NYT report with more details
And from Trump himself:
From the looks of things:
1. The
ground war has already effectively started assuming the
New York Time's of the recovery operation is accurate:
In a final twist after the weapons officer was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airmen, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands.
If by transport planes the
New York Times meant C-130s of some variety, then that most likely means JSOC rolled in and seized an airfield.
This means the operation would have required at a minimum a company+ sized element consisting primarily of Rangers, plus TACPs for managing CAS, and of course PJs from the 24th STS — as well as Delta or ST6 operators — as the "tip of the spear."
Guessing most likely more than one Ranger company participated in the operation given the probable need for perimeter security.
2. From the looks of President Trump's
, the now recovered WSO at the rank of colonel won't just get a medal, but will receive expedited promotion to GO if he's willing to publicly thank and praise Trump for rescuing him:
To be fair, this operation was an impressive feat, but it would not have been possible without an absolutely insane amount of CAS and ISR.
Would not be surprised if the Task Force CAS assets that provided top cover for this recovery mission smoked entire columns of Iranian vehicles — perhaps even civilian vehicles
suspected of carrying military, paramilitary or law enforcement personnel — to block traffic and prevent Iranian reinforcements from arriving.
This
win is going to embolden Trump to try something even more complex, difficult and risky. However:
i. The Iranians are absolutely going to learn from the blood they shed.
ii. There are only so many units with the training and resources within the entirety of the US military capable of executing such operations with minimal casualties. Such operational "success stories" are not very scalable.
iii. It's one thing to "go in and out" to recover a single airman; spending days digging through rubble and penetrating granite to recover HEU, or seizing and occupying an island or a beachhead for an extended period of time is a whole other matter.