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The Afterburn Podcast

US Airman Still on the Ground in Iran - What the U.S. is Doing to Rescue Them

The Afterburn Podcast

John "Rain" Waters

Military, Lifestyle, Aviation, Leisure, Society & Culture

4.91K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

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0:00.0

Yesterday was a rough day for the Air Force. It's still unfolding. There is a lot of information that is flowing around.

0:05.8

The objective of this video is to lean on some of my experience and talk about what's transpiring with the other crew member who is still on the ground inside Iran.

0:14.5

So we know that an F-15E was shot down yesterday, as well as an A-10 was hit, was able to make it feet wet over the water, and the pilot

0:22.6

eject and then successfully be recovered. There was some confusion. I think when that A10 pilot

0:28.5

was picked up and rescued, that the media ran with the line that both crew members from the F15E

0:34.8

were picked up, the pilot and the WISO, that weapon system operator.

0:39.2

Making some assumptions that the WISO is the one that's still on the ground, I think with

0:43.5

this, if anyone's speaking saying in absolutes that they know what's going on, they're telling

0:48.9

you a lie. We're going to try to sort through some of that noise and just highlight what I think

0:53.5

is transpiring.

0:55.2

Again, I just did a live stream with Ward Carroll for an hour and a half.

0:58.3

We dug into this.

0:59.7

So I'll link that down below.

1:00.9

I encourage you to check it out if you're interested in more on this.

1:04.3

But there's a lot that is transpiring.

1:07.6

And again, no one should be speaking in absolute.

1:09.9

So yesterday, we saw videos and

1:13.0

images circling around of H-H-60s. These helicopters here, you can see the refueling probe. This is

1:19.4

the primary rescue vehicle for the United States Air Force. You can leverage Ospreys, but when we

1:24.7

talk about the rescue community, combat search and rescue, this is the rescue vehicle.

1:30.4

Leveraging the HC-130 Combat King, this one up front here, providing aerial or fueling, and then on this H-860, you're going to have pararescue.

1:39.9

PJs, essentially a combat rescue officer that are going to provide that medical aid to a downed airman when they go inside and pick up a survivor from a personnel recovery event.

...

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