Gen. Dan Caine Details Daring Daylight Rescue of Downed American Pilot in Iran
American warriors kept their promise: No one left behind.
Gen. Caine: “On Thursday, 2 April at 10:10 p.m. Eastern Time, 4:40 in the morning local Iran time, the Joint Personnel Recovery Center, which handles the Central Command area of responsibility, declared an isolated personnel recovery event for a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle, call sign Dude Four Four, which was down in hostile Iranian territory. The pilot and weapons system officer had both safely ejected and were isolated behind enemy lines.
Following confirmation of active rescue beacons and on the direction of the Secretary and by order of the President, a rescue operation was launched with the stated purpose of bringing both Americans home safely. As the Secretary said, several hours later on the morning after positively locating the front seater, call sign Dude Four Four Alpha, and aware of an aggressive ongoing search by the enemy, a U.S. Central Command plan was approved by the Secretary and the President.
Shortly thereafter, a U.S. Air Force combat search and rescue task force comprised of A-10 Warthogs in their Sandy role— and I’ll describe what that is in a minute—HC-130 Combat King IIs, HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopters, and Air Force special warfare airmen, a package comprised of combat rescue officers and pararescuemen operators, audaciously penetrated enemy territory in broad daylight to find, fix, and recover Dude Four Four Alpha from behind enemy lines.
This was an incredibly dangerous mission, an incredibly dangerous undertaking, but a filled promise made to every American warfighter that you will not be left behind. We will always come find you, and we will always bring you home.
Over the next hours, the search and rescue task force crossed the beach, entered into Iranian airspace, protected by a fighter strike package, and moved into the objective area, all under fire. En route, as some of you have seen on social media, the helicopters took gas off the C-130s and pressed onward and forward up into the objective area.
While this was ongoing and out in front of them, the Sandy flight of A-10s and other remotely piloted aircraft, drones, and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep them away from the front seater and allow the pickup force to get into the objective area.
During this engagement, one of the Sandy aircraft, the one primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot, was hit by enemy fire. This pilot continued to fight, continued the mission, and then upon exit, flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable. This was one of our A-10 Sandy aircraft. The pilot then made the decision to eject over friendly territory and was quickly and safely recovered and is doing fine.
After picking up Dude Four Four Alpha, the HH-60 Jolly Green flight was engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon, and one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits. The crew sustained minor injury, and they are going to be fine.
A note for those of you that do not know what a Sandy does: Named after the flight call sign that did this very mission in Vietnam, flying A-1 Skyraiders and A-7 Corsairs, a Sandy has one mission—get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward, and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy. They are committed to this. This is what they live for, and this is what they’ve trained for over many, many years.
The A-10 force and the rescue force did a fantastic job rescuing Dude Four Four Alpha. He was recovered Friday afternoon.
As I said, and the nation needs to know this, this was an incredibly brave and courageous mission and a testament to the courage, skill, and tenacity of the joint force and our leaders, and especially a daylight option, having the guts to try means so much to so many.”