Iranian Media Posts Debris From USAF F-15E Claimed to Have Been Downed Earlier Today

Although Iranian media claimed an F-35 has been shot down, images from the crash site clearly show debris belonging to an F-15E Strike Eagle. On Apr. 3,

The Aviationist
Military aviators train for this, being alone behind enemy lines (look up SERE school if you’re curious, one of the craziest training courses outside of special forces) and there is a special force just for aviator recovery behind enemy lines, US AirForce Pararescue. Hopefully they’ll get the aviators back quickly, the last thing our country needs is American hostages making this ridiculous war harder to stop.
Do they train for a “no quarter“ conflict where injured or surrendered combatants are killed?
Hegseth is not in charge of the Iranian military.
But he did publicly declare his intention to commit war crimes.

In case anyone else doubted this, I will save you the time to look it up. Yup, it's sadly true.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/hegseth-no-quarter-interna...

'No Quarter' Declaration by Pete Hegseth 'Constitutes a War Crime': Experts | Common Dreams

"The Pentagon's law of war manual states unequivocally that such statements are war crimes," said a legal scholar who previously worked in the Pentagon's office of general counsel.

Common Dreams

Yep. And war crime seems to have lost all meaning in the US.

But, even if you dismiss the idea of international standards, this is clearly very bad for US soldiers (and sailors, airmen, etc). I wonder if they see that.

> But, even if you dismiss the idea of international standards, this is clearly very bad for US soldiers (and sailors, airmen, etc). I wonder if they see that.

Even if you dismiss the idea of international standards, a no-quarter declaration is against _US law_, specifically subject to the penalty of death with no other lawful penalty defined: https://www.govregs.com/uscode/title18_partI_chapter118_sect....

18 USC 2441 - War crimes

Searchable text of the 18 USC 2441 - War crimes (US Code), including Notes, Amendments, and Table of Authorities

We've already committed several war crimes.
Actually even just declaring no quarter is itself a war crime.
Hes also liable for the death sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 2441 — War Crimes Act (1996) & 10 U.S.C. § 950t — Military Commissions Act (more relevent)

They won't face any US law. AIUI, they have been getting letters from the DOJ office of legal counsel that say it's legal. This effectively immunizes them (the DOJ can't turn around and charge you with a crime, if they advised you beforehand it was not a crime).

The best shot would be to turn them over to the ICC

Alas, the USA isn't signed up to the ICC.
Sure, but, if somehow they fell into ICC custody overseas...
Right but the reason we have rules against people declaring no quarter is to prevent a race to the bottom. It is absolutely reasonable to respond to a no quarter declaration in kind, which is... again... the entire reason we have prohibitions on it.
No, we actually train to be tortured and held if caught, but everyone knows the risks before you take off. Captured marines or soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re clear eyed about it.
Unless I missed something, Only Hegseth was promising no quarter (ie war crimes)
he what? this is on the record?

https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4434...

> Our response? We will keep pressing. We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.

Yes, he said it in front of reporters at a Pentagon briefing.
If they landed anywhere near a town they are probably captured. The kuwait video from the f15 that was hit with friendly fire was crazy. Like 6 suvs worth of locals immediately surrounded this guy and they were threatening to beat him with a galvanized pipe.

TBH I went through SERE school (aircrew) and I questioned its value, since the training is in eastern Washington/northern Idaho area mountainous woodland environment and all the evasion they showed us relied on that kind of cover and "bushcraft"

And you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran are definitely not eastern Washington lol

Eastern Washington has a lot of hot desert
Washington indeed has a giant desert but it's in the middle fwiw, the SERE school is in Spokane
Spokane is in the Eastern arid region of the state.
What an absolutely pointless thing to get pedantic about. Put "spokane washington" into Google images and tell me if that looks like a desert to you.
They're also wrong. The geographic center (around Ellensburg or so) is also in what is known as Eastern WA (east of the Cascades).
Spokane is Eastern Washington, the college in Cheney is literally called Eastern, its just not a desert.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yud6EFprZeaVDaeQ6

This is the view outside of Fairchild AFB, which runs the training course in question.

Wikipedia reports that Spokane has a Mediterranean climate, as does Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province where this F-15 is reported to have been shot down.

Bevor Sie zu Google Maps weitergehen

Spokane is not desert. Even surrounding territory is more plains. Some desert military training happens at Yakima much further west.
You'd get additional specific training for deployments and the skills are transferrable. But obviously they can't train everyone in every biome that we have, otherwise you'd spend a whole year just flying around to different areas of the country to train and on a 4-year contract it's just not going to work time-wise.
If you're doing SERE school you're probably not on a 4 year contract. Pilots have 10 year contracts.

some enlisted air crew go to SERE. loadmasters, airborne intelligence, and SMA (Special Mission Aviators).

As an added benefit, enlisted air crew have no restrictions on mustache length or on professional wear of the uniform.

Add Huey crew chiefs to this list
Iran isn't just central Tehran. Look up the Zagros Mountains and the Alborz Mountains. Or just look at a picture of the northern Tehran skyline, it is at the foot of the Alborz, a huge mountain range. There's plenty of woodlands and forest too. Some parts of the Hyrcanian forests get over 50 inches of annual rainfall, which isn't Forks, WA, but it is substantial.
You're reinforcing parents point by highlighting the variety: at most, just 1 of the areas is a close match to the terrain at the training grounds.
Not really, if you're entering Iranian airspace from the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, or Europe, you're flying over either the Zagros Mountains or the Alborz Mountains. Unless you crash/eject in a city, you're almost certainly going to be in the mountains. Look at a map.
far from pc but i grew up hunting along the snake and the old guys always called those hills "Bin Ladens" bc it looked like the pictures of where news reported he was hiding

Relevant: This is a very interesting read:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5150259-u-s-air-force-su...

U.S. Air Force Survival Handbook (US Army Survival)

Written for use in formal United States Air Force survi…

Goodreads
One crew member rescued, other is still MIA and being actively searched for
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/iran-us-fighter-shot-down
U.S. fighter jet shot down in Iran: One crew member rescued, search for other ongoing

It would be the first time since the beginning of the war that a U.S. jet was downed by enemy fire.

Axios
U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) on X

🚫 CLAIM: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it downed an "enemy" fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. ✅ FACT: All U.S. fighter aircraft are accounted for. Iran's IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times.

X (formerly Twitter)

That tweet is from yesterday.

Iran tweets about taking down an American jet basically daily. By their count we are down 40 f-35s, 4 aircraft carriers and thousands of MQ-9s.

> That tweet is from yesterday.

That's when the shootdown happened, yes.

> Iran tweets about taking down an American jet basically daily.

Sure. We have two sets of demonstrable liars here. See, for example, the E-3 Sentry that got blown up; it took leaked photos for that to be admitted.

And don't get me started on the several times in the last few months we've "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capacity and missiles and whatnot only to be told it's time to do it again.

And they have not edited it or taken it down... why?

"We"

Very cool that you have a side hustle as a US fighter jet pilot!

It's known as the Air National Guard. Work for United during the week, and fly F16's one weekend a month.
Hate to say it and sound so "conspiracy-like", but I no longer can trust what the current US administration is saying. Ever since the path of a hurricane was redrawn with a sharpie, it's been... unusual.
Your comment is a perfect setup for the cynicism olympics where people rush to say you could never trust the govt.
Has there been a time where (after later facts came out) they were wrong?
Nukes in Iraq?

That was what the gov’t was saying was true - which was a lie, and was later proven to be a lie.

Which reinforces my point?

Or the bootlicker olympics for those who want everyone else to ignore the constant lies because they think bigger, more powerful government is utopian.
Do you have some reasons for hope for the cynics in the crowd?
Not really. Just that trust ain't binary and the govt is made of people. I don't like this admin but this too shall pass. Cultivate your garden. Electing bad people has consequences.

None of what's happening today could have happened without everything that came before it.

The blue team carries plenty of blame for not fielding better candidates. If nobody is buying your bullshit, it's a little weak to blame the customer.

And all of the us electorate carries plenty of blame for letting our government get so massive and out of control over time. We've let this beast metastasize and grow, and now were stuck with it.

The American people are ultimately to blame for it, they've got the government they deserve, which is actively dismantling the US empire day by day. The American people voted for Trump instead of Kamala, and that is rather damning of the state of the American people, far more so than however damning it may also be for the Democratic party.

Red team could have sane candidate, but they did not. They spent a lot of money amd effort into making this happen.

They are 100% at fault.

Yes. Absolutely.

As we all know, in this day and age, you need to REALLY sell your story, and have the media behind you. Competence is tertiary.

> Approval of Trump among Republicans has slipped to a second-term low of 84%, down from 92% last March. At the same time, an all-time high 16% of Republicans disapprove. This shift can be attributed, at least in part, to declining support among non-MAGA Republicans, as approval dropped 11 points in the last year among this group (70% in March 2025 to 59% today). Virtually all MAGA Republicans continue to approve of Trump, with 98% approving a year ago and 97% now.

> https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-oppose...

March 20th poll

Fox News Poll: Voters oppose action in Iran but give US military positive marks

A new poll finds 58% of voters oppose U.S. military action in Iran, while Trump's disapproval rating hits a second-term high of 59%, the survey shows.

Fox News

Regardless of whether it's a "perfect setup" or not, the facts speak for themselves.

Most competent governments don't say things that are outright wrong. They may use double speak, or not comment on a topic. But this government (and unfortunately it's this specific adminstration/president) has acted time and again in a way that both of us know very well.

You should never trust this administration. The US government in general has a spotty history, but this administration does nothing trustworthy.
I think the problem is that in previous administrations at least they had some skill in lying in ways that were not so constantly contradicting one another.