Newly declassified footage released by the Department of Defense and featured on 60 Minutes shows the operation that led to the rescue of a U.S. Air Force weapons systems officer known by the call sign Bravo, who was shot down over Iran on April 2, 2026. Bravo and his pilot, Alpha, ejected from their F-15E Strike Eagle after it was struck by an Iranian missile, with Bravo suffering a broken back, arm, and shoulder when a damaged parachute caused him to free-fall toward the ground. Over the next nearly 50 hours, he evaded Iranian forces across mountainous terrain south of Isfahan, at one point coming within several hundred meters of capture, before U.S. troops extracted him at dawn on Easter Sunday. Alpha was recovered earlier in a separate daylight operation and has since returned to flying for the Air Force.

The footage details the scale of the mission, which involved more than 90 ground troops touching down inside Iran, marking the first American boots on Iranian soil in 46 years, alongside hundreds of personnel in the air and thousands more in supporting roles. Rescue teams staged from a makeshift desert airfield before pararescue specialists reached Bravo using Little Bird helicopters, and at least one aircraft involved in the operation was later destroyed to keep its technology out of Iranian hands. U.S. Central Command described the effort as one of the most complex combat search-and-rescue missions in recent military history, underscoring the armed forces' commitment to leaving no service member behind.