US Airman Rescued from Iran Shares Unbelievable Tale of Survival with ‘60 Minutes’: ‘Most Terrifying Thing I’ve Ever Seen’
The US Air Force colonel rescued from Iran in April revealed Sunday that the “most terrifying moment” of surviving nearly two days on enemy lines was plummeting to earth with a damaged parachute after his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down.
The weapons systems officer — identified only by the mission call sign Dude 44 Bravo — spoke publicly about his unbelievable tale of survival for the first time in an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” host Norah O’Donnell for the show’s 59th season premiere Sunday evening.
Bravo’s plane was shot down by an Iranian with a shoulder-fired missile on April 3, and crashed in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in the southwestern part of Iran near Iraq.
The impact of the missile was like “getting hit by a freight train,” Bravo said.
His crewmate and pilot, callsign Alpha, ejected them both from the $30 million jet, but Bravo’s parachute failed to inflate, he said.
“My parachute was damaged in the initial attack. At one point, when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” the heroic officer told O’Donnell. (Read more from “US Airman Rescued from Iran Shares Unbelievable Tale of Survival with ‘60 Minutes’: ‘Most Terrifying Thing I’ve Ever Seen’” HERE)
