Donald Trump in a special statement after the mission to rescue the pilot in Iran

About the operation, Trump said: “Many people helped us, this is historic, a historic rescue that will go down in the books. The pilot and the navigator were ejected from the plane and landed in Iranian territory, in broad daylight in Iran for 7 hours an American helicopter operated under fire. The flight crew took a risk when they managed to locate and rescue the pilot. No one was even injured, the navigator landed at a significant distance from the pilot. He was wounded and alone in the field. Military forces and local militias pursued him. The navigator climbed up the mountain to find shelter, despite the injury.” Among his remarks, Trump referred to the fragility of Iran and said that “all of Iran can be wiped out in one night, it may be as early as tomorrow.”

He also said: “The first wave of search and rescue forces was able to locate the F-15 pilot, and he was rescued from enemy territory using an HH-60 “Jolly Green 2″ helicopter, an amazing machine, while our fighters are facing very close range fire. It is amazing to see that when you look at the systems and equipment, no one was even injured. Meanwhile, the second crew member, the weapons systems officer, a highly regarded colonel, landed at a significant distance from the pilot. At such speeds, Even if you leave two or three seconds later, it’s already a distance of kilometers, kilometers and kilometers.”

Trump: “Military militia forces and local forces surrounded the area, and in addition to all this, the communities – actually inside Iran – the Iranian people themselves, were told that they had received a significant incentive to locate this pilot, despite the danger. Despite this, the officer followed his training, climbed into the dangerous mountainous terrain and began to ascend to a higher altitude – something they are trained to do to avoid capture. They always strive to get as far away from the crash site as possible.”

He also said: “They always want to get as far away from the abortion site as possible. You have to get away, because everyone goes straight there – so it’s better to be as far away as possible. And he was injured. And it was a really amazing thing. He climbed cliffs while bleeding significantly, treated his wounds himself and managed to contact the American forces to relay his location. They have a very advanced device, a kind of pager, which is on them all the time. And when they go on missions like this, they make sure they have enough battery and that everything is in order – and this device worked amazingly, it saved his life.”

In addition, he said: “We immediately mobilized a large-scale operation to rescue him from the mountain. He held on and continued to climb higher and higher, as the terrain became more and more difficult and dangerous – and it was really very difficult to locate him. The second rescue mission included 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighter jets, 48 refueling aircraft, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We deployed them throughout the area, and a large part of the operation was A ruse. We wanted to confuse the enemy – he was somewhere else, but there was a very large military presence there, thousands upon thousands were looking for him, so we wanted them to search in different areas, as if we were right above them. We had seven different points where they thought he was, and they were very confused.”

Trump: “Then, in a breathtaking display of skill and precision, lethality and power, the US military “descended” on the area — the real area — confronted the enemy, rescued the captured officer, destroyed all threats, and exited Iranian territory without a single casualty. The F-15’s weapons systems officer, acting heroically, managed to avoid capture on the ground in Iran for almost 48 hours. That’s a long time when you’re in a difficult situation and when you’re bleeding. — a long time.”

Trump referred to the explosion of the planes to prevent secrets from being revealed: “The ground was sandy, wet sand, so we thought there might be a problem with the takeoff because of the weight of the plane. In addition, all the people jumped back into the planes, and they sank pretty hard. We had an amazing backup plan, where lighter and faster planes came and evacuated them. We completely blew up the old planes, completely destroyed them, because they had equipment on them, which, frankly, we would have liked to take, but didn’t It was worth staying there another four hours to dismantle it. We didn’t want anyone to check our equipment, we have the best equipment in the world – and we didn’t want to test our anti-aircraft systems and other means. That’s why it was about large, quite old planes, and we blew them up.”

Trump tells about the assembly of backup helicopters in real time: “We brought three helicopters there, which were used very intensively, and we couldn’t have managed without them. They functioned in an unusual way. If you saw it – you wouldn’t believe it. They were taken off the plane with their rotors disassembled, and the fighters reassembled the helicopters in less than ten minutes.”

Trump describes the things: “They took them off the plane and assembled all three in less than ten minutes – maybe even less. It’s quite amazing. The genius of these people – you think it would take five days to build them, and in some companies it really would have taken five days and they wouldn’t have done it well either.”

“They served us well, and as commander-in-chief I don’t forget the extraordinary risk taken by the fighters we send into battle – and the genius. Think about it: having a backup plan with three planes waiting, because we thought the sand was so problematic that we couldn’t take off – and the planes really sank. It wasn’t really a runway – it was a farm, not a runway. But it worked. And having an alternative plan instead of being stuck there for two days – can you imagine? Really In the heart of the area, what you would call a “central location” if it was a movie—probably one of the most difficult areas in Iran—to sit there and wait. Then these planes arrived, and the pilots came in at such high speed.”

Trump: “And it also made it very difficult for the pilots and the people who went in to look for him – suddenly they know there is someone in the field. They see all the planes coming, and it became a much more complex operation, because a leaker revealed that we have one – that we rescued one – but there is another one there that we are trying to get to. And in fact, Iran made a big announcement – you all saw – and offered a big financial reward to anyone who catches the pilot. So in addition to a hostile military, a competent Very, very strong and very cruel, we had millions of people trying to win the award. And when we put all this together – we have to find this leaker, because this is a sick person, who apparently did not understand the magnitude of the consequences of the leak, if the journalist does not find out – he will go to prison.”

Trump: “Everybody understands that. They put a lot of risk on this mission. They put this man at risk, and the hundreds of people who went in looking for him – because now everyone knows we’re going in. In the last 37 days, the United States armed forces have carried out more than 10,000 combat sorties over Iran – an unprecedented thing – and hit more than 13,000 targets. The F-15 we lost last week was the first manned aircraft shot down by the enemy in this whole operation, out of thousands and thousands of sorties – they were just lucky. You know, in the end, the enemy is also lucky – because we managed to bring them both back. This is a record that has no precedent in history.”