On Friday, Iranian television urged: “Shoot if you see them.” The provincial governor announced a reward — 60 thousand dollars for the capture of the American pilot. Iranian police, military, and civilians searched the mountains of central Iran. And somewhere in a rock crevice — wounded, alone, without contact — an American colonel, a weapons systems officer of the downed F-15E Strike Eagle, was hiding. Forty hours later — on Easter Sunday — President Trump wrote two words on Truth Social: “WE GOT HIM!”
Friday: The Downing
On Friday, April 3, Iran shot down an American F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet over central Iran — the first manned US aircraft shot down by enemy fire since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The two-person crew ejected. The pilot — the first crew member — was located and evacuated by American special forces the same day using two helicopters, which themselves came under fire. One of the Black Hawks was hit by small arms fire — Iranian police shot at the low-flying rescue aircraft. The helicopter crew sustained injuries but returned to base.
The second crew member — a weapons systems officer with the rank of colonel — disappeared. The White House was silent. The Pentagon was silent. Trump refused to comment. “I can’t talk about it,” he said in a Friday phone interview when asked what he would do if Iran captured an American. Now we know why they were silent: a second, secret rescue operation was underway.
Saturday: The Hunt
Throughout Holy Saturday, Iranian forces — IRGC, police, civilians — searched the mountainous Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in southern Iran. Iranian state television broadcast appeals to the public, promising a reward and urging them to shoot at American rescuers. Videos circulated on social media of Iranians firing rifles at low-flying helicopters. At the same time, US and Israeli forces suspended airstrikes in the search area to avoid endangering the missing airman.
And at the same time, the CIA was conducting an operation that the world only learned about on Sunday. The agency spread false information in Iran that the Americans had already found the pilot and were transporting him by land. The Iranians searched for a convoy that wasn’t there. And the CIA — using what an agency spokesperson called “unique, exceptional capabilities” — was looking for a needle in a haystack: one man hidden in a rock crevice in the vast Iranian mountain range.
Sunday: “WE GOT HIM!”
The CIA located the airman and immediately provided his exact location to the Pentagon and the White House. The President ordered an immediate rescue mission. American special forces entered Iran under cover of night — the operation extended into the early morning hours on Sunday local time. They extracted the wounded colonel from a rock crevice in the mountains — “seriously wounded, but truly brave,” as Trump wrote. During the operation, the Americans had to destroy their own equipment on the ground — two MC-130J transport planes that landed to evacuate soldiers but got stuck, and a small MH-6 Little Bird support helicopter. Heavier HH-60W Jolly Green II rescue helicopters, despite hits and crew injuries, managed to return to base.
“My fellow Americans, in the last few hours, the United States military has conducted one of the bravest rescue operations in US history,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. In a statement on Truth Social, he called the rescue “a miraculous rescue operation” and added: “HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!” and “The Iranians thought they had him, but they weren’t even close.” Trump also explained the two-day silence: “We did not confirm the pilot’s rescue on Friday so as not to jeopardize the second operation.”
Iran denied it. The Tasnim agency — linked to the IRGC — stated that “several hostile American machines were destroyed by the warriors of Islam, and the rescue operation ended in failure.” The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Ghalibaf, continued to mock on platform X. But the American colonel is in his own hands — wounded, but alive.
Context: The War Expands
The pilot’s rescue is good news in a bad context. The US and Israel’s war with Iran has been ongoing since February 28 — thirty-seven days. At least thirteen American soldiers have died. The death toll in the Middle East is approaching five thousand. The Strait of Hormuz — through which twenty percent of the world’s oil flows — is effectively closed. Fuel prices are breaking records worldwide. Trump gave Iran 48 hours to open the strait, threatening that “hell will descend” on Tehran.
Reinforcements are flowing into the region: 7,500 Marines and a brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division are joining the more than 50,000 American troops already present in the Middle East. Analysts state directly: a ground operation in Iran — unthinkable until recently — is becoming a realistic scenario.
What This Means for Polonia
On Easter Sunday, Polish families in America sat down to breakfast with blessed foods. And over the mountains of Iran — that same night — American special forces extracted a wounded colonel from a rock crevice, under enemy fire, in an operation lasting many hours.
Two worlds, one country. Easter and war. A basket and a rifle. This is America in 2026 — and this is the reality in which Polonia lives.
Editorial Staff, Voice of Polonia in the USA
April 5, 2026, Easter Sunday
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