President Donald Trump and members of his administration celebrated Easter Sunday’s successful operation to rescue an air force officer whose fighter jet was shot down in Iran last week.
“Despite incoming fire and unforgiving conditions, our troops brought every American home,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a press briefing Monday. “No American lives were lost.”
After the officer’s fighter jet was shot down, the injured officer survived by climbing to higher ground, treating his own wounds, and contacting American forces to request rescue.
“We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout, and he kept going higher and higher,” Trump said. “The mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and really, very, very hard to find.”
Because thousands of Iranians were searching for the pilot, the United States “executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airman,” CIA director John Ratcliffe said.
On Saturday morning, the U.S. confirmed the airman was alive and hidden in a mountain crevice, “still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA,” Ratcliffe said.
The United States deployed three helicopters to extract the American pilot. He was rescued at midnight Eastern time on Easter Sunday. An air armada protected the rescue team, including tactical drones, strike aircraft, and more.
“God was watching us,” Trump said. “Well, it was Easter. We were in Easter territory.”
Trump praised the military for carrying out the operation without any casualties. He said he will “never forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle.”
“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats, and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties.”
Ratcliffe said he was honored to serve under a president who lives out the motto, “No man left behind.”
“We’ve seen it against the cartels in the Western Hemisphere, and we’re seeing it every day in Operation Epic Fury, including this mission to rescue an aviator buried deep behind enemy lines,” Ratcliffe said, “because it is the unique tradition of the U.S. armed forces that we leave no man or woman behind.”
“Peace through strength” is not a slogan, Hegseth said, but “a doctrine that saves American lives.”
“His unwavering commitment to rebuilding our military and restoring the warrior spirit has paid dividends in missions just like this one,” Hegseth said. “Under this command, America progresses power with confidence and brings our people home with victory. And that continues today.”
