The American weapons officer stranded for nearly 36 hours in Iranian mountain terrain did more than hide and wait — he actively directed airstrikes against advancing Iranian forces from his crevice on a 7,000-foot ridgeline, using emergency communications equipment, The New York Times reported.

The new details paint a picture of an operation that was as chaotic as it was daring, marked by a 14-hour communication blackout, a last-minute equipment failure that nearly stranded the rescue team alongside their target, and a classified CIA technology that cracked the search when conventional methods came up short.

After his F-15 was shot down Friday morning, the weapons officer hiked to a high ridgeline and wedged himself into a rocky crevice, according to American military officials cited by the Times. From that position, he was able to observe Iranian forces moving in his direction and relay their locations to rescuers, who used the intelligence to call in strikes against the advancing troops.

There was no firefight between US and Iranian forces, the Times reported. US officials noted that the region where the officer came down is one that is “strongly opposed to the Iranian regime,” a factor that may have worked in his favor. It remains unclear how close Iranian forces actually came to his hiding place.

American forces began rescue efforts from the moment the jet went down, but received no sign of life from the airman for approximately 14 hours, consistent with earlier reporting that he was unconscious upon landing and initially unable to make contact.

Once a signal was finally received, it took additional hours to pinpoint his location and confirm his identity. That process was cracked by what the Times described only as “a special piece of technology” unique to the CIA. No further details were provided.

The timeline raised questions about an earlier statement attributed to Trump, who told Axios the crewman had radioed a message after ejecting from the aircraft — quoted by a US official as: “God is good.” How that account squares with the reported 14-hour blackout was not immediately clear.

The most harrowing stretch of the operation came not during the search, but during the extraction itself.

The airman was meant to depart Iran aboard one of two C-130 transport aircraft, flying out alongside his rescuers from a makeshift airstrip constructed specifically for the mission. But the nose gear of at least one of the planes — and possibly both — became stuck in the sand. Rescue teams spent hours trying to free the aircraft before the effort was abandoned and replacement aircraft were called in.

The replacements were smaller turboprop aircraft, capable of operating from short, austere airstrips — precisely the kind of field the team was now working with. Their arrival made the extraction possible.

The original C-130s, along with four MH-6 special operations helicopters used in the mission, were destroyed by airstrikes after the rescue team departed — standard procedure to prevent sensitive equipment from falling into Iranian hands.

Israel worked alongside the US throughout the operation, both to gather intelligence — including confirming whether the airman was alone — and to carry out strikes providing cover for American commandos on the ground during the extraction, the Times reported. Earlier reporting by The Jerusalem Post established that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and US Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper remained in direct contact throughout the 48-hour window.

Throughout the operation, the White House, Pentagon, and CENTCOM maintained an unusual public silence. Trump, typically prolific on social media, went quiet enough that a local reporter traveled to Walter Reed Hospital to check whether he had been admitted, according to Reuters.

The silence was deliberate. When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reached Trump by phone after the weapons officer’s emergency beacon finally activated Friday night, he told the president that everything about the pilot’s earlier rescue — already reported in the media — had to remain publicly unacknowledged until the second airman was safe. A prepared CENTCOM statement on the pilot’s extraction was quietly shelved.

Trump announced the second rescue early Sunday morning on Truth Social.

“This is the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory,” he wrote. “WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!”

It was the first time the US has lost aircraft over Iranian territory since the war began February 28, when a wave of US and Israeli airstrikes killed, among others, then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)