- By Shubham Bajpai
- Sun, 05 Apr 2026 05:01 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
After nearly 48 hours and reportedly losing a couple of aircraft and helicopters, the United States finally rescued a weapons systems officer (WSO), who went missing after a two-seater F-15E Strike Eagle went down in the early hours of Friday.
What helped the US in successfully rescuing the WSO in one of the most daring operations in US Special Forces history was his efforts to evade being caught by the Iranian forces.
The WSO, a colonel as identified by US President Donald Trump, landed somewhere in mountain terrain inside the Iranian territory after ejecting from the aircraft. While the exact location of his landing remains unknown, an unnamed US official has mentioned southwestern Iran to the New York Times.
However, he was rescued using an abandoned airstrip in Isfahan, in the central province. The colonel reportedly had a handgun, a beacon, ration supplies and most importantly a secured communication device.
How US colonel evaded Iran
According to a report by Reuters, citing a US official, the colonel, at first, got away from the wreckage, as taught in a military training for downed aircrew, which includes Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape or SERE.
The colonel then moved to an elevated ground and took cover in a mountain crevice. While this kept him safe from the Iranian forces, he was also out of reach for the US forces.
The US media reports suggest that the colonel hiked up a ridgeline to 7,000 feet during his evasion. The mountain terrain helped him evade and get cover, but also made the rescue difficult while the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary force were actively looking for him.
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The colonel used his beacon judiciously and sparingly as its signal risked being detected by Iranian forces. What helped him effectively was a secure communication device, which he used to get in touch with the US troops.
Deception
As he was on the ground, evading, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aggressively running an operation at a psychological level. The US intelligence agency ran a deception campaign, which reportedly convinced Iranian forces that the US search had been successful and the airman was found and was being moved out of the country in a ground convoy.
This deflected the Iranian attention from the airman's real location. The US media portals, including NYT and Axios, cited officials who claimed that the CIA incorporated "unique capabilities" to track the officer's position.
Once located, the colonel's location was shared by the CIA with the Pentagon and the White House, prompting Trump to order an immediate rescue mission.
Meanwhile, the US aircraft in the sky were bombing the Iranian convoy heading towards the colonel's location.
Extarction
Then began the extraction. Hundreds of special operations personnel, along with dozens of aircraft, equipped with cyber, space and intelligence capabilities, initiated extraction by the Navy SEAL Team Six.
US Air Force men and multiple layers of combat support provided cover and evasion to the SEALs. With cover firing going on, the colonel was airlifted and flown out.