Free Republic 2nd Qtr 2026 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $9,753
12%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 12%!! Thank you all for your continued support!!

Keyword: f15

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • A U.S. Pilot Was Trapped in Iran… What Happened Next Was Unreal

    04/11/2026 11:40:06 AM PDT · by Eleutheria5 · 24 replies
    States News ^ | 10/4/26 | Brady Vantrex
    On Day 37 of Operation Epic Fury, U.S. special forces carried out a daring rescue mission after an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) was shot down deep inside Iran. The operation unfolded in the harsh terrain of the Zagros Mountains near Dehdasht, pushing elite units to their limits. This high-stakes combat search and rescue (CSAR) mission brought together Night Stalkers flying Little Birds, Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs), DEVGRU operators, A-10 Warthogs, MQ-9 Reapers, and the highly secretive 427th Special Operations Squadron’s C-295W. Facing intense enemy fire, they fought through a major firefight to reach and extract the downed...
  • Trump vows to catch ‘leaker’ who revealed US could not initially reach F-15 pilot in Iran: ‘Give it up or go to jail’

    04/06/2026 11:02:18 AM PDT · by Libloather · 68 replies
    NY Post ^ | 4/06/26 | Steven Nelson
    President Trump vowed Monday to catch the “leaker” who revealed that US forces were not immediately able to rescue the second F-15 pilot shot down over Iran — as he retold of the wounded airman’s dramatic weekend rescue. “We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “They basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing. Well, [Iran] didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information.” “We think we’ll be able to find it out, because we’re going to go to the media company that released it,...
  • Colonel rescued, IRGC leaders bombed! (My title)

    04/06/2026 2:41:51 PM PDT · by Enterprise · 21 replies
    https://substack.com ^ | 4/6/26 | Shanaka Anslem Perera
    Fox News reported on April 6th, citing CENTCOM sources, that US B-2 Spirit stealth bombers struck and obliterated an underground IRGC headquarters near Tehran using Massive Ordnance Penetrators during the same operational window in which SEAL Team 6 was extracting the downed F-15E weapons systems officer from the Zagros Mountains. The 30,000-pound bunker busters, the largest conventional weapons in the American arsenal, were dropped on a buried command node while hundreds of special operations troops were simultaneously fighting their way out of Iran with a wounded colonel. The rescue and the decapitation strike ran concurrently. The operators saving one American...
  • NEW: The rescued F-15 crew member said “God is Good” over his radio after ejecting from the aircraft over Iran, according to Axios.

    04/05/2026 10:58:24 PM PDT · by Vendome · 38 replies
    X ^ | April 05, 2026 | Collin Rugg
    Here are remarkable new details about the rescue, according to Axios:- The rescued crew member is religious.- The crew member survived more than 24 hours in the mountains while wounded.- 200 soldiers from special operations units participated in the rescue.- The F-15 was shot down with a shoulder-fired missile.- “Thousands of these savages were hunting him down,” Trump said.- The officer hid in a crevice in the mountain and was found thanks to U.S. technology.- The officer said “God is good” after ejecting.- “The two crew members were spread apart by a couple miles. Hundreds of IRGC soldiers were everywhere,”...
  • Iran used new missile defense system to shoot down F-15 fighter jet: report

    04/04/2026 2:14:27 PM PDT · by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas · 93 replies
    new york post ^ | April 4, 2026 | Shane Galvin
    Iran boasted Saturday that a new air defense system — credited with shooting down two US planes — will allow it to “definitely achieve full control” over its airspace as American and Israel forces continued to hammer the country. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command made the bold claim on state media, Reuters reported. The besieged Islamic Republic could have used a Third Khordad missile system, a mobile medium-range surface-to-air defense system, to shoot down the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, The New York Times reported. Other experts suspect that Iran used passive infrared detection systems to track and target...
  • Trey Yingst reports on US forces' rescue of missing airman deep inside Iran

    04/05/2026 7:09:12 AM PDT · by nuconvert · 45 replies
    Fox ^ | 4-5-26
    Video at Link Very surprising report from Yingst, who said he spoke with Trump for about 15min. Trump told him that earlier on in the year, we sent lots of guns for the protesters through the Kurds. The Kurds kept the guns. This was part of Trump's "help is on the way". Trump also told him that he feels good about a deal being made tomorrow.
  • Behind the US Air Force unit that spearheaded the mission to rescue downed airman

    04/05/2026 12:39:05 PM PDT · by MeanWestTexan · 27 replies
    Jerusalem Post ^ | 5 April 2026 | AMICHAI STEIN
    When the first reports came on Friday of the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet over Iran with two pilots – the US military tasked the impossible mission of retrieving a pilot and navigator from behind enemy lines with the US Air Force Pararescue, commonly known as the “PJs.” The PJs serve as the Pentagon’s ultimate insurance policy. Operating under the motto “So That Others May Live,” these elite specialists are trained to go where no one else can, often under heavy fire and in the most inhospitable environments on earth. “It’s one of the elite and really not...
  • The "Ghost" Signal: The Tiny Device That Saved a US Navigator Deep in Iran

    04/05/2026 12:29:28 PM PDT · by MeanWestTexan · 80 replies
    JFeed ^ | 5 April 2026 | Eliana Fleming
    An American F-15E navigator has been successfully rescued from deep within Iran after using a specialized satellite device to transmit encrypted location data while hiding from enemy forces for two days. In what military officials are calling one of the most complex recovery missions in modern history, an American F-15E navigator was successfully extracted from Iranian territory this past Sunday. The airman had been hiding in hostile terrain for forty-eight hours after his aircraft was downed on Friday over southwestern Iran. The success of the daring operation is being credited to a specialized survival doctrine known as Combat Search and...
  • How US used SEAL Team 6, a CIA ruse and death from above to rescue missing F-15 airman in Iran: ‘They’ve been schwackin’ dudes chasing him’

    04/05/2026 10:45:44 AM PDT · by Mr. Mojo · 78 replies
    NY Post ^ | April 5, 2026 | Anthony Blair
    The US rescued a missing F-15E airman deep inside Iran with an incredibly complex and daring mission that involved SEAL Team 6, a CIA ruse, a hastily constructed forward air strip in hostile territory, and patrols of friendly aircraft that gave the Air Force colonel cover. A life-or-death race between US and Iranian forces to find the “seriously injured” weapons officer outside Isfahan over two days culminated in the crew member’s extraction by America’s most elite commandos and a firefight with local militias that were hunting for him, according to a report in the New York Times. The unnamed officer,...
  • CONFIRMED!!! F-15 Weapons Systems Officer Rescued After Massive Firefight with IRGC; UPDATED WITH DETAILS

    04/04/2026 10:04:43 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 93 replies
    Hotair ^ | 04/05/2026 | David Strom
    UPDATED ALREADY! I'm writing a new post since the last one got so messy. In fact, I've had to edit this post twice already, less than an hour after I first posted it. Never done that before, I think. First things first, neither the Air Force nor CENTCOM has made an official announcement, but there are now multiple fairly credible reports that the Weapons System Officer from the F-15 shot down in Iran has been recovered. His condition is unknown, although several reports say he is "safe," implying that he is alive and not mortally wounded. BREAKING: "WE GOT HIM!...
  • WE GOT HIM: Missing F-15 Crew Member Who Got Shot Down Over Iran Has Been Rescued

    04/04/2026 9:43:25 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 42 replies
    Townhall ^ | 04/05/2026 | Matt Vespa
    [UPDATES BELOW]They’re going to make a movie about this rescue. An F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Iranian airspace on Good Friday. One pilot was recovered, but the other was missing. A massive search-and-rescue operation commenced, leading to another aircraft, an A-10 Warthog, taking fire and ditching in the Persian Gulf. That pilot was safely rescued. To recap, from the standpoint of local time:Shot down early on Good Friday. Rescued Easter Sunday morning.If it were a movie plot, we'd roll our eyes at it for being too on the nose but here we are in real life... https://t.co/YxPKiVdGJB— Amy...
  • Good news for once. F-15 WSO recovered alive. Was escaping and evading. Massive fire fight on tgt. Iranians were actively looking for him in the area.

    Good news for once. F-15 WSO recovered alive. Was escaping and evading. Massive fire fight on tgt. Iranians were actively looking for him in the area.
  • Holt to Newsmax: Recovery of US Officer From Downed F-15E Likely

    04/03/2026 6:19:18 PM PDT · by 11th_VA · 56 replies
    Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said Friday on Newsmax that he expects positive news overnight on the recovery of the downed U.S. weapons systems officer from an F-15E Strike Eagle brought down by Iranian fire. Holt, appearing on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," called the officer's status "the most important issue." "Our downed weapon system officer, who I think, and I'm hearing it from a couple of directions now, but this is not confirmation by any stretch, but I think we're going to get some good news. I think we're going to find out overnight that we've got our weapons...
  • Vanity: The Weapons Officer of the Downed F‑15E Strike Eagle in Iran Has Been Found Alive ( Still Waiting for Official Confirmation )

    04/03/2026 2:58:39 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 68 replies
    General Blaine Holt | 04/03/26
    I just heard Retired Brigadier General Blaine Holt on the 5 PM Cats & Cosby show in New York ( 770 WABC ). He tells the hosts that his source in the military who he says has never failed him yet, told him that the Weapons Officer of the downed F-15 Strike Eagle in Iran has been found alive! There is no official confirmation yet so stay tuned and pray for safety!
  • The drama in the skies over Iran: A race against time to locate the American navigator

    04/03/2026 12:00:32 PM PDT · by MeanWestTexan · 30 replies
    Channel 12 (Israel) ^ | 4 April 2026 | Barak Ravid
    The Iranians managed to shoot down an American fighter jet today (Friday), when one of the two crew members on the plane was rescued and a search is underway for the other. This event, perhaps the biggest drama since the beginning of the war, took place this morning (Friday) in southwestern Iran. Plane F-15 who is on a mission is hit by Iranian anti-aircraft fire and crashes. The two crew members, the pilot and the navigator, manage to safely abandon the plane. The pilot was rescued, but the US fears the possibility of the navigator being captured. Sources familiar with...
  • US pilot is RESCUED from Iran as shocking footage shows tribesmen shooting at search plane as second remains missing

    04/03/2026 10:46:43 AM PDT · by DFG · 188 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | 04/03/2026 | PHILLIP NIETO
    An American fighter pilot has been rescued by US forces after being shot down behind enemy lines, two US officials have confirmed. A second crew member remains missing after an American F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Southern Iran, CBS News reported. Donald Trump has been briefed on the rescue mission, the White House confirmed. It comes as Iranian state media urged civilians to capture the pilots, with a 'reward' offered by the Islamic regime. Footage has emerged of tribesman shooting at what appears to be an Air Force HC-130J Combat King II, a specialized search and rescue plane....
  • Iranian state media released images of debris from a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet.

    04/03/2026 1:19:36 AM PDT · by nuconvert · 49 replies
    X ^ | Mar. 3, 2026
    BIG: Iranian state media released images of debris from a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet. Iran initially claimed it had shot down an F-35, but the wreckage shown clearly matches an F-15E.
  • Kuwaiti F/A-18 Aircraft Suspected of Shooting Down US F-15s

    03/04/2026 10:40:44 AM PST · by Regulator · 74 replies
    Air&Space Forces Magazine ^ | March 3 2026 | Chris Gordon/Mathew Cox
    Kuwaiti aircraft are suspected to be responsible for the shootdown of three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles on March 2, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The friendly fire episode occurred around 7 a.m. local time on the third day of the U.S. war against Iran. At least one Kuwaiti F/A-18 is believed to be responsible—Kuwait flies F/A-18s and Eurofighter Typhoons. All six aviators—three pilots and three weapons systems officers—are alive, were recovered safely, and are in stable condition, U.S. military officials said. U.S. Central Command declined comment on the suspected role of the...
  • US F-15E Strike Eagle crashes in Kuwait amid Iran conflict (Crew Safe)

    03/01/2026 11:12:51 PM PST · by 11th_VA · 40 replies
    U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle crashed near Al Jahra, Kuwait, with both the pilot and weapons systems officer ejecting safely and surviving, according to footage circulating online and Arab media reports. Official authorities have not confirmed the cause of the crash. Widely shared videos on social media showed what was identified as an F-15E Strike Eagle crashing west of Al Jahra, Kuwait. White smoke was visible in the sky, leading to speculation that the aircraft may have been struck by friendly fire. Both the pilot and weapons systems officer onboard appeared to have survived, with footage showing one of...
  • Hegseth blasted by Loomer, conservatives over Qatari air force facility in Idaho

    10/10/2025 5:07:09 PM PDT · by RandFan · 85 replies
    The Hill ^ | 10/10/25 4:59 PM ET | by Ellen Mitchell
    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Friday announcement that the U.S. will host a new Qatari air force facility in Idaho has drawn the ire of the Trump administration’s closest allies, including Laura Loomer, who said she felt “betrayed” over the matter. In a flurry of social media posts Friday afternoon, Loomer unleashed on the administration’s announcement that it had signed the letter greenlighting the building of a Qatar Emiri air force contingent at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho. The air arm of Qatar’s armed forces, Qatar Emiri air force pilots would train to fly F-15s in the...