AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump announced early this morning that the U.S. military successfully carried out a dramatic rescue of an Air Force officer whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran. U.S. rescue teams and Iranian forces were engaged in an urgent search to save or capture the downed American airman. The U.S. got to him first. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre joins us now with details. Good morning, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So President Trump made this announcement online. What did he say?
MYRE: Yeah. The president posted a lengthy statement on Truth Social just after midnight. Now, as we know, this began Friday when the Iranians fired and hit a U.S. F-15 fighter jet over western Iran. The two crew members, a pilot and a weapons systems officer, both ejected. And when they do this, they have beacons that send a signal so they can be located. The U.S. military immediately began scrambling to launch a rescue operation. Trump said this involved dozens of aircraft and hundreds of troops. The pilot was found and rescued quickly inside Iran, but the second crew member, an Air Force colonel, could not be reached.
RASCOE: And the Iranians knew the plane had been shot down. So they were trying to capture this airman, right?
MYRE: Exactly. And the Iranian military wanted to seize him. They sent out a public call for ordinary Iranians to try to find him and promising a reward if they captured him. So there's this frenetic search by both the U.S. and Iran to get to the airmen. Trump wrote in his post, quote, "this brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran being hunted by our enemies who were getting closer and closer by the hour" (ph). And it turns out the colonel was also wounded. Somehow, he managed to take cover and stay hidden in a mountainous area and avoided being captured for well over a day. However, the U.S. teams that were searching for him were also at risk because they were flying in an area where the Iranians had already shot down one plane.
RASCOE: And were these rescue teams able to avoid detection?
MYRE: No, not at all. They were flying low and slow as part of this risky mission. We've seen footage on social media that appeared to show some of these U.S. aircraft in flight. The American teams fired on Iranian forces to drive them away from the area where they were looking. And this is coming from U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. And they said three U.S. aircraft were hit during the rescue. One was an A-10 Warthog, and after it was hit, the pilot managed to get his damaged plane out of the area and into the airspace over nearby Kuwait. He then ejected and was soon rescued in friendly territory. Also two U.S. helicopters were hit by Iranian ground fire. These teams were able to return to their bases and land safely.
RASCOE: So all this is happening, and the colonel was still out there waiting to be rescued, right?
MYRE: Yeah. And Trump, as I noted, said the Iranians were closing in on him, but the U.S. forces found him first. They picked him up, flew him out of Iran. Trump says he's safe and sound, though we don't know exactly where he is or the extent of his injuries. Still a lot of details we don't know. The New York Times is reporting that two U.S. planes landed to pick up the injured colonel and the other troops, but were not able to fly out. It's not quite clear why. The paper said the U.S. sent three more planes to pick up the Air Force officer and the others on the ground, and then blew up the two planes that they had to leave behind.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thank you so much.
MYRE: Sure thing, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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