An Air Force colonel shot down over Iran said he hit the ground at 70 to 100 mph after a parachute malfunction. He spent nearly 50 hours injured, with limited food or water, while escaping Iranian forces in the mountains.
The officer, identified publicly only by his mission call sign, Dude 44 Bravo, gave his first account of the April shootdown and rescue in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday.
Bravo was the weapons systems officer in an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down April 2 during a combat mission south of Isfahan. The pilot, Dude 44 Alpha, ejected separately and came down approximately five miles away. U.S. forces ultimately recovered both men in separate rescue operations.
The crew had been assigned to strike industrial facilities connected to Iran’s missile and drone programs, according to Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM.
Cooper told 60 Minutes that U.S. forces had air superiority over Iran at the time, though the shootdown showed American aircraft still faced threats from the ground.
“We had air superiority, but clearly we weren’t flying over Kansas,” Cooper said.
The roughly $30 million F-15E was brought down by a shoulder-fired missile that can cost around $100,000, CBS reported.
Interview Shines Brighter Light on Aircraft Attacks
The disclosure drew attention from observers of the broader Middle East conflict.
Omid Memarian, an Iranian journalist and senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based group DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now), described the 60 Minutes report as a “colossal PR disaster,” saying on X that the account undercut months of U.S. claims about the effectiveness of its campaign against Iranian air defenses.
Memarian’s comment represented his assessment of the interview, rather than a Pentagon characterization of the shootdown.
“That day was just another day in the war for us, until the moment when we got hit by an Iranian weapon,” Bravo told CBS.
Bravo described the shoulder-fired missile hitting the aircraft as like being hit by a train. He and Alpha tried to save the jet before ejecting.
Bravo faced additional challenges after landing.
The missile had damaged his parachute, and after ejecting he looked up at one point and saw nothing slowing his fall.
“That was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” Bravo said.
The damaged parachute slowed his fall, but Bravo said he still hit the ground at 70 to 100 mph. He broke his back, arm, and shoulder, and suffered a sprained ankle.
Injured and Hiding in the Mountains
Bravo knew he could not stay where he landed.
Iranian forces were already searching for the downed crew, and videos circulated online showing armed personnel looking for the airmen. U.S. military sources told CBS that Iranian search teams eventually came within a few hundred meters of Bravo.
Despite his injuries, he moved away from the landing site as quickly as he could.
At daylight, Bravo was in a high desert valley with steep cliffs. He climbed to a ridgeline an estimated 7,000 feet high.
Never let a lack of motivation put you on Iranian TV.
Alpha was recovered first, approximately six hours after the shootdown, during a daylight rescue that came under fire.
Alpha survived and has since returned to flying for the Air Force. He declined an interview with CBS because of security concerns though praised the combat search-and-rescue teams and other U.S. forces involved in recovering both airmen.
‘A Gun Fight’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the operation as “a gun fight all the way in and all the way out.”
Bravo was still on the ground.
By the end of his first day on the ground, he was able to establish communications with U.S. forces. He sent the message “God is good” and reported that he was injured but still moving.
Hegseth said conditions did not allow an immediate rescue mission. Instead, U.S. officials decided to delay the effort for another day, leaving Bravo alone for more than an additional 24 hours.
He had little food or water and spent the day exposed to wind and cold in the high desert mountains while Iranian forces searched the area.
The CIA also became deeply involved in the effort, according to CBS, using a deception campaign to confuse Iranian forces and classified technology to help locate Bravo.
Newly declassified footage shown by 60 Minutes depicts U.S. bombers and drones striking Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces near the area before the rescue force moved in.
More Than 90 Americans Went to Save Bravo
The second rescue effort was far larger.
Cooper told CBS that more than 90 U.S. service members entered Iran as part of the operation, the first American troops on the ground in the country in 46 years. Several hundred more personnel were in the air, while several thousand supported the mission.
Two large search-and-rescue aircraft landed on a makeshift desert strip, where they launched smaller Little Bird helicopters capable of reaching Bravo’s position on the ridgeline. Two Air Force pararescuemen eventually reached him.
Bravo said seeing his rescuers was significant. He had a pithy message: “Let’s go.”
The mission continued after Bravo was evacuated from the mountain.
The landing gear of the two larger rescue aircraft became stuck in the desert sand, leaving Bravo and more than 90 U.S. personnel stranded inside Iran.
A clandestine Air Force unit was eventually brought in to extract them, according to CBS.
The stranded aircraft were worth an estimated $100 million each. U.S. forces destroyed both of them, along with the Little Bird helicopters, rather than risk allowing sensitive American technology to fall into Iranian hands.
Roughly 50 hours after the shootdown, Bravo left Iran as the sun came up on Easter Sunday.
Shortly afterward, he called his wife in the United States. Bravo told 60 Minutes he was proud of her strength during the ordeal.
The rescue became one of the largest and most complicated personnel-recovery operations of the conflict, involving aircraft, special operations forces, intelligence personnel and thousands of supporting troops.
Bravo said the operation should be remembered for more than his own survival.
He said the story was about the personnel who spent two days tracking, protecting, and recovering an injured airman in hostile territory, and the extent of U.S. efforts to bring him back.
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