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The F-15E Rescue, April 2026: More Than 90 Americans on the Ground in Iran

In the first week of April 2026, five weeks into a war the public had been told would stay in the air, American soldiers went onto Iranian soil, fought Iranian forces there, got stuck, destroyed their own aircraft to keep them from Iran, and came out. In September the commander of US Central Command told CBS's 60 Minutes that more than 90 service members had been on the ground, and called them the first acknowledged American "boots on the ground" in Iran in 46 years. The last time was Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages in Tehran.

This is the one ground operation inside Iran that the United States has acknowledged. It was a rescue. It also showed, as a Jerusalem Post analyst argued the next day, that American forces could operate in several places inside Iran, with large forces, for hours. It is the proof of concept for every ground plan on the Pentagon's list.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that US special operations forces entered Iran, fought there, and recovered both airmen: President Trump announced it, Axios, the New York Times, Reuters, and Military Times reported it at the time, and CENTCOM's commander described it on 60 Minutes. The Israeli press, in English and Hebrew, carried every stage.

The shootdown​

The jet was an F-15E Strike Eagle, a two-seat American fighter-bomber, call sign Dude 44. It was shot down on 3 April 2026 (the night of 2 to 3 April in Iran) by an Iranian shoulder-fired missile "during a strike mission against drone and missile facilities south of Isfahan" (as summarized from the 60 Minutes segment by @LTSmash420 on X, 14 September 2026). CENTCOM's commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, said the target was industrial sites tied to Iran's missile and drone programs, not the nearby nuclear site (Ynetnews, 14 September 2026). Both crewmen ejected and came down about five miles apart. The pilot, call sign Alpha, was unhurt. The weapons officer, call sign Bravo, broke his back, an arm, and a shoulder. His own story is on Bravo's survival account.

The first rescue: "a gun fight all the way in and all the way out"​

About six hours after the shootdown, a daylight rescue with 21 aircraft went into Iran for Alpha. The helicopters took fire. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later told 60 Minutes: "It was a gun fight all the way in and all the way out" (Ynetnews, 14 September 2026). The Washington Post and Axios reported at the time that Iranian forces fired on the searching helicopters and wounded Americans aboard, contradicting the President's early claim that no American was hurt (Times of Israel, 5 April 2026). An A-10 attack jet supporting the mission was lost; its pilot ejected after leaving Iranian airspace (Military Times, 8 April 2026).

Alpha was recovered. Bravo was not found.

Special forces on the ground, Friday and Saturday​

Axios reported on 5 April "that U.S. special forces were deployed on the ground in Iran on both Friday and Saturday as part of a search" (as posted by FirstSquawk, retweeted by @American209 on X). The Israeli press carried that line into English and Hebrew within hours:

  • Walla, 4 April (Hebrew). "US Army special forces entered Iranian territory tonight (Saturday) as part of a complex rescue operation to locate a crew member of an F-15 that was shot down, in a race against time against Iranian forces to reach the missing pilot," citing the Telegraph (Walla; article page; our translation).
  • Israel Hayom, 5 April. "Special forces operated on the ground inside Iran on Friday and again on Saturday." The paper reported US jets striking Revolutionary Guard forces to isolate the rescue zone, and sources in Iran reporting Basij and Guard members killed in the exchange (Israel Hayom, Neta Bar; article page).
  • The Jerusalem Post, 5 April. "The US special forces teams were deployed on the ground in Iran on both Friday and Saturday as part of the search and rescue effort," with "hundreds of special forces troops" per the New York Times, and a firefight as the Americans closed in (Jerusalem Post; article page).
  • The Times of Israel, 5 April. Quoting the New York Times: "Hundreds of special operations soldiers took part in the rescue mission, which a senior US military official described as one of the most challenging in US history" (Times of Israel; article page).

The second rescue: a base on Iranian soil​

While Bravo hid on a ridge, Cooper said, US forces tracked about 1,500 Iranians within a 10-mile radius searching for him (CTech, 14 September 2026). The CIA ran a deception, planting word that the airman had already been found and moved, to send Iranian searchers the wrong way (Jerusalem Post, 5 April 2026). Hegseth and senior commanders chose to wait another night rather than launch a hasty second attempt.

Then the force went in. Reuters, from US officials:

"Under cover of darkness, U.S. commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000-foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday."

(Reuters, 5 April 2026; article page.) Two MC-130 special-operations transports, which had carried part of "roughly 100 special operations forces," could not take off. More aircraft flew into Iran to pull the force out in stages, and US troops destroyed the disabled MC-130s and four more helicopters inside Iran rather than leave them (Reuters, same article). Israel's financial daily Globes ran the same account in Hebrew the next day under the headline "The moment the dramatic rescue operation in Iran almost failed" (Globes, 6 April 2026; article page).

Israel Hayom reported that, according to social media and footage, "the US Air Force erected a forward operating base overnight to which hundreds of commando fighters were airlifted to participate in sweeps, searches, and direct combat against Iranian forces" (Israel Hayom, 5 April 2026; article page). A forward operating base is a temporary base close to the fight.

The scale, as CBS later laid it out and RT summarized: "US forces fired or dropped 339 munitions inside Iran – 123 during the effort to recover Alpha and another 216 during the mission to extract Bravo," and the second rescue alone used "more than 150 aircraft" (as pasted by @rbg4lif on X, 14 September 2026). Military Times counted 155 aircraft on the second rescue, "supported by hundreds of special operations personnel," and called it the first publicly acknowledged US ground presence inside Iran since Eagle Claw (Military Times, 8 April 2026).

Israel's part​

Israeli defense officials told the Times of Israel that Israel gave intelligence for the search and that the Israeli Air Force postponed strikes in the areas being searched (Times of Israel, 5 April 2026). An IDF source told the Jerusalem Post that foreign reports of Israeli commandos taking part were false (Jerusalem Post). Globes relayed an Israeli source telling Iran International that the Sayeret Matkal and Shaldag commando units took part, without confirming it itself (Globes, 5 April 2026; article page). The division of labor matches what Israel's own press said a week earlier about any ground operation: Israeli intelligence and air power, American boots. See Israel keeps its infantry home.

The acknowledgment, five months later​

On 13 September 2026, 60 Minutes aired declassified footage and interviews. Cooper's count, as RT's write-up of the segment put it:

"More than 90 US service members were ultimately deployed on the ground, while several hundred personnel were in the air and several thousand supported the operation ... He described them as the first acknowledged US 'boots on the ground' in Iran in 46 years."

(As pasted by @rbg4lif on X, 14 September 2026.) Israel's outlets carried the number the next morning. Israel National News: "two transport aircraft carrying approximately 92 special forces commandos landed on Iranian soil. It marked the first US ground operation in the country in approximately 46 years" (Israel National News; article page). Ynetnews: "Cooper said about 92 US service members went onto the ground inside Iran, the first American troops to do so in 46 years" (Ynetnews; article page). CTech and Israel Hayom ran the same (CTech; Israel Hayom). Israel Hayom's version, citing Cooper: sand clogged the landing gear, "stranding more than 90 troops, described by Cooper as among the military's "most elite service members," stranded on Iranian soil."

Asked why so many were risked for one man, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said: "We would have sent more to go get the back-seater" (CTech).

Ynet reported, citing CNN, that Pentagon political appointees pressed the crewmen to give the interview, and that uniformed officers feared their heroism would be used to sell "an expensive and unpopular war"; a Pentagon spokesman called the CNN report an absolute lie (Ynet, 14 September 2026; article page). Ynet's own closing point was that almost every detail of the rescue came from the administration that wanted to tell it.

What Iran said​

Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya command spokesman, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, said the operation "was completely foiled," and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said three more such victories would leave the United States "utterly ruined" (Military Times, 8 April 2026). Both airmen came home.

Questions the official story leaves open​

The official account is a rescue. Two critics argued it was more:

  • Former CIA officer Larry Johnson alleged the F-15 had been preparing a ground attack on Natanz when it was shot down, as relayed by Mario Nawfal, who called it a "BIG if" (Mario Nawfal on X, 6 April 2026).
  • An account tracking war claims wrote that "General Caine wanted to keep it secret that hundreds of special forces took part in operations inside Iran. Trump blurted it out anyway," and argued the stuck-in-sand story did not fit the footage (@Disinfo_Tracker on X, 6 April 2026).

Neither cites a document. They are listed because the official account itself was assembled and released by the government five months later, on its own schedule.

What it means​

  • The line was crossed. "No boots on the ground" was the promise in March. In April, more than 90 Americans stood on Iranian ground, under fire. See the denials set against the deployments.
  • It was a test at scale. The Jerusalem Post's Yonah Jeremy Bob wrote that the rescue, "requiring hours of searches and a relatively large scale special ground forces deployment could be bigger than the event itself," because it showed the US could send troops into several areas of Iran for hours (Jerusalem Post, 6 April 2026; article page).
  • The exception was written in advance. On 1–2 March, Sen. Tom Cotton said the President had no plan for "any kind of large-scale ground force inside of Iran" except "combat search and rescue assets in the region that are prepared to go in and extract any downed pilot" (Tucker Carlson Show clip on YouTube). That exception is exactly what happened.

Status: Brad Cooper is alive. Pete Hegseth is alive. Dan Caine is alive. Donald Trump is alive. Ebrahim Zolfaghari is alive. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is alive. Larry Johnson is alive. The two airmen are identified only by the call signs Alpha and Bravo.

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Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t49__v577.md, twitter/t49__v579.md, twitter/t49__v581.md, twitter/t49__v583.md, twitter/t49__v584.md, twitter/t53__v633.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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