Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) “🇺🇸🇮🇷 The full story of the rescue is even more extraordinary than we knew... Cal” — TopicDigg

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The full story of the rescue is even more extraordinary than we knew... Call sign "Dude 44." An Air Force colonel. Shot down 200 miles inside Iran. He ejected wounded, climbed a mountain ridge, wedged himself into a rock crevice, and radioed three words: "God is good." Washington wasn't sure it was real. Officials initially suspected an Iranian trap and scrambled to verify he was alive. For 48 hours, Iranian forces, IRGC units, Basij militias, and civilian volunteers hunted him with helicopters and drones while a provincial governor offered bounties. The WSO could hear them getting closer. The rescue involved 100+ special operators, four B-1 bombers dropping nearly 100 two-thousand-pound bombs, MQ-9 Reapers striking fighters approaching within kilometers of his position, and a CIA deception operation that spread false intel inside Iran claiming the pilot had already been found and was being moved overland. The first rescue attempt failed. Two helicopters took fire, crews wounded, forced to land in Kuwait. Two MC-130Js landed at a makeshift base inside Iran and got stuck in the sand. Commanders flew in three smaller replacement aircraft, extracted everyone, and destroyed $200M+ worth of aircraft and helicopters on the ground. Trump's order when Hegseth confirmed the pilot's identity: "We have to get him." Source: WSJ