Wild that both crew made it out. For context on how rare this is -- during the entire Gulf War, CSAR only pulled out 3 downed pilots from behind enemy lines. The most famous was Scott O'Grady in Bosnia '95, spent 6 days eating ants and hiding under bushes before the Marines could reach him.

Iran's terrain makes this way harder than anything in Iraq. Mountain cover, heavily surveilled borders, no friendly local network. Getting this done in what sounds like hours instead of days says a lot about how far ISR and special ops coordination have come since the 90s.

Also worth noting -- Iran's $60k bounty was insultingly low. During Vietnam, the NVA offered villagers the equivalent of a year's salary for downed American airmen. Iran basically offered pocket change relative to the risk a cooperative civilian would take.