The extraordinary search and rescue mission in Iran

The search and rescue mission this week to locate and save the missing weapons systems officer shot down in Iran was akin to “hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said on Monday.

The two American airmen aboard the F-15 ejected themselves from their aircraft on Friday, seconds after it was hit by incoming Iranian fire. Both landed deep within Iranian territory. The pilot was found and rescued within about six hours, but the other officer was on his own, injured, for nearly 48 hours in a foreign country with hostile forces racing to capture him as a prisoner of war.