- US troops conducted a daring rescue for the missing F-15 crew member on Saturday
- Iran shot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle with two crew members on board on Friday
- Pilot was rescued but the weapons system officer remained missing after the incident
US troops carried out a “daring” search and rescue operation on Saturday to bring back their missing F-15 fighter jet crew member.
Iran on Friday shot down a US warplane - a two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle - with a pilot and a weapons system officer on board. While the pilot was rescued, the weapons system officer was reported missing.
The rescue reminded of a historic first in the US military when the Army carried out its first helicopter rescue in combat during World War II.
In April 1944, an L-1 Vigilant light aircraft carrying three wounded British soldiers and its pilot was hit by ground fire and crashed in the dense jungles of Burma, according to Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine.
The men survived but were trapped in the jungle while Japanese troops closed in. Conventional aircraft could not land in the jungle, and no nearby clearing was large enough for a fixed-wing plane.
The Army's experimental Sikorsky YR-4B helicopter became the only option. It was still in service testing with the “B” indicating it had 20 more horsepower than the original model. Built from fabric-covered steel tubes, it was small enough to be called “a shoebox with windows.”
As per the magazine, Captain Carter Harman, a former Army Air Corps instructor newly trained on the YR-4B, flew from India to reach the Chindit base called Aberdeen, where he was briefed about his mission.
Guided by an L-5 reconnaissance plane, he located the hidden soldiers near a small clearing believed to be just large enough for the helicopter. He loaded the first wounded soldier and struggled to keep the aircraft aloft in the tropical heat. He reached a sandbar where another aircraft could transport the soldier to Aberdeen.
On the second trip, the YR-4B overheated and refused to start, which forced Harman to spend the night on the sandbar. At dawn, the engine cooled and he resumed the mission. He retrieved the third soldier and then the L-1 pilot. As he approached the clearing for the final extraction, soldiers were visible in the jungle.
For a tense moment, it seemed they might open fire. The helicopter shuddered under the strain of heat and an overworked engine, but he eventually managed to get full power and climbed away. Harman soon realised that the soldiers rushing towards him were not enemies but British guerrilla fighters coming to reach their own men.
Harman's four separate flights under extreme conditions marked the first helicopter rescue in combat history. His actions earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Commandos went on to conduct twenty more rescues before their helicopters wore out.
