00:00The officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and
00:05started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to
00:11evade capture. He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds and
00:19contacted American forces to transmit his location. We immediately mobilized a massive
00:26operation to retrieve him. The second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four
00:33bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We had seven different
00:41locations where they thought and they were very confused. They said, well, wait a minute.
00:46They've got groups here. They've got groups there. It's amazing. Late Thursday night, an American F-15
00:52fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory in Iran while participating in Operation Epic
00:59Fury, where we're doing unbelievably well, well at a level that nobody's ever seen before.
01:07The entire country could be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.
01:14Both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil. I immediately
01:21was asked to make a decision. I ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to do whatever was necessary to bring
01:29our brave warriors back home. A risky decision, because we could have ended up with 100 dead as
01:36opposed to one or two. It's a hard decision to make. But in the United States military,
01:43we leave no American behind. We don't do it. Within hours, our armed forces deployed 21 military
01:50aircraft into hostile airspace, many flying at very low altitude, being shot by bullets.
01:57You bring rifles into play when you're going that low, but there are also certain advantages.
02:04And in broad daylight over Iran for seven hours, at times facing very, very heavy enemy fire,
02:12we have a helicopter that's got a lot of bullets in it. It's amazing. We just realized how good those
02:17those weapons are, those are machines are. Nobody has, nobody has the equipment that we have,
02:25and nobody has the military that we have, not even close. The most powerful military anywhere in the
02:30world by far. The flight crews and warfighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to
02:36rescue their fellow service members. This first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located
02:43the pilot of the F-15. And he was extracted from enemy territory by an HH-60 Jolly Green 2
02:52helicopter,
02:53fabulous machine as our warriors faced gunfire at very close range. It's amazing that when you look
03:03at the machinery, what happened, that nobody was even injured. Meanwhile, the second crew member,
03:09a weapons system officer, a highly respected colonel, had landed a significant distance away from the
03:16pilot when you're going at those speeds. Even if you go out two or three seconds later, it's miles,
03:22it's miles and miles away because you're going fast. He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area
03:30teeming with terrorists from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a rough group,
03:35as well as besieged militia and local authorities. Many, on top of everything else, they told the
03:46communities actually with inside of Iran, the people of Iran, they were given a tremendous incentive to
03:54find this pilot. Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous
04:01mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in
04:08order to evade capture. They want to always go as far away from the site of the shoot down. You
04:18want to go
04:19as far away because they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you
04:23can. And he was
04:25injured and he was an amazing, amazing thing. He scaled clip faces, bleeding rather profusely,
04:34treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have a very
04:41sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them at all times. And when they, when they go out on these
04:51missions, they make sure they have lots of battery space and they're in good shape. And this one worked
04:58really well, amazingly saved his life. We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from
05:04the mountain holdout. And he kept going higher and higher. The mountain kept getting rougher and rougher
05:12and really very, very hard to find. The second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four
05:20bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all over and a
05:30lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have them think he was in a different location because they had
05:37a vast
05:37military force out there. Thousands, thousands of people were looking. So we wanted them to look in
05:44different areas. So we were scattered all over like we were right on top of them. We had seven different
05:50locations where they thought and they were very confused. They said, well, wait a minute. They've got
05:55groups here. They've got groups there. It's an amazing thing. I was listening to these great people,
06:03these great generals. General Raisin Cain was amazing. And Pete Hegseth was amazing. But I listened
06:09to the whole thing. It was pretty amazing. So they had all these different sites where everybody thought
06:15he was located. We think we have them over there because they have nine planes circling a little area
06:21that's 25 miles down the coast. So in a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force,
06:31America's military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer,
06:39destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind.
06:47The heroic F-15 weapon system officer had evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost 48 hours.
06:57Because that's a long time when you're in tough shape and when you're bleeding. It's a long time.
07:03When when we left, as you probably know, we had two large planes, old, pretty old planes that carried
07:11a lot. We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out, obviously, because going in,
07:16we needed to be able to scale mountains. And we had a lot of equipment. But the sand was it
07:23was sandy,
07:24wet sand. So we thought there may be a problem taking off because of the weight of the plane.
07:30And then we also had all the men jumping back onto the planes and they got pretty well bogged down.
07:36And we had a contingency plan, which was unbelievable, where lighter, faster aircraft came in
07:44and they took them out. We blew up the old planes. We blew them up to smithereens because we had
07:50equipment on the planes that, frankly, we'd like to take. But I don't think it was worthwhile spending
07:54another four hours there taking it off. So we didn't want anybody to have the best, best equipment
08:00anywhere in the world. We didn't want anybody examining our anti-aircraft and other equipment.
08:07So these were large planes that were old and pretty old. And we blew them up. And we had faster,
08:15lighter planes come in and they were able to land on the sand. We needed the bigger planes because we
08:20had so much equipment that we needed. We took three helicopters over there, which were very strongly
08:24used and couldn't have lived without them. They did. They performed unbelievably well. And if you'd see
08:31it, you wouldn't believe it. They came off the plane and these guys had them. The, the, uh, the rotors
08:37were off. They rebuilt these helicopters in less than 10 minutes. And that was one of the more amazing
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