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Awesome everyone extracted safely. I sure hope a lot of lessons learned come out of this as I finished my taxes yesterday. Assuming it was one SA-6 that's a lot of bang for the bad guy's Rial 2 × MC-130J Commando II aircraft 4 × MH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters 1 × F-15E Strike Eagle 1 × A-10 Warthog 2 × Reapers

Steve is a fantastic author too. Worth a look.

My record on 2026 predictions has been spotty at best, ok it’s been crappy but mostly in a good way… that out of the way, if we arm the Kurds in Iran we have to keep Turkey from intervening, if encourage the Baluchi and Azeris we can’t leave them hanging, if we get a ceasefire and opening of the Strait then we have to remain in theater to ensure no retrenchment on a ceasefire deal. My guess is that we are headed for a new version of Northern / Southern Watch where we keep immediate retaliation available in theater, daily patrol and observation.

Does this mean he gets TWO watches for his troubles? Or are those different seats?

WSO's new call sign should be Matt Damon, because in 2x movies where he's stranded in space, billions in resources are spent to rescue him. And he can claim some Borne for evading.

We're getting close to the "put up or shut up" phase of the operation. We've set back the Iranian war machine decades. We've killed the leaders who targeted our people. We can still take the oil island, I'm fine with that, but it's not realistic to actually extract resources from Iran, it would just be another form of crippling economic pressure. Pretty soon we need to leave and let the people of Iran earn their reputation. If they do, then they can welcome us in as partners to help rebuild. They have enough oil and gas to make it worth our efforts. If not, then we pull back and give Israel whatever they need to keep mowing the lawn while the regime withers away.

What does he (Trump) think is going to happen? Iranian leadership has nothing to lose at this point. They only want to be in charge at the end of this. Blowing up some power plants and bridges ain't going to do shit. It'll maybe rile up the feckless Iranian people a bit more but I'm sure we're covertly trying to support them and they haven't been able to pull it off yet.

The Step-130 wasn’t available to be brought in? Pretty amazing all around.

Hands down the most wild thing ever said by a president.

Now that’s leadership! Praise Allah, MF’ers! Happy Easter!

Good video of the F-15E crew that bailed out over Libya in 2011 and what happened after they returned to friendly control; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZvhhTpNFqU Excellent channel, BTW, if you like aviation.

What I am told is they landed two MC-130Js with 2 X Little Birds each. Both MC-130Js got their nose wheels stuck in the sand. The little birds launched and one picked up the WSO. At the FARP they tried unsuccessfully to get the MC-130J's "unstuck" so they called in other assets from a supporting agency to pick up everyone. 3 X other smaller platforms came in and picked everyone up. USAF aircraft then bombed the 2 X MC-130J's and 4 x Little birds. We lost a couple of Reapers as well. True team effort.

Wasn't this the whole point of the Osprey?

Smelled a little like "Eagle Claw."

Probably. I'm of the impression that it's a foregone conclusion, all indications from big blue pointed (over the last 5-6 years) in that direction. This could very well be the thing to re-light the fire. Fucking good work everyone. TOML

Not the first time the Iranian desert ate an American C-130. SOF played a front row seat, i wonder if this is going to stoke the fire in the battle to move CSAR to AFSOC.

Didn't have desert tires

Glad they're out safe and uninjured. Osint reports lost 2 herks to the mission. Seems herks are allergic to Iran.

Incredible

Same pilot, great American.

WSJ confirmed. Praise God and get that dude/dudette a beer.🍻

I've seen that all day. I'm waiting until its official. Edit. Al Jazera is now confirming it though