{"id":43245,"date":"2026-04-06T22:26:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43245"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:26:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:26:48","slug":"flight-rescuing-downed-airman-left-easter-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43245","title":{"rendered":"Flight Rescuing Downed Airman Left Easter Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The second downed airman who was rescued as the result of a massive and historic rescue operation was flown out of Iran Easter morning, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne downed airman evaded capture for more than a day, scaling rugged ridges while hunted by the enemy,\u201d Hegseth said, describing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/05\/behind-enemy-lines-u-s-executes-challenging-complex-missions-special-ops-history\/\">plight<\/a> of the F-15 weapon system officer \u2013 one of two airmen who were struck down in Iran last week.<\/p>\n<p>Both safely ejected from the aircraft but landed miles apart, resulting in one \u2013 the pilot \u2013 being rescued within hours. The other remained missing and, injured, trekked through mountainous terrain, remaining hidden until he could be rescued.<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth said by the time the downed airman was able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message was simple and powerful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe sent a message, \u2018God is good.\u2019 In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through,\u201d he said, noting that the F-15E Strike Eagle was struck down on Friday \u2013\u00a0Good Friday. The sequence of events saw the airman hidden in a crevice of a cave all day Saturday, and ultimately rescued on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a9d-pre\">\u201c\u2026Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave crevice all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cA pilot reborn, all home and accounted for. A nation rejoicing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a9d\"\/>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"\/>\n<p>\u201cGod is good. Despite incoming fire and unforgiving conditions, our troops brought every American home. No American lives were lost. We leave no man behind, and that is not luck,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the result of unmatched training, superior technology and unbreakable warrior ethos and sheer American grit. Our special operators, pilots and support crews performed with near perfection under fire, and they were lethal,\u201d he said. \u201cJust ask any Iranian soldier who dared attempt to get anywhere near that pilot before or during that mission.\u201d\u00a0 He said that U.S. troops turned a potential tragedy into \u201ca resounding demonstration of American resolve and capability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what excellence in uniform looks like,\u201d he said, also crediting President Donald Trump for taking decisive action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of this would have been possible without the courageous leadership and ironclad determination of President Donald J. Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the moment our airmen went down, President Trump made it clear we will leave no one behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>WATCH:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=360&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBreitbart%2Fvideos%2F887638904283076%2F&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=640&amp;t=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/06\/god-is-good-downed-airman-rescued-massive-operation-flown-out-iran-easter-morning\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second downed airman who was rescued as the result of a massive and historic rescue operation was flown out of Iran Easter morning, Secretary of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}