F-15 pilot sends hopeful 3-word radio message after ejecting over Iran

On Friday, his fighter jet was shot down over a remote area of ​​Iran, leaving him stranded behind enemy lines. As he ejected from the plane, the pilot said three words over the radio that caught the president’s attention. Donald Trumpof attention.

Donald Trump called the unidentified pilot a “brave warrior” in a Truth Society post.

Read more: How American pilots hid behind enemy lines in Iran: A beacon, 7,000 feet of climb, nearly two days until rescue

In an interview with Axios, Trump claimed that the crew member sent a strange message after ejecting from the fighter jet, sparking suspicion. According to Trump, the pilot relayed the words “Be the power of God” on his radio.

Trump told Axios the statement sounded like “something a Muslim would say.”

He went on to say that U.S. officials believed the pilot may have been captured by Iran and that they were “sending false signals” to set up a trap.

A U.S. Department of Defense official who spoke to Axios confirmed the president’s statement; the crew member’s words were, “God is good.”

The F-15 captain and weapons systems officer relayed the information via a communications system after Friday’s ejection, according to two sources

Trump noted in the interview that other military personnel who knew the sailor also said he was a religious man, which made sense.

Read more: Live updates on the US-Iraq war

Axios cited U.S. officials as saying the weapons systems officer successfully ejected from the aircraft and was discovered while conducting a high-risk rescue mission in disputed territory.

According to Axios, CIA The spread of disinformation began by telling the Iranians that U.S. forces had located weapons systems officials and were conducting ground infiltrations.

A CIA official told Axios, “It’s a needle in a haystack, but in this case it was a brave American soul in the cracks of the mountain that would have been invisible without CIA capabilities.”

The official claimed that President Trump authorized the emergency relief operation after the CIA provided the Pentagon, U.S. military and the White House with his exact position.