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Airman rescue shows US can penetrate enemy territory ‘anywhere’ in Iran, former Pentagon official warns
A former Pentagon official said the rescue of a U.S. airman in Iran served as more than a recovery mission, saying it was a warning to Tehran that the United States can penetrate anywhere in Iranian territory to carry out operations ranging from rescues to securing sensitive targets.
“This demonstrates to the Iranian leadership that we can get anywhere that we so choose and hold ground as long as we desire to accomplish a mission,” Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain, said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” Sunday.
TRUMP CALLS RESCUE OF DOWNED AIR FORCE PILOT AN ‘EASTER MIRACLE’
“Not only can we rescue our pilots, but we can also go to where we need to secure nuclear equipment or the remainders of their leadership.”
Sadler’s comments come after the rescue of a U.S. Air Force weapons system officer (WSO) early Sunday morning local time after roughly 36 hours in hiding.
The pilot and WSO ejected from an F-15E fighter jet when it was downed over Iran on Friday. The pilot was rescued that morning.
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Sadler said there have been reports that intelligence agencies and special forces from various military services were involved in the operation, and that America’s regional allies also played a part.
“Our Gulf partners would have had to have given some clearance for the aircraft to fly through. They wouldn’t know what it was for, and, of course, the Israelis, I think they [were] deeply integrated into this, to shift their targets and their attacks so that it would draw the Iranians away or keep them busy as we focused in on locating and exfiltrating our pilot.”
Sadler added that the daring operation dashed any hopes Iran had of using the downed airman “for political purposes” or to stop U.S. military operations and said the successful rescue mission should underscore the seriousness of President Donald Trump’s Monday deadline for Iranian leaders to return to the negotiating table.
“Despite going and hunting down and successfully exfiltrating our pilot, the operations and the attacks continued, which means that deadline that President Trump has given is very serious and the regime in Tehran better take it as such, because there’s a lot more that’s coming their way if not.”
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White House faith advisor says Americans are leaving organized religion but not losing faith in God
White House faith advisor Paula White-Cain shared an Easter message of hope and redemption while pushing back on data showing declining religious affiliation in the United States.
“Without a real relationship with God, I don’t know how people really make it. And He loves you, He wants you, He desires you, and He made a way to come to Him freely through His Son, Jesus Christ,” White-Cain said on Saturday’s “My View with Lara Trump.”
“I love that He said He came to give us life and life more abundantly. That’s the message. It’s a message of hope, a message of love, a message of forgiveness and a message of reconciliation and redemption,” she said.
White-Cain’s remarks come as recent polling shows a drop in Americans who say religion is important in their lives and a rise in those who identify with no specific faith.
The apparent shift, she argued, reflects a move away from organized religion rather than a decline in belief, pointing to what she described as growing interest in faith among younger Americans and rising Bible sales.
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“It’s not that most people are not believers or that they believe in God. In fact, atheists are less than 5%. It’s that they aren’t belonging as much, and our culture has changed,” she said.
White-Cain suggested a range of factors could be driving the decline in formal affiliation, including skepticism toward institutions and a desire for more authentic expressions of faith.
“It means that they’ve dropped off of the institutions. Maybe it’s their denomination or what their parents grew up in, but they are connected to God,” White-Cain said, pointing to movements of young people pursuing faith and getting baptized.
“There are people that don’t like necessarily the restrictions or rigidity, and they’re looking in different places for authenticity and for purpose,” she said.
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Islanders fire head coach Patrick Roy with four games left in the season amid playoff race
The New York Islanders have fired head coach Patrick Roy despite being in a tight playoff race.
Islanders GM Mathieu Darche announced the change from Roy to Peter DeBoer, who was fired by the Dallas Stars in June 2025.
The move comes with just four games left in the regular season for the Islanders, who sit on a four-game losing streak entering Sunday. And the streak comes with seven losses in their last 10 games.
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As the NHL standings sit entering Sunday, the Islanders, who were once comfortably in position to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sit third in the Metropolitan division with 89 points, which would give them a slot if the season ended today.
However, the Philadelphia Flyers (88 points) and Columbus Blue Jackets (88) are gunning for that third and final divisional spot in the few games remaining. As a result, the Islanders are making the surprise change in hopes DeBoer can get them into the playoffs over the next week.
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Roy’s exit comes after a loss where the Carolina Hurricanes, who already secured a playoff spot, out shot them 40-16 in a 4-3 loss for New York.
The Islanders are not the only NHL team making a change at head coach with just days left in the regular season. The Vegas Golden Knights axed Bruce Cassidy from his role, hiring veteran coach John Tortorella on an interim basis last week.
Like the Islanders, the Golden Knights (86) have the third and final position in their division, though the race is a bit more comfortable for Vegas with a five-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings.
But, while Tortorella is an interim move for Vegas, the Islanders are keeping DeBoer intact heading into the 2026-27 campaign.
DeBoer has been head coach of five different franchises over his extensive coaching career. He owns a career 662-447-152 record in 1,261 games with the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Golden Knights and the Stars, who he led for the past three seasons before his firing.
DeBoer wasn’t with a team this season, but he’s stepping up for the opportunity to help turn the tides on Long Island, as the Islanders hope to make the playoffs after missing out the previous two seasons.
While DeBoer hasn’t coached this season, he was a part of Jon Cooper’s Team Canada staff for the Milan Cortina Olympics earlier this year.
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Retired F-16 pilot says rescued US airman’s survival in Iran highlights intense evasion training
Downed over enemy territory and forced to evade capture, a U.S. airman’s survival highlights the high-stakes training that prepares pilots for the worst, a former Air Force fighter pilot said Sunday.
“As a F-16 fighter pilot, I’ll tell you that the last thing we do before we step to go fly a combat sortie is we brief up the CSAR mission and understanding what will happen if we have to get out of that aircraft,” Lt. Col. Dan Rooney told “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“And we have a motto, ‘Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,'” he said.
U.S. forces rescued a missing U.S. weapons system officer from a downed F-15E in Iran following a multiday search inside enemy territory as Iranian forces simultaneously searched the area.
The pilot, who also ejected from the jet in Khuzestan Province, was rescued Friday morning.
President Donald Trump touted the recovery mission as an “Easter miracle.”
Rooney said pilots undergo extensive survival and evasion training to prepare for worst-case scenarios, including being shot down behind enemy lines.
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“We are very prepared to escape and evade and set ourselves up in a position to get rescued,” he said.
In such situations, Rooney explained, downed airmen are trained to move quickly after ejection, avoid populated areas and remain as concealed as possible while awaiting recovery forces.
They are also trained to reach areas where rescue could be more easily achieved.
“Be small, be stealthy, get high, so you can be rescued,” Rooney said, describing the basic survival principles.
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Those tactics, he said, are critical in the hours and days immediately following ejection, when a downed airman is most vulnerable and must avoid detection while awaiting rescue attempts.
“It’s a race against time in these moments,” Rooney said.
“And thank God that we won that race,” he said.
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