The U.S. military just pulled off one of the most dramatic combat search and rescue missions in history, sending forces deep into Iran to recover the crew of a downed F‑15E Strike Eagle fighter. Aircraft were lost, firefights erupted, and both airmen came home alive. The last time America attempted something this ambitious inside Iran was Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 - and that ended in disaster.

In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with two retired special operations colonels: Ioannis Koskinas (Air Force Special Operations, CEO of The Hoplite Group, former senior advisor to Generals McChrystal and Schwartz) and Joe Felter (Army Special Forces, Director of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense).

As Felter puts it: no other country could have pulled this off, and no other country would have tried.

The conversation starts with the rescue: how it was planned in under 48 hours, how and why aircraft were lost at a forward staging site deep in Iran, and what separates this outcome from the 1980 failure. It then pivots to the broader war: where the conflict with Iran is headed, the risk of Gulf state escalation, and why both guests, drawing on painful experience from Afghanistan’s collapse, warn against assuming tactical brilliance equals strategic victory.

The episode closes with the Indo‑Pacific: what allies are thinking as American attention and resources once again pour into the Middle East, and whether the U.S. can fight in the Gulf without undermining its ability to deter China.

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👉 Sponsored by BowerGroupAsia, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in the Indo-Pacific