Yes, the film, too.
I’m not a film buff, so I’ll leave that to others with more knowledge there. (So great to have so many brains working on this!)
Here’s the wiki page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eagle_(disambiguation)
My guess is the other contender might be the German symbol?
So 3 main possibilities:
1. movie
2. officer stuck at O-6.
3. German symbol
But I would say that unless we are confident of one of these that we don’t limit our thinking.
One more thing. I went to the German symbol page and it said NOTHING about “iron” eagle. Hmmm. Scrubbed?
Maybe Iron Eagle is a Military Operation ?
Iron Eagle movie information at Wiki made reference to the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident with Libya. The fictional country in the movie was called ‘Bilya’.
Plot = American AF pilot held and sentenced to death. Current administration does nothing to help. Veteran pilot and AF pilot’s son use US military assets in successful daring rescue.
Once back on American soil, Military is concerned about the embarrassment this will cause the administration and let them go with the promise to never speak of the incident.
So, if Q is referring to this movie plot, which part would it be? The Libya connection or the rescue that would embarrass an administration?
Q always leaves me with more questions. :)
My impression has always been that it goes more to the plot line of the IRON EAGLE movie - that the air force officer was taken hostage and hung out to dry; it was left to his son, along with his enterprising friends, to gather the intel and coordinate the mission with the seasoned veteran officer “Chappy” which was executed brilliantly and accompanied by lots of deception + distraction to make the “dictator” (in this case was likened to Ghadafi) think that he was facing tremendous force when, in fact, it was ultimately his son, alone, who rescued his dad whereupon the gov issued all kinds of press simultaneously CYA + “bragging” about the successful nature of the mission. What themes to extract therefrom I’m still looking ;)