Former CENTCOM commander calls rescue of U.S. airman a "hard lesson for Iran"

Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, a erstwhile commandant of U.S. Central Command, outlined immoderate takeaways from the search-and-rescue mission for a missing U.S. airman connected "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" Sunday — and argued the mission's occurrence could present a "hard acquisition for Iran." 

McKenzie noted that Iran was incapable to find the missing weapons systems officer, who hid successful Iran for much than a day, adjacent though the country's leaders enactment retired a "broad entreaty to their radical to crook him in."

"That does not look to person been successful," helium told CBS News' Ed O'Keefe. "That's possibly a motion of disaffection. Don't know, but you can't beryllium blessed with that if you're a elder person successful Tehran this morning."

McKenzie, a CBS News contributor, spoke to "Face the Nation" aft 1 of the astir harrowing two-day periods successful the U.S.'s five-week-long warfare with Iran.

The American F-15E combatant pitchy was downed by Iranian occurrence connected Friday. The plane's aviator was rescued by 2 subject helicopters aboriginal that day. But the jet's 2nd unit subordinate had remained missing successful Iran's mountainous terrain, equipped with lone a handgun to support himself, sparking an aggravated hunt cognition involving dozens of American commandos and respective twelve warplanes and helicopters, U.S. officials told CBS News.

President Trump said aboriginal Sunday the missing airman, a colonel, was found "deep wrong the mountains successful Iran." It was a risky cognition successful which U.S. unit utilized bombs and weapons occurrence to support Iranian forces away, CBS News has reported.

McKenzie lauded the occurrence of the search-and-rescue operation, saying the program was executed "pretty effectively."

"We bid for this endlessly. It's a portion of each clip we nonstop aerial unit implicit force territory, we person detailed, elaborate plans to spell get them," McKenzie said. "It's a precise basal portion of who we are arsenic American warring men and women."

During the rescue mission, 2 transport planes were incapable to instrumentality disconnected from a distant basal wrong Iran and were destroyed to forestall Iran from seizing them, U.S. officials said. And connected Friday, an A-10 Warthog that was portion of the hunt cognition took fire, forcing the aviator to eject implicit the Persian Gulf, wherever helium was rescued.

The erstwhile CENTCOM commandant noted that portion the U.S. mislaid a mates of craft successful the mission, "it takes a twelvemonth to physique an aircraft."

"It takes 200 years to physique a subject contented wherever you don't permission anybody behind," helium said.