Pilot’s 3-word message after Iran shot down F-15E revealed – story-veterans.com

The possibility hung heavy in the air: had Iranian forces captured the colonel and forced him to transmit, or worse, fabricated the signal entirely to bait American rescue teams into a kill zone? With Iranian militias and local civilians reportedly offered cash rewards to hunt the downed airman, every second of delay tightened the noose around a man already half-dead from exposure.