Statement from President Donald J. Trump
FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND! This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue. At my direction, the U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine. This miraculous Search and Rescue Operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave Pilot, yesterday, which we did not confirm, because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation. This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory. WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND! The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies. This is a moment that ALL Americans, Republican, Democrat, and everyone else, should be proud of and united around. We truly have the best, most professional, and lethal Military in the History of the World. GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!
Here is a reported timeline of events:
BREAKING:
🇺🇸 This is the greatest Rescue operation in history of America.
48-HOUR RESCUE INSIDE IRAN
HOUR BY HOUR
APRIL 3
– F-15E Strike Eagle (Viper 21) shot down by Russian missile over southwestern Iran.
– Mach 2.8 intercept, proximity fuse detonation.
– Both crew eject successfully.
HOUR 0
– Pilot recovered within minutes by ground team.
– WSO lands alone, injured (broken ankle), deep in enemy territory.
HOURS 1-4
– WSO starts evasion using night and terrain.
– IRGC launches massive manhunt with drones and dogs.
HOURS 4-8
– Thousands of Iranian civilians join the search for bounties.
– U.S. jams Iranian radars and communications.
HOURS 8-12
– WSO climbs 7,000-ft ridge despite injury.
– U.S. strikes crater roads to block IRGC reinforcements.
HOURS 12-18
– WSO reaches ridge top, hides in rocky crevice.
– Makes first brief radio contact with friendly forces.
HOURS 18-24
– A-10 Warthog shot down by Chinese MANPADS.
– Pilot safely recovered by naval assets.
HOURS 24-30
– Two HH-60W rescue helicopters hit by ground fire during attempt.
– Crews wounded but return to base.
HOURS 30-36
– U.S. escalates with cruise missile strikes on IRGC air defenses.
– WSO survives near-miss drone strike, relocates under fire.
HOURS 36-42
– Nighttime full extraction launched.
– Special operations teams insert and engage IRGC in firefight.
HOURS 42-48
– WSO located, stabilized on site, and extracted under heavy fire.
APRIL 5 — EARLY HOURS
– WSO pulled out alive and conscious.
– Both F-15E crew members safe.
BREAKING:
🇺🇸 This is the greatest Rescue operation in history of America.
48-HOUR RESCUE INSIDE IRAN
HOUR BY HOURAPRIL 3
– F-15E Strike Eagle (Viper 21) shot down by Russian missile over southwestern Iran.
– Mach 2.8 intercept, proximity fuse detonation.
– Both… pic.twitter.com/XFEVE0U3Dl— World updates (@itswpceo) April 5, 2026
Here’s another perspective:
In the unforgiving calculus of war…where every second in enemy territory is a razor’s edge between life and a mullah’s trophy…America just reminded the world why no adversary has ever broken our resolve.
Two United States Air Force airmen, crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down over hostile Iranian skies, were hunted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. One pilot extracted under fire within hours.
The second…a battle-hardened colonel, weapons systems officer…evaded capture for nearly forty-eight hours in treacherous terrain while IRGC thugs closed in with bounties on his head.
Our special operators, backed by layered air cover, night-vision dominance, and the lethal precision only American warfighters possess, went in deep, extracted both men alive, and left no one behind.
Zero American fatalities in the rescue.
One of the most audacious combat search-and-rescue missions in our history, executed with surgical lethality against a regime that dreams of parading our pilots like trophies.
Thank f*cking heavens…and thank the United States military, the finest fighting force ever forged on this earth.
National pride isn’t a slogan here; it’s the fire in our blood. We do not abandon our own.
We do not negotiate with terrorists. We strike, we retrieve, we dominate.
That is who we are.
But while our airmen were being hunted and our operators were bleeding for them in the dark heart of Iran, a vocal faction on the American Left…the intellectual and moral rot that has metastasized into the bane of our existence…didn’t just stay silent.
They cheered. They hoped.
They posted, they pontificated, they prayed in their twisted way for those pilots to fall into Iranian hands.
Not because of policy disagreement. Not because of some principled anti-war stance. Because they despise this country at a pathological level.
This is not politics; it is psychological warfare turned inward. A self-loathing so profound, so diabolically f*cked up, that it inverts every natural loyalty:
American lives become liabilities, enemy regimes become victims, and our military excellence becomes the real enemy.
It’s the same ideological possession that turns campus radicals into useful idiots for Tehran’s theocrats…cheering the very regime that stones women, hangs gays, and funds the slaughter of innocents worldwide…while sneering at the nation that gave them the freedom to spew their venom.
Iran’s regime, already reeling from precision strikes that have gutted its air defenses, missile sites, and command nodes, was salivating at the propaganda coup of captured Americans.
A Left that roots for that outcome doesn’t merely embarrass itself; it emboldens our enemies, erodes our deterrence, and signals to every adversary from Beijing to Moscow that America’s home front is soft, fractured, and eager for self-flagellation.
This isn’t dissent.
This is active pathology…treason dressed in the language of “nuance.”
It reveals a mind so poisoned by decades of anti-American indoctrination that it cannot process the visceral truth: these pilots were not abstract symbols of imperialism.
They were fathers, sons, brothers…Americans risking everything to project power in a theater where weakness invites apocalypse.
The rescue succeeded in spite of them.
Our military succeeded in spite of them.
And the American people…those with spines intact…see it for what it is:
a stark, lethal demarcation between those who love this republic and those who would watch it burn for the dopamine hit of ideological purity.
To the pilots:
You are the proof that American excellence still conquers.
💀🪖🗡️🇺🇸🦅
In the unforgiving calculus of war…where every second in enemy territory is a razor’s edge between life and a mullah’s trophy…America just reminded the world why no adversary has ever broken our resolve.
Two United States Air Force airmen, crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle shot… pic.twitter.com/9bqLHpTIoB
— LHGrey™️ (@grey4626) April 5, 2026