From the New York Times, it's the headlines.

I'm Tracy Mumford.

Today's Monday, April 6th.

Here's what we're covering.

We've been speaking to senior administration officials, military officers, and others,

piecing together the story of how a U.S. Air Force

officer trapped behind enemy lines was rescued. Julian Barnes covers U.S. intelligence for the

times. He says when Iran downed a U.S. military jet on Friday, it set off an urgent race for the U.S.

to find the crew who had ejected before Iranian forces could.

The pilot was located quickly, but the second airman was missing, raising fears of a potential hostage situation.

The airman hiked up a 7,000-foot ridge line hiding in a mountain crevice that made him hard for the Iranians to find, but also

hard for American rescuers to spot. Julian says the CIA launched a deception campaign to try and

throw Iran off while both sides kept searching. They spread false information that the airmen had

already been found and was moving

out of the country in a ground convoy in the hope Iran would shift its focus to the roads.

The CIA ultimately located his hiding spot, brought that information to the Pentagon and White

House who launched a rescue operation to extract him from Iran.

This was a major event of the war and has solidified the will of both sides to fight.

The Iranians, in that they brought down a fighter jet, the Americans in that they executed

a daring operation behind enemy lines.

This could have big implications of how this war develops in the days ahead.

The plane that was hit, an F-15E Strike Eagle, was the first U.S. fighter jet lost to enemy fire in this war.

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