The Air Force colonel needed help when he crashed over a mountainous part of Iran's desert, separated from his crewmate, the pilot of the F-15E, after being shot down by Iran in April.

The U.S. aviator free-fell to the ground at an estimated 70-100 mph; the Iranian shoulder-fired missile had damaged his parachute. He was the backseater, the weapons-systems officer on a two-man crew with the mission call sign Dude 44. The pilot was Alpha; he was Bravo.