He is RESCUED!

It took a little time. I'm betting that there were lots of tense moments. When it was over, though, I'm betting that the people involved in the rescue mission experienced the adrenaline rush of a lifetime. Jennifer Griffin broke the story that "The CIA launched a 'deception campaign' inside Iran before the Pentagon initiated its rescue mission for a missing U.S. weapons systems officer, Fox News has learned. Before the service member was found, the CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had already located the missing colonel and were moving him on the ground for exfiltration, Fox News' Jennifer Griffin reported, citing a senior administration official."

The article continues, saying "Griffin reported that while Iranian forces were confused and uncertain about what was happening, the CIA used its “unique, exquisite capabilities” to locate the American service member. She described the effort as 'like looking for a needle in a haystack,' with the American hidden inside a mountain crevice and invisible without CIA capabilities."

In sarcastic terms, the rescue team wasn't using equipment bought off the shelf at Best Buy. Further, the CIA intentionally misled Iran's search team. Underpinning this operation was the extensive SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) training these pilots AND rescue teams went through. Rich Edson reports on the extraction:

According to this JPost article, the U.S. CIA played a significant role in the airman's rescue:

US officials confirmed to FOX News that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted an extensive deception campaign as part of the US mission to rescue a downed US airman, whose F-15 was shot down by Iranian forces in southeastern Iran last Friday.

The Airman, who hasn't yet been publicly named, was one of two aircrew flying the F-15 when it was shot down. A US military team rescued the aircraft's pilot later that day, but the second airman was stranded for 36 hours in mountainous terrain before being rescued by US forces.

The CIA campaign involved spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found him and were moving him overland for exfiltration, confusing Iranian forces and leadership in their own search for the missing airman.

It's impossible to think of the U.S. as anything other than the world's superpower. Their list of capbilities seem endless. Their training, which was key to turning the U.S. into the dominant world power in the 1980s, is exttensive and next level genius. Their weaponry is high-tech on steroids. What other nation has a menu of different-sized bunker buster bombs?

It won't surprise me if it takes 2-3 more weeks to finish off the Iranians. Still, I expect it will get finished because Iran is simply outmatched.