There is more information emerging about the rescue of the second crew member from the downed F-15E. The story the Trump administration is telling is, in my opinion, an exaggeration. It is now clear that once the plane crashed, the CIA and the Pentagon launched a massive disinformation campaign to convince the Iranians that the plane and missing crew man were in a different location. They did a good job of misleading the Iranian authorities.
The fabricated story was that the F-15E was shot down in ‘southwestern Iran’ with geolocations showing roughly 30.787710, 50.701440, which is about ~80km from the Iranian coastline: That was all a smokescreen. The plane actually crashed in an area just south of Isfahan at 32°22’52.5”N 51°40’19.6” . It is now clear that the CIA and DOW were putting out information that the jet had crashed near Khuzestan, which is near the north end of the Persian Gulf… About 120 miles from the actual crash site (see map below), in order to keep the Iranians from going to the actual crash site: Based on the map at the top of this article, the WSO Colonel landed near highway 65 and then hobbled less than 1 mile up the mountain slope to the west and hid himself in a mountain crevice. The initial report that he walked/hobbled five miles and then clambered 2000 feet up a mountain to a hiding place is a fish tale. It will play well in the movie, when it is made.
Take a look at the following map. The WSO landed somewhere just south of Mahyar and then moved almost two kilometers to the east to await rescue. The FARP, aka Forward Arming and Refueling Position, was located about three kilometers to the east of the WSO’s hideout. That means the CSAR landed near the Shah Ali Shrine. So how many military personnel were involved in this rescue? There are three crew members on each C-130J. Both planes were loaded with two AH-6 “Little Birds.” I continue to believe that the C-130Js had been pre-loaded in prep for a JSOC mission to raid the nuclear sites in Isfahan or Natanz, which is north of Isfahan. However, I doubt that the rescue mission would have required pilots for all four birds. Instead, I believe that there were only two sets of pilots — i.e., two to fly the rescue mission and two as backups in case the first AH-6 failed or crashed. This brings us to a total of 10 personnel so far.
Which brings us to who conducted the rescue… I believe that at least two, and maybe four, members of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, aka 24th STS, were involved. They are the PJs — i.e., Pararescue Jumpers. They are the ones who sat in the side door of the Little Bird that flew up the mountain to rescue the WSO. Here again, I’m assuming that there were only two PJs on the bird, and the other two remained at the FARP as backups. This leaves us with the issue of perimeter security. The press has reported that members of SEAL Team Six were involved in the operation. The C-130J, in addition to hauling two AH-6 helicopters, can carry 8 to 12 personnel with combat loads. This means there was a maximum of 24 personnel to provide perimeter security or a minimum of 16. The press reports that more than 100 personnel were on the ground, in addition to the crews of the C-130Js and the AH-6 helicopters is, in my opinion, a gross embellishment. If there were that many people they would have needed a third C-130J to arrive on scene.
The guys who executed this mission did an incredible job. If you look closely at the map there are a couple of population centers nearby, which means they likely encountered hostile fire and probably killed a few of the local population that tried to approach the scene. I doubt that there was a sustained firefight because such activity would have made it unlikely that the C295 plane that arrived to evacuate the CSAR force would hot have landed and taken off without getting shot to hell.
I think it will be a year or two before we get the straight story about what really happened. During my time consulting with the Special Ops community I witnessed the lies told about the mission to kill Bin Laden, the Red Wings disaster in Afghanistan trying to rescue Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell, and the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman.
Judge Napolitano and I discussed the weekend’s events surrounding the rescue: Nima and I also discussed the rescue mission: And Kim Iverson interviewed me late on Monday afternoon: --- I thank you for your invaluable support by taking time to read or comment. I do not charge a subscription fee nor do I accept advertising. I want the content to be accessible to everyone interested in the issues I am discussing. However, if you wish to make a donation, please see this link .