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A downed US airman credits God, training and teamwork after surviving a devastating fall over Iran and enduring a remarkable rescue mission.

The WSO of the two-seat American F-15E Strike Eagle shot down over Iran is crediting God and his pilot’s skill for their survival.

White House officials shared the CBS 60 Minutes interview on its DOW Rapid Response X account on 15 September.

A Prayer In The Midst Of A Terrifying Fall

Only referred to as DUDE 44 Bravo after the 30-million-dollar plane’s mission callsign, the backseat Weapons Systems Operator talked with CBS about the Easter rescue, saying,

“My parachute was damaged in the initial attack.”

“At one point, when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.”

“So, I paused right then, and I prayed, ‘Lord, Your will be done. But if I’m getting through this, I need help.'”

“Free-falling is a good way to put it,” Bravo said, adding, “I wasn’t focused on the speed at which I was falling.”

His focus was on getting the parachute to work.

Hitting the ground hard, Bravo recalled professional velocity estimates as “somewhere between 70 and 100 miles per hour” (113-161 km/h).

Asked how he survived, Bravo called it “a modern-day miracle.”

“I believe that it’s a testament to God’s provision in my life to bring me through that moment in a way that didn’t prevent injuries,” he added.

Not just that, “but [God] prevented any catastrophic injuries that would have affected my ability to survive.”

That free fall broke his back, arm, and shoulder and sprained an ankle.

The unnamed WSO was also left bleeding from wounds sustained to his head and face, 60 Minutes recounted.

With those injuries, he headed up a mountainside, quipping, “Never let a lack of motivation put you on Iranian TV.”

“I can tell you, for a fact, that they were looking for me.”

Surviving Against Extraordinary Odds

CBS, citing US officials, said the Islamist regime eventually got within a few hundred meters.

With a bounty on his head, Bravo moved further up the mountain and, once satisfactorily concealed, sent out the SOS.

“When I got to the moment where I could review and think about all that I’d gone through,” Bravo messaged, “‘God is good,’ as a recognition of all that He had brought me through.”

Confirming that, Admiral Brad Cooper remembers hearing that as well as “I’m hurt, I’m moving.”

DUDE 44 Bravo recalls the moment he ejected over Iran:

“My parachute was damaged in the initial attack. At one point, when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.

So, I paused right then and I prayed, ‘Lord, your will be done. But if… pic.twitter.com/bIPkvcXWOe

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) September 14, 2026

After proof of life, Cooper said they went straight to planning both the pilot and Bravo’s rescue.

Retelling the massive “operation within an operation” to save the downed US airmen, Bravo recounted seeing two elite USAF pararescue operators show up.

That moment, he remarked, “was one of the greatest moments of my life. And I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Thank you for all that they did.”

A Commitment To Leave No Man Behind

Closing out the interview, Bravo made it clear that this is not a story about what he went through.

“It’s a story of the teamwork, the training, of the faith,” he said, “of the decisions and the leadership to do something that will live in history as an example of what America’s willing to do in order to uphold our promise and leave no man behind.”

CBS explained that DUDE 44 Bravo’s pilot, whom 60 Minutes refers to as Alpha, declined to be interviewed for security reasons.

He was rescued six hours after ejecting.

In an official White House statement published on 14 September, the Trump administration said Bravo’s story was a “powerful account of survival, faith, and combat leadership.”

They added that his Easter Sunday retrieval was “one of the most daring rescue operations in modern military history.”

Post-rescue, the Pentagon quoted President Donald Trump stating the decision to retrieve the airmen was risky because of the thousands of people involved.

“It’s a hard decision to make,” Trump said, “but in the US military, we leave no American behind; we don’t do it.”

To this he added,

“It’s amazing that, when you look at the [damage to the] machinery… that [no rescuer] was even injured.”