A United States Air Force colonel has revealed the extraordinary story of how he survived nearly two days behind enemy lines in Iran after his F-15E Strike Eagle was blasted from the sky.
His account is a stunning [1] testament to American training, faith, courage, and the military promise to leave no man behind.
The weapons systems officer, identified publicly only by his mission call sign, Dude 44 Bravo, discussed the ordeal during an interview with CBS host Norah O’Donnell.
The interview aired during the season premiere of “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening.
Bravo and his pilot, known by the call sign Alpha, were flying over southwestern Iran on April 3 when an Iranian fighter struck their aircraft with a shoulder-fired missile.
The $30 million jet went down in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province near the Iraqi border.
Bravo described the missile impact as “getting hit by a freight train,” a blunt summary of the violent attack.
Alpha managed to eject both men before the damaged fighter crashed, but that was only the beginning of Bravo’s nightmare.
“My parachute was damaged in the initial attack. At one point, when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” Bravo told O’Donnell.
He estimated that he was falling toward the ground at somewhere between 70 and 100 miles per hour.
Rather than surrender to panic, the colonel focused on freeing tangled pieces of the damaged parachute and slowing his descent.
“I wasn’t focused on the speed at which I was falling. I was instead focused on trying to correct the problems that were in front of me. And doing anything I could to unfurl or pull pieces of the parachute loose,” he said.
Bravo slammed into the ground and suffered a broken back, broken arm, broken shoulder, sprained ankle, and cuts across his head and face.
Those injuries would immobilize most people, but this Airman was stranded in hostile territory where capture could mean being paraded before Iranian cameras.
Despite the pain, Bravo moved away from his landing location and began climbing toward safer ground.
“I had injuries, but we all train to adapt and overcome the things that we’re faced with,” he said.
“I moved as quickly as I could, despite the injuries, away from the place that I landed.”
Iranian fighters searched for him while a reported $60,000 bounty was placed on his head.
Bravo climbed a 7,000-foot ridge in the Zagros Mountains and concealed himself in a crevice, all while lacking food, water, and meaningful medical care.
His grim sense of humor remained intact as he pushed himself forward.
“Never let a lack of motivation put you on Iranian TV,” Bravo said, delivering the sort of brutally practical advice that only makes sense when hostile forces are hunting you.
After darkness arrived on his first day, Bravo transmitted a brief radio message that initially made American authorities worry about an Iranian trap.
“When I got to the moment where I could review and think about all that I’d gone through, I sent, ‘God is good,’ as a recognition of all that he had brought me through,” he said.
WATCH:
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1vds3"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");
Rumble("play", {"video":"v7dbcec","div":"rumble_v7dbcec"});
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was awakened during the night with news that the aircraft and its crew had gone down.
His response was direct and unmistakably American: “Whether they’re alive or not, we’re going to go get them,” Hegseth said.
Alpha landed roughly five miles from Bravo and suffered only minor injuries.
United States Special Operations forces recovered him within half a day during a dangerous daytime raid, even as American helicopters took enemy fire.
The first rescue force could not locate Bravo, forcing military leaders to prepare another mission while the injured colonel remained alone for another day.
The second operation involved dozens of aircraft, MQ 9 Reaper drones, large search and rescue planes, and small Little Bird helicopters operating from a makeshift desert strip.
American forces finally reached Bravo around sunrise on Easter Sunday, nearly 50 hours after his fighter was shot down.
Seeing his rescuers, he said, was “one of the greatest moments” of his life, and he was soon able to call his wife and tell her he was safe.
Bravo credited Alpha, the rescue crews, military training, leadership, and faith for bringing him home.
“It’s a story of the teamwork, the training, of the faith, of the decisions and the leadership to do something that will live in history as an example of what America’s willing to do, in order to uphold our promise and leave no man behind.”
WATCH:
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1vds3"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");
Rumble("play", {"video":"v7dbcxc","div":"rumble_v7dbcxc"});