilot landed in a relatively open area. The weapons systems officer landed deeper in the mountains, and the two were thus separated, each isolated on their own. Neither knew the other's situation. After landing, both activated their personal encrypted communication devices and made contact with the U.S. military. The U.S. military learned that both men were alive, but they had been separated and were scattered in the rugged mountains of Kogiluia and Boyar Ahmad province in Iran. This is a mountainous area covering more than 5,900 square miles. Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that they had shot down a U.S. military fighter jet. Iranian state television began calling on local residents to search for the U.S. pilots, offering a reward for capturing them alive. With the provincial governor putting up a bounty of $60,000, local armed herdsmen took up their rifles and joined the search. From this moment on, two storylines unfold simultaneously. On one side, the U.S. military is racing against time to rescue the pilots, while on the other, the weapons systems officer is alone in the dark mountain ridges, struggling to survive while the Iranians are working frantically to capture them. Let's talk about the pilot's side first. Within just a few hours after the events of this episode, the U.S. military's combat search and rescue team arrived in Iranian airspace. An HC-130 Combat King II rescue tanker, accompanied by two HH-60 Pavehawk rescue helicopters, flew at extremely low altitude into Iranian territory. Videos circulating on social media show that these three aircraft were flying close to the farmlands and hills of southern Iran. During the flight, the HC-130J was refueling the two helicopters in mid-air. Flying in a low-altitude formation over enemy territory in broad daylight indicates that the situation at the time was extremely urgent. Normally, such missions would only be carried out at night. At the same time, a 10 attack aircraft entered the mission area to provide close air support. They were responsible for suppressing threats from the ground and opening up a safe corridor for the helicopters. MQ-9 Reaper drones circled at high altitude, providing real-time reconnaissance. F-35 fighter jets provided air cover from even higher up. The two helicopters quickly located the pilot's position, landed and picked him up. At the moment of takeoff, Iranian ground forces spotted them and immediately opened fire. Bullets from light weapons struck the helicopter's fuselage. A video was later released showing Iranian police firing automatic rifles at the U.S. military search and rescue helicopter flying at extremely low altitude. Some crew members on board were injured, but the helicopter was not shot down and managed to escape successfully. The pilot was rescued, but during the same period, an A-10 attack aircraft providing air support for the rescue operation was hit by Iranian fire. The A-10 is specifically designed to withstand ground fire. It has a titanium armor bathtub to protect its cockpit. With its twin engine design, this A-10 pilot, after being hit, managed to force the damaged aircraft out of Iranian airspace. It was only after entering Kuwaiti airspace that he ejected and parachuted to safety. This pilot was also eventually rescued. The A-10 crashed in Kuwait. The first person was rescued, but at that moment, the U.S. military did not immediately announce this news to the public. Later, Trump explained the reason, saying that we hadn't confirmed it yet and the first rescue was kept quiet because we didn't want to jeopardize the second rescue operation. If Iran had already known that the pilot had been rescued, they would have focused all their efforts on searching for the weapons systems officer. So at that time, the U.S. military chose to remain silent right as the pilot was being evacuated. Meanwhile, the other ejected officer, the weapons systems colonel, was experiencing a completely different situation. After landing, he performed a crucial maneuver, the S-12 technique, which U.S. pilots have practiced repeatedly during training. We talked about this yesterday. So for those who missed it, feel free to check out yesterday's episode. The S-12 technique is actually a core principle of survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training, which is to leave your landing site and head for higher ground. And don't activate your signaling system immediately. At higher elevations, it's harder to be detected by ground searches, but it's easier for your own forces in the air to locate you. In the mountainous regions of southwestern Iran, nighttime temperatures can drop sharply and the loose gravel makes footing unstable. The slopes are steep and this person, dragging an injured body, began to climb the ridge in almost complete darkness. There was no path, no equipment. With every step he took, he had no idea whether he was stepping on solid ground or at the edge of a cliff. The mountain wind swept up from the canyon, carrying sand and dust. He could only rely on his hands to feel the texture of the rocks and determine his direction. He advanced up the mountain inch by inch. He climbed to a ridge at an altitude of 7,000 feet, about 2,100 meters high. On the ridge, he was lucky enough to find a rock crevice and he hid himself inside. The location he chose was extremely precise. From above the ridge, American planes and drones could see his beacon and signals, while below the ridge, it was very difficult for Iranian ground search teams to spot him. And that rock crevice made him almost completely invisible from the ground. After hiding himself, he activated the portable positioning beacon and encrypted communication device he carried with him, sending out a signal which the U.S. military received. From that moment on, the U.S. military knew where he was and that he was still alive. But the U.S. military didn't immediately go to rescue him. Why was that? Because the conditions didn't allow it. The first operation to rescue the pilot had already exposed the U.S. military's search and rescue intentions. The helicopter was hit, and the A-10 aircraft that rescued the pilot was also hit. The entire province of Iran had already entered a state of high alert. At this point, if helicopters were sent deep into the same area again, it would be equivalent to sending the entire U.S. rescue force straight into Iran's firepower network. The U.S. military needed time to come up with a more complex, safer rescue plan, one that could minimize the risk to the rescue team and absolutely had to succeed. In the following 48 hours, it wasn't that the U.S. military couldn't find this person, but rather that they were protecting him in another way. At the forefront of this effort was the MQ-9 Reaper drone, acting as his aerial bodyguard. So what is the Reaper drone? It's a large armed reconnaissance UAV with a wingspan of up to 20 meters, capable of flying continuously at high altitude for over 20 hours. It is equipped with electro-optical and infrared sensors, allowing it to clearly see the outline of every person on the ground from several thousand meters up. It also carries Hellfire II missiles, which can accurately strike ground targets. During the 48 hours that the Colonel was in hiding, at least one U.S. MQ-9 drone was constantly circling above him, its sensors locked onto the Colonel's beacon location, and at the same time, it helped the Colonel monitor all the Iranians approaching him from every direction. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Air and Space Forces magazine, whenever Iranian military personnel approached within three kilometers of the Colonel, the MQ-9 would directly open fire and use missiles to strike those who got too close. In other words, while the Colonel hid motionless in the crevice of the rocks, the MQ-9 drone above his head eliminated and killed every enemy who came too close on his behalf. This is the reason he was able to hold out for 48 hours in that crevice. It wasn't that the Iranians didn't know his approximate location, but rather that every time someone got close, they would be silenced by a missile coming from the sky. However, this situation couldn't last forever. The Iranian search efforts kept escalating. The Revolutionary Guard sealed off multiple areas within the province, and local residents, including nomadic tribes, were all searching everywhere, driven by the bounty. At four o'clock in the morning, there were still locals searching the mountains with flashlights. The search area kept shrinking, the number of armed personnel was increasing, they were getting closer and closer, and the drone's ammunition was running out. Either the US military rescued the Colonel as soon as possible, or the Iranians would eventually find him by sheer numbers. What should they do? At this most critical moment, the CIA stepped in. The CIA launched a deception operation inside Iran, spreading false intelligence that the US military had already found the weapons systems officer, and was moving him out of the country by land. The Iranians received this intelligence accurately. If they believed it, their search efforts would shift to highway border crossings and checkpoints, and the search force along the ridge would be weakened. While the CIA was releasing this false information to try to divert and tie up Iranian attention, they also used their intelligence capabilities to further pinpoint the Colonel's exact location, as one senior official later said. This was the ultimate needle in a haystack. But this particular needle was a brave American soul, hidden in a mountain crevice. No one could find him except for the CIA and their capabilities. The CIA confirmed his exact coordinates and immediately reported them to the Pentagon. And the White House. Trump ordered an immediate rescue. The nighttime rescue operation began on April 4th and continued into the early hours of April 5th. This time, the rescue was no longer like those daytime missions where a few helicopters would fly in to pick someone up, like rescuing a downed pilot. The Colonel's location was too deep inside Iran's territory. If helicopters flew from the nearest safe zone, the distance would be too great, requiring midair refueling, and they would also have to cross Iran's highly guarded air defense zone. The US military needed a completely different plan to rescue him. First, establish a temporary transfer station inside Iran, and then set out from that station to pick him up. This is where the MC-130J Commando II Special Operations Transport Aircraft came into play. This aircraft is a core asset of the US Air Force Special Operations Command, specifically designed for covert infiltration and extraction missions behind enemy lines. It can take off and land on improvised runways with absolutely no lighting, and it can transport an entire special operations team along with vehicles and small helicopters deep behind enemy lines. The cost of a single aircraft exceeds $100 million. So at that time, at least two MC-130s flew deep into Iran under the cover of night, landing in a remote wasteland. They quickly established a temporary forward base, which in military terms is called a Forward Arming and Refueling Point FARP. The special forces unloaded MH-6 Little Bird Light helicopters from the aircraft's cargo hold. This type of small helicopter is the signature equipment of the US Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, nicknamed the Night Stalkers. It is lightweight and agile, specifically designed to quickly insert assault teams and extract personnel in narrow terrain. It can land in places where ordinary helicopters simply cannot. So the division of labor for the entire rescue formation is as follows. The MC-130J is responsible for transportation and establishing a temporary base. The MH-6 is responsible for the final approach to the mountain hideout where the colonel is located, while the HH-60 Search and Rescue helicopter provides support midway. The F-35 and other fighter jets provide high-altitude cover for the entire operation area. The MQ-9 drone continuously monitors the ground and is ready to strike any ground threats at any time. On the Israeli side, they are also cooperating with the operation. In the past 48 hours, they have suspended airstrikes against Iran to avoid accidentally harming US forces. At the same time, they are sharing intelligence with the US Special Forces set out from the temporary base along the route and then advanced toward the colonel's hiding place. During the approach, US forces and Iranian ground troops engaged in a firefight. This is the intense scene from the first exchange of fire that we saw on social media at the time. Fighter jets also bombed the surrounding area, using bombs and weapons fire to prevent Iranian troops from getting closer. They cleared a safe passage for the ground troops and ultimately broke through the layers of encirclement. The special forces located the colonel, pulled him out from that mountain crevice, and the nearly 48-hour-long pursuit finally came to an end. The person was successfully rescued and everyone began moving toward the evacuation point, which was the temporary base that had been set up. But suddenly, something went wrong. When the two MC-130s were preparing to take off and evacuate from that remote base, their engines started, the throttles were pushed forward, but the planes didn't budge an inch. Because the landing gear had sunk deep into the soft mud, the two special operations transport planes, each worth $100 million, were stuck in place by the mud and sand at this critical moment, right in the heart of enemy territory. The special forces had just finished a firefight. The Iranians could show up at any moment, and yet the evacuation planes couldn't take off. What should they do now? The commander didn't hesitate and immediately gave the order to detonate and destroy them. These two planes, equipped with the most sensitive electronic warfare equipment and communication systems, absolutely could not be allowed to fall into Iranian hands. The two MC-130s and one MH-6 Little Bird helicopter were blown up by the US military themselves. The explosion lit up the night sky over Iran. But in the end, everyone made it out alive. Three backup planes rushed in and evacuated all the special forces personnel and the rescued colonel. The three planes, one following right after another, almost nose to tail, flew out of Iranian airspace and headed straight for Kuwait. Before midnight local time, all US troops had withdrawn from Iran, and the colonel was sent to a hospital in Kuwait for treatment. Not a single US soldier was killed during the entire rescue operation. The day this F-15 was shot down was April 3rd, Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The day that colonel hid alone in the mountains of Iran was April 4th, Holy Saturday, the day after Christ was buried and awaited resurrection, and the early morning when he was rescued was April 5th, Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection. Fallen on Good Friday, reborn on Easter. Trump called it the Easter miracle. The United States is a nation founded on Christianity. On this most symbolic weekend, the country mobilized hundreds of special forces, dozens of fighter jets, an entire intelligence system, and military equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars, penetrating deep into enemy territory in Iran, all to rescue a single colonel. This was the first time in US military history that two pilots were successfully rescued separately from deep within enemy territory, and not a single American service member was killed in the entire operation. If you found this story fascinating, please remember to give me a like. New friends are welcome to subscribe to Junguandian. Here we focus on the Understand Major Events in 20 Minutes series. If you think this story deserves to be known by more people, please feel free to forward and share my program. I wish you all a pleasant weekend. That's all for today's discussion. Thank you for watching. I'm Jen Faye, and I'll see you next time.