For the first time in 23 years, U.S military aircraft were shot down in enemy airspace. On March 27, two U.S. fighter jets, an F-15E and an A-10, were shot down with one service member being rescued shortly after, while the other was rescued after a harrowing 36 hours evading capture in Iran. The crewmember who was rescued later, a “highly respected Colonel,” according to reports, remains otherwise anonymous.  

Accounts of the mission from President Trump and other U.S. officials detailed this rescue mission as straight out of Mission Impossible. According to AP News, the CIA quickly launched a program to confuse the Iranian government, saying that they had already found the Colonel while rescue teams continued to scour the area the plane went down. 

The rescue took 7 hours in broad daylight, and employed a total of 176 military planes flying  at low altitude, all the while taking heavy fire from rifles. The badly injured colonel was miles away from the pilot who was rescued shortly after going down.  

The colonel followed protocol by climbing a cliff to a higher altitude while taking care of his wounds and quickly transmitted his location. The planes found him 25 miles off the coastline, though it is unknown how they got the pilot on the plane, before taking him to Kuwait for medical treatment along with the other pilot.  According to U.S. reports, there  were no American casualties. No comment has been made about the A-10.