President Donald Trump praised the special forces’ daring mission to rescue an airman stranded in Iran, describing it as “one of the most audacious Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. history.”
The airman, part of an F-15 fighter jet crew, had been downed in a remote Iranian region on Friday. A pilot accompanying him was successfully extracted by two military helicopters on the same day.
Meanwhile, the airman, identified by Mr. Trump as a highly esteemed colonel, skillfully evaded capture for nearly 48 hours, aided by the vigilant protection of Reaper drones patrolling overhead.
Equipped solely with a handgun, the colonel managed to stay hidden from hostile forces while a complex rescue plan was orchestrated.
The operation was a massive endeavor, employing dozens of warplanes and helicopters and mobilizing hundreds of special forces personnel to ensure its success.
But two of the five rescue planes became stuck in a remote airfield inside Iran and were blown up to stop them falling into enemy hands.
Earlier the CIA had deceived Iranian forces by claiming the colonel had already been found.
As Mr Trump claimed this was the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been recovered separately deep inside enemy territory, what are the most daring rescue missions in history?
Scott O’Grady, Bosnia (1995)
US pilot Scott O’Grady was flying a routine combat air patrol over Bosnia on June 2, 1995 when his plane was hit by a Serbian missile.
The weapon was launched from a mobile missile site which intelligence units had been unaware of and warnings came too late for O’Grady, then 29, to change course.
An SA-6 missile hit his plane around 10ft behind his seat – he was engulfed in flames as he ejected and worried his parachute would burn.
As a result he pulled an override handle on his kit and released the parachute early – he then fell for more than 25 minutes down to a clearing near a highway.
Knowing that paramilitary soldiers were chasing him and having suffered burns to his face and neck, O’Grady raced into the woods to evade the men.
He later said he never doubted being able to escape with his life, despite a helicopter flying so near to him during the first two days that he could see the Serbian pilots’ faces.
Fighting wet conditions, thirst and hunger, O’Grady ate ants and plants while the water from his emergency pack ran out on the fourth day.
He developed trench foot after being exposed to cold water for so long and often moved at night during his six days as a fugitive to avoid chasing Serbs.
Scott O’Grady’s rescue from Bosnia inspired the 2001 war film Behind Enemy Lines
On his sixth night he was able to contact one of his squadron mates in the sky – four Marine helicopters were soon racing towards him, 80 miles inside enemy territory.
Around 40 other aircraft kept watch nearby in case the rescue attempt was disrupted by Serbs.
The next morning O’Grady sprinted from the woods towards his rescuers, carrying a 9mm pistol in his hand.
President Bill Clinton told a ceremony at the Pentagon four days later O’Grady’s ‘courage has made all Americans proud’.
The 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines – which starred Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman – was loosely based on O’Grady’s story.
Bat 21, Vietnam (1972)
Called ‘one of the most difficult rescues of the war’ by the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the mission to recover Lieutenant Colonel Iceal ‘Gene’ Hambleton was the largest rescue operation in the force’s history.
Hambleton was the only member of his EB-66 aircraft – call sign Bat 21 – to safely eject after being hit by a surface-to-air missile on April 2, 1972 at around 5pm.
The then-53-year-old released his parachute at around 28,000ft and took 16 minutes to hit the ground, landing in the middle of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive – a three-pronged drive into South Vietnam using heavy tanks and mobile units.
The soldier later said releasing the parachute so early saved his life because it allowed a bank of fog to roll in, otherwise he said he would have been ‘out in the clear with 30,000 enemy troops around me and I wouldn’t be here today’.
He hid in the jungle, finding corn on the third day and collecting his first rainwater that night.
Two days later a Sikorsky HH-3E helicopter, nicknamed the ‘Jolly Green Giant’, sent to rescue Hambleton was shot down, which severely impacted his morale.
He said: ‘They were within two minutes of picking me up and all at once that thing goes up in a ball of fire. I thought: this thing isn’t worth it. I was a 53-year-old lieutenant colonel and I cried.’
US forces flattened an entire village, which they believed to be the source of the attack that downed the Jolly Green Giant, but while Hambleton walked through it en route to another rescue attempt, he was stabbed in the back.
Lieutenant Colonel Gene Hambleton evaded capture in Vietnam for more than 11 days after his plane was shot down in 1972
He then ran for the river where he was supposed to be picked up but became lost in a banana grove, at one point falling around 20ft and fracturing his arm.
Finally, a Navy SEAL team arrived on a boat to rescue the lieutenant colonel after more than 11 days on the run – he was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.
Some five men lost their lives in the attack which downed Hambleton’s plane, while ten more lives were lost on the Jolly Green Giant and a separate rescue helicopter.
Hambleton’s rescue inspired the 1988 film Bat*21, starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover.
Bravo Two Zero, Iraq (1991)
Bravo Two Zero was the call sign of the eight-man Special Air Service (SAS) patrol deployed to Iraq by the British Army in 1991 during the First Gulf War.
One account said the men were tasked with gathering intelligence, setting up an observation post and monitoring enemy movements; another said they were sent to find and destroy Iraqi Scud missile launchers.
Part of B Squadron 22 SAS, the men were stationed at a forward operating base in Saudi Arabia before being taken by an RAF Chinook helicopter into Iraq on the night of January 22.
But soon after landing the group had communication problems and could not receive messages on their radio.
Late in the afternoon of January 24 the patrol was discovered by a young shepherd and believed they had been compromised.
They decided to withdraw and leave behind any excess equipment but were shot at as they tried to leave, managing to escape unscathed.
Despite British standard operating procedure instructing patrols to return to their original infiltration point in case of an emergency, where a helicopter would briefly land every 24 hours, the aircraft never came, reportedly due to pilot illness.
And while the patrol set off on the 120km journey north-west towards Syria, allied forces believed them to be fleeing in the direction of Saudi Arabia, rendering their rescue efforts fruitless for days.
The SAS members who formed the Bravo Two Zero operation during the Gulf War in 1991. Under the command of Andy McNab, three of the men were killed, four captured and one escaped
The men of Bravo Two Zero
- Trooper Steven ‘Legs’ Lane
- Trooper Mark ‘Kiwi’ Coburn
Includes pseudonyms
On the night of January 24 the patrol was mistakenly separated into two groups of five and three while trying to contact a passing Coalition aircraft – both groups then headed independently towards Syria.
The next evening Vince Phillips, from the group of three, died after suffering hypothermia from the desert winter – Stan MacGowan was captured the following day.
However the last of their group, Colin Armstrong – who later wrote a 1995 book on the incident under the pseudonym Chris Ryan – survived an Iraqi attack and set out alone.
He managed what was reportedly the ‘longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS’ and was awarded the Military Medal.
After escaping on foot, he walked 200 miles across the desert over six nights alone to reach safety in Syria.
A day later one of the group of five, Bob Consiglio, was shot and killed by armed civilians while another, Steven ‘Legs’ Lane died of hypothermia the same morning after swimming in the Euphrates river.
The three remaining men in the group were later captured and tortured – they were last held at the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison – before their release on March 5.
Patrol commander Steven Mitchell later wrote a book about the patrol titled Bravo Two Zero under the pen name Andy McNab, released in 1993.
Another patrol member using the name Mike Coburn wrote a separate account against which the Ministry of Defence fought to halt publication – it levelled damning accusations at the army and was released in 2004.
Operation Barras, Sierra Leone (2000)
Britain deployed troops to its former West African colony of Sierra Leone in May 2000 to evacuate foreign citizens as part of a UN peacekeeping force.
The country had been engulfed in civil war since 1991, when a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began an armed conflict with the government.
But on August 25, 2000, a vehicle patrol including 11 members of the Royal Irish Regiment and one Sierra Leonean soldier entered the territory of an armed gang unconnected to the RUF known as the West Side Boys.
After being surrounded the patrol was forced to surrender – the soldiers were taken hostage and held deep in the jungle.
According to the National Army Museum, the West Side Boys were dangerous and unpredictable, their ‘volatile behaviour’ fuelled by alcohol and drugs.
Two days later the regiment’s commander began face-to-face negotiations for the patrol’s release as they were beaten and subjected to mock executions.
Negotiators were allowed to see some of the prisoners, one of whom smuggled out a plan of the West Side Boys’ base.
Half the prisoners were then released in exchange for a satellite telephone.
Meanwhile special forces were despatched and hid in the dense jungle to collect intelligence, living silently for days to avoid being compromised.
After two weeks the West Side Boys’ demands had become ‘outlandish’, the National Army Museum said.
Fearing executions, a rescue mission named Operation Barras was hatched.
At dawn on September 10, special forces were flown in on heavily-armed helicopters, using ropes to drop into Gberi Bana and rescue the hostages, who were all freed.
No helicopters were shot down during the mission but Bombardier Bradley Tinnion, 28, died from his wounds after being shot in the chest by machine gun fire.
All British troops who took part in the operation were awarded the Operational Service Medal for Sierra Leone.
Jugroom Fort Rescue, Afghanistan (2007)
In an operation known as ‘one of the most audacious’ of the war in Afghanistan, a group of Royal Marines strapped themselves to the sides of two Apache gunships to rescue the body of a British soldier.
Lance Corporal Mathew Ford was missing in action after an assault on Jugroom Fort, a Taliban-held position in Garmsir, Helmand Province.
Military intelligence believed top Taliban leaders were hiding inside and that it was a hub to command insurgent activity across the region.
During the operation the Taliban mounted a surprise counter attack and the commandos were forced to withdraw.
But back in the air afterwards, Ford remained unaccounted for.
There is no space for passengers inside Apache helicopters, which can take a pilot and a gunner.
But it is possible, often when an aircraft crashes behind enemy lines, for the stranded crew to strap themselves to the side of another Apache using harnesses and fly to safety.
Never attempted before, four marines volunteered to strap themselves to the side of two helicopters and set off for their colleague in an ‘unprecedented operation’, the Guardian reported at the time.
Marines prepared to strap themselves to Apache helicopters before they recovered Lance Corporal Mathew Ford’s body
A bomb was dropped nearby as they approached to distract the Taliban and the men left the helicopter amid Taliban gunfire but found Ford dead.
They secured his body to one of the Apaches and carried him to safety – he was later returned to his family.
The Ministry of Defence later said that Ford, 30, had been shot and killed instantly during the ‘initial breach’ of Jugroom Fort.
But an official report later found he was killed by friendly fire after a fellow marine mistook a group of British soldiers for enemy gunmen.
A road in Immingham, Lincolnshire, where he grew up as the eldest of three brothers now bears his name.
