On June 2nd, local time, two people familiar with the matter revealed to CBS that the pilot of the American F-15E fighter jet that was shot down over Iran earlier was indeed one of the pilots who had been shot down during the early stages of the war due to mistaken attacks by Kuwaiti forces.
Just over 30 days after successfully escaping through a friendly fire incident, this pilot was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile while carrying out a mission over Iran. This led to a dramatic rescue operation.
This pilots experience of being shot down twice was first disclosed by Canadian national security journalist Sean Naylor in his Substack column The High Side.
In the early days of the Middle East War this year, this pilot was one of six crew members who managed to escape by ejecting from their aircraft. At that time, three F-15E Attacker fighter jets were mistakenly attacked by Kuwaiti air defense systems. The Kuwaiti fighter jet was the one that actually carried out the downing of those aircraft.
Surprisingly, just a few weeks later, this pilot was once again forced to eject from his fighter jet. His F-15E aircraft was shot down by Iranian missiles on April 3rd.
CBS previously reported that the seriously injured pilot was rescued hours later, while another member of the crew was hidden for nearly two days before being rescued as well.
April 2023, debris of American F-15 fighter jets shot down by Iran. According to the US War Zone website.
In April this year, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Carter, after the two were rescued, said during a briefing at the White House: Whether they were pilots or military officers, their courage during the period when they lost contact with their units, as well as their ability to evade enemy pursuit, deserve no less than full praise.
According to reports, regarding inquiries from the media, the Pentagon transferred the matter to the U.S. Central Command. However, the latter refused to comment on the matter.
Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies director, retired Air Force general David Deptula, said, This is truly a extremely rare coincidence. Deptula was the chief planner of the aerial operations during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991.
In a CBS phone interview, DePuptula said that since the Vietnam War, he couldnt remember any other pilot who experienced two separate incidents of being shot down during the same military operation. Its like being struck by lightning twice, said DePuptula.
