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High-risk effort to save ‘Dude 44’ crew is most incredible combat rescue in US history
You have just seen the most audacious air combat search-and-rescue mission in American history. No other mission compares to the operation to bring home the F-15E crew known as ‘Dude 44.’
U.S. military helicopters have been picking up downed pilots under fire since the Korean War. In Vietnam, pilots were plucked from the tall grass and karst ridges and jungles under enemy fire. U.S. Air Force rescuers saved 1,201 aircrew from the Air Force alone, and a total of 2,780 U.S. service members in combat situations.
Over Iran, the sheer number of planes and people involved and exposed to danger dwarfs any other single rescue in the annals of air warfare. For nearly 48 hours, beginning at 4:40 a.m. local time on April 2, over 155 aircraft and hundreds of military personnel put their lives on the line for a mission 200 miles inside Iran. And everyone came back alive. That’s air dominance.
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“This rescue captured the world’s imagination,” President Donald Trump said at the Pentagon on Monday. The astonishing technology of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle is remote, and almost superhuman in its sophistication. But from the moment Americans learned that two aviators were down in Iran, our hearts pounded. We felt, at the most basic human level, their struggle to survive, evade, hide and hope.
“They always knew we would be coming to get them,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said.
With Operation Epic Fury in week five, ‘Dude 44’ was part of the push to eliminate the remainder of Iran’s military power. All combat missions are given a random callsign used just for that sortie; it’s for radio calls to homebase, command and control, the tanker, etc. ‘Dude’ is one of the more popular, but sometimes you get a callsign like “Poptart.”
CENTCOM COMMANDER DIRECTED STRIKE AGAINST AN IRGC HEADQUARTERS IN UNDERGROUND FACILITY: SOURCES
‘Dude 44’ was a night mission. The F-15E is the workhorse of Operation Epic Fury. It carries the biggest bomb payload of any U.S. fighter. F-15E crews often have hundreds of combat hours racked up over Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran. The two officers of ‘Dude 44’ likely had double-digit missions over Iran to their credit.
They were about to face the worst-case scenario. This F-15E was 200 miles inside Iran when something – a shoulder-fired infrared missile locking on to their engine heat, or anti-aircraft fire – hit them.
At 4:40 a.m. local Iran time, the first rescue began. While joint forces knew both airmen had survived, it was only the pilot they located at first. Rescuers prized a quick daybreak mission that can achieve surprise. What they got was seven hours inside Iranian airspace. The Air Force HH-60W Jolly Green IIs are purpose-built for rescue. They have radars, self-defense chaff and flares, the most sophisticated Link 16 datalinks to other planes, and of course, 7.62mm and .50-caliber guns.
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A U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthog fighter loitered and maintained radio communication with the pilot on the ground, to coordinate an exact pick-up spot. A-10s and other aircraft kept up surveillance and shot at anything moving toward the pilot. The Iranians shot back; Caine called it a close-in gunfight and “an incredibly dangerous mission.” The lead A-10 callsign “Sandy,” designator for special training in search and rescue, took so much fire that the pilot ultimately had to exit Iran’s airspace and bail out.
All this time, a fleet of 155 aircraft set up seven different deception areas to fool the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). B-1 bombers, F-22s, F-35s, F-16s, more F-15s and A-10s created the appearance of multiple search and rescue operations. Above them, 48 tankers, many over Iranian skies, supplied air refueling. Count the participants: hundreds of airmen, special forces and other members of the joint force. This preponderance of airpower faked out the IRGC forces.
Anxious hours passed, yet Central Command dared not launch the second rescue mission because searchers could not pinpoint the F-15E Weapons Systems Officer or “back-seater.”
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During a rescue, it’s possible to have radio contact or indications of life – but not to know exactly where the airman is. Down in unfamiliar mountains, wounded and bleeding, the airman can only describe what he sees. Devices like infrared strobes can signal to watching aircraft. But Iran’s forces were closing in, making concealment imperative.
Fortunately, as CIA Director John Ratcliffe described it, the back-seater was “invisible to the enemy but not to the CIA.” Careful sweep monitoring at a range of about 40 miles, as described by Trump, yielded the first clue of slight movement. Then the back-seater stood up in his mountain crevice – and that was enough. “We have him,” Trump recounted. (Even Trump cautiously chose his words when talking about this highly classified capability; suffice it to say, our side has been working on the ability to detect and characterize slight motion in terrain for quite some time.)
Trump’s decision to greenlight the back-seater rescue was high stakes. Two powerful, specially modified HC-130Js landed and disgorged three MH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters. Small but heavily armed, the three helicopters were unpacked in less than 10 minutes, according to Trump. The team retrieved the back-seater from the mountain. To no one’s surprise, while the HC-130Js landed, they could not taxi fast enough to reach take-off speed in the wet sand and dirt. Trump described how “other aircraft” came to lift out all personnel.
Finally, American fighters strafed and destroyed the HC-130Js to keep secrets out of the hands of Iran – and their cronies in Russia and China. As Caine said, “People are more important than hardware.” Still, you’ll be glad to know C-130Js are still made in Marietta, Georgia. And brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighters for the Air Force are on the production line in St. Louis.
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Artemis II crew reflects emotionally on lunar mission after safe return: ‘Bonded forever’
A day after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast following a historic 10-day mission around the moon, the Artemis II crew took the stage at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas, emotionally reflecting on their time in space and safe return.
“It’s a special thing to be human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” commander Reid Wiseman said, adding that he and his three crew mates are now “bonded forever” before they all hugged.
“Welcome home Artemis II,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said before introducing the crew members:
Weisman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.
“There is there is no doubt there is a price to pay when it comes to exploring the cosmos, but there is also a return, a return in the jobs that creates the technologies that improve life here on earth, and the inspiration that sparks and all those who choose to follow, and to people all around the world who look up and dream about what is possible. The long wait is over,” Isaacman said. “After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on and NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon and bringing them home safely.”
FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT SAYS ARTEMIS II MISSION WAS ‘INCREDIBLE’
Wiseman who spoke first, joked that he had “absolutely no idea what to say.”
“Twenty-four hours ago, the Earth was that big out the window, and we were doing mock 39, and here we are back at Ellington at home,” he said.
Glover said he still hadn’t processed everything, thanking God “because, even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw doing what we did, and being with who I was with, it’s too big to just be in one body.”
Koch reflected that the “start and the end” of the mission were “human moments on Earth.”
“Ten days ago, this journey started with our mission manager, Sean Duvall, knocking on my door in crew quarters and whispering, ‘Christina, We’re go for launch. Get up!’ And it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, ‘Ma’am, can I get a hug?’”
She also said she had a new understanding of the meaning of the word “crew” since their mission.
“A crew is people or, you know, a group that is in it all the time, no matter what that is, stroking together every minute with the same purpose that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other,” she said. “That gives grace, that holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs, and a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked. So, when we saw Tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had, and honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth. It was all the blackness around it.”
She also now thinks of Earth as a “lifeboat” in a universe of blackness.
“Planet Earth, you are a crew,” she added.
Hansen expressed his gratitude to all the people who supported them and their mission.
“And I don’t think people will really ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were. It is almost unbelievable,” he said.
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He added of their crew: “What you saw was a group of people who loved contributing, having meaningful contribution and extracting joy out of that,” he added with his arms around his crew members.
“I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you’re not looking at us,” he continued. “We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you.”
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Caitlin Clark’s Fever make several key offseason signings in championship pursuit
The Indiana Fever made a series of offseason moves Saturday to surround superstar Caitlin Clark with talent as the team looks to contend for a WNBA championship this year.
The Fever re-signed key players Lexie Hull and Kelsey Mitchell, while adding veteran Monique Billings from the Golden State Valkyries.
The players were signed after the Fever were one game shy of reaching the WNBA Finals in 2025 while Clark missed the entire postseason with an injury.
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With Clark set to return, Indiana is keeping its core together while adding veteran depth to bolster its roster ahead of the 2026 season.
The Fever have the fourth-best odds to win the WNBA title in 2026 behind the Minnesota Lynx, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty.
Hull previously teased the Fever’s offseason plans and championship ambitions in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“I think it’s because we made it where we made it last year without some of our key pieces, and with a lot of injuries, and a lot of, like, this adversity. … Our bench was longer than every other bench. We had more people in the training room getting treatment than any other team, and we still almost made it to the Finals,” Hull said.
“Tasting that and being so close and feeling like we have so much more to give, I think that just changes our mindset a little bit. And it’s not necessarily overconfident, but confident in the fact that we really do have a chance. And we should be playing like every game matters, and we’re preparing for that last one.
“I think it’s very achievable with what we’re going to be able to do with free agency.”
The Fever’s season ended in 107-98 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals last year.
With Clark returning from injury, their core intact and at least one new addition, Indiana is looking to finish the job.
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Paulina Porizkova wows in striking bikini while celebrating her 61st birthday
Paulina Porizkova is celebrating her 61st birthday with a smile.
Earlier this week, the former supermodel uploaded a voice-over video of herself wearing a “super cute” red-and-white bikini while sharing that at the height of her career 40 years ago, she was the most insecure she’s ever been.
“I will be 61 tomorrow, and I understand that this might sound crazy to you, but 40 years ago, when I was 21 and when I was at the height of my career and supermodel-dom, that was when I felt the most insecure,” she said in the video.
PAULINA PORIZKOVA STRIPS DOWN TO UNDERWEAR AT 60 TO SHOW ‘IMPERFECTIONS ARE WHAT MAKE US PERFECT’
Porizkova added, “I never seemed to be good enough” partly because her own sense of self-worth “was entirely tied to [her] looks.”
She also explained that her workout routine has been amplified as summer approaches, “not necessarily so I can look best in this bikini — but to feel my best in this sixth decade.”
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To round out her video, Porizkova said, “You know, actually, who am I kidding? I kicked my workout up, like, 10 notches because I do want to look my best this summer, but not necessarily in a bikini — in a wedding dress.”
She closed out the video by blowing a kiss to the camera, flashing her engagement ring – she is currently engaged to producer Jeff Greenstein.
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In the video, Porizkova was slowly getting dressed. She put on a tea-length sundress, which she accessorized with a black belt, sunglasses and a beach bag.
Thousands of people commented on Porizkova’s video, praising her for her looks and confidence.
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“Beautiful inside & out,” model Lily Aldridge commented. “You look amazing!! Own it girl,” another user added.
“You look fabulous and I hope you FEEL just as good,” a third user wrote.
One of her followers wrote, “You’re blessed with a gorgeous figure and lovely proportions—enjoy such a beautiful body! We won’t have them forever and now’s the time to celebrate.”
Porizkova responded, “I was blessed with a healthy small boned and tall body. The rest is pretty hard effing work!”
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