For one American colonel, the longest 24 hours of the war ended just after midnight.
The second crew member of a US F-15E Strike Eagle — shot down over Iran on Friday — was extracted in the early hours of Sunday morning, pulled from deep inside Iran’s mountainous interior after spending more than a full day evading capture by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is wounded. He will live.
“WE GOT HIM!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight. “The US Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine.”
One of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history, the President called it. That framing may be self-serving, but it’s not wrong.
The pilot of the F-15E had been rescued hours earlier, soon after the aircraft went down in southern Iran. The second crew member — the colonel, described by Trump as “highly respected” — was not so lucky. He ejected into the mountains. The IRGC mobilized. And for the next twenty-plus hours, the hunt was on.
Iran’s state media urged citizens to help locate him. The IRGC searched rugged terrain. American forces, apparently tracking him by beacon and probably by signals, staged what witnesses described as a significant air operation to reach him. “Dozens of aircraft” is how the President described the retrieval force. In a war where every mission deeper into Iranian airspace carries substantial risk, that’s not a casual commitment.
The IRGC released photos of the downed aircraft’s wreckage. They were not in a sharing mood.
The rescue does not change the fundamental shape of this conflict — but it says something important about the stakes. America sent its most capable assets deep into enemy territory to extract one person. That’s not the behavior of an army in full retreat. It’s also not the behavior of an army that thinks this is nearly over.
Which brings us to the deadline.
Trump has given Iran 48 hours — until sometime Tuesday — to reach a peace deal, or “all hell” will rain down. The phrasing is vintage Trump, but the ultimatum reflects a real pressure point: the Strait of Hormuz remains contested, global oil markets are twitchy, and the US has been striking Iranian infrastructure — including universities and hospitals — with an intensity that is drawing quiet concern even from allies.
Behind the scenes, intermediaries from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are reportedly pushing a 45-day ceasefire proposal that would reopen the Strait and pause the bombing. Whether either side actually wants that deal, or is simply using negotiations to position for the next phase of fighting, remains the central question of this war.
The colonel is safe. The war is not.
One rescue doesn’t make a strategy — but in a conflict this messy, it’s the kind of win both sides need for very different reasons.
— Mr. White