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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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A former NATO commander praised President Donald Trump's efforts to rescue an injured U.S. airman in Iran over the weekend, calling it "incredible."
In an appearance on CNN, Admiral James Stavridis said the rescue of the officer stranded in a remote mountain range for more than a day, after his F-15E fighter jet crashed on Friday, was the result of American intelligence agencies "firing on all cylinders."
"We've talked a lot on air, and we should, about how complicated and difficult and challenging it is to bring all these diverse elements together, but we train for all that. I am really taken with two things here, number one, the CIA role has been quite extraordinary," Stavridis said, adding on the rescue, "It's an amazing piece of work."
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CIA officials alerted the Pentagon after finding the lost airman, with the president immediately greenlighting a rescue mission. Trump said the F-15E pilot was pulled from Iran in "broad daylight," with U.S. planes spending seven hours in Iranian airspace.
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What Happened to the US Airman in Iran?
Iran said it downed a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle, as one of two U.S. military aircraft attacked on Friday. The pilot was rescued but the other service member remained missing as of Saturday morning.
CIA operatives alerted Pentagon officials and the White House that they had located the lost airman, and Trump immediately greenlit a rescue mission, an unnamed senior administration official told NBC News.
The spy agency fed the Pentagon information in real time after launching a deception campaign to confuse Iranian authorities before the operation got underway, several outlets reported.
The American weapons officer, meanwhile, had climbed more than 7,000 feet above sea level, clutching a pistol, a tracking device and a way to communicate as he bided his time, CNN reported. He is thought to have kept contact with U.S. forces to a minimum to avoid being noticed by Iran's searchers.
Trump said he was monitoring the aviator's location at all times, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the U.S.' top soldier and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
U.S. warplanes reportedly struck the area around the weapons officer's location, making sure Iran couldn't reach the vulnerable airman before American commandos secured him.
The airman was ultimately extracted from the mountainous region and flown out of Iran for medical treatment. Trump said the airman "will be just fine."
Reaction to the Rescue Operation
The operation drew reactions from lawmakers, including GOP South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace, who wrote on X the rescue would "be a movie one day," calling it an "incredible success" marked by "insane challenges."
Fellow Republican Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force brigadier general, who referenced his Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training and the lasting impact it had in preparing aircrew for the realities of capture.
"I admire our downed airman who successfully put his survival training into action and never gave up," he wrote on X. "We never leave one of our own behind."
Speaking Monday, Stavridis echoed those sentiments.
"This is a full colonel, so this is somebody who is 45-plus years old, probably went to SERE school a long time ago, who climbed 7,000 feet, used his transponder, does it all on a broken ankle—I can't wait to see this guy," the admiral told Wolf Blitzer. "It's an amazing story."
President Trump, speaking at the annual Easter egg roll at the White House, also praised the efforts of U.S. forces.
"It's very rare that you can do it. And what we did yesterday is we picked up not one, we picked up two…Those two pilots were incredible, brave, and we thank them," Trump said.
The president is expected to give more details on the rescue during a press conference at 1 p.m. ET.
Update 4/6/26, 12:05 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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