NOT ADDING UP

Army Airborne Hero Calls BS on ‘60 Minutes’ Pilot’s Claims

A retired Army general is raising questions about a “60 Minutes” segment on an intense military rescue behind enemy lines.

A decorated Army general is calling bull on the latest installment of 60 Minutes that spotlighted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s military.

The season premiere of 60 Minutes featured a segment on an airman who was rescued from Iran after his aircraft was shot down amid President Donald Trump’s war in the region. Retired four-star Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who has received three Purple Hearts, questioned the airman’s account of the risky recovery operation.

“Very strange story. Could not be true,” McCaffrey, who served in the 82nd Airborne Division and has two Distinguished Service Crosses, wrote.

“US Army stops parachute ops with wind speed of 15mph. I’ve jumped with higher wind speeds, and it feels like a train wreck. 100 mph sounds like all bones in body broken and limbs torn off,” he elaborated.

The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS News for comment.

In the segment, the airman, identified during the broadcast by the call sign ‘Bravo’ to protect his identity, said his parachute was damaged after the plane was badly hit. He said that during the freefall he did everything he could to “unfurl or pull pieces of the parachute loose,” but to no avail.

“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

He also said that during the fall, he broke several bones—including in his back, one arm, and shoulder—sprained his ankle, and suffered bloody scrapes on his body.

After ejecting from the F-15, he said he managed to avoid being caught by Iranian forces as he hiked up 7,000 feet, while hardly equipped with anything.

He was rescued 50 hours after the crash. The aircraft’s pilot was rescued shortly after the crash.

“I don’t have this story without faith,” the airman explained. “I am not saying faith is [a] replacement for training, but instead it is a boon to training. Training helps us understand what we do. But faith is the backstop of all of my actions during my time in Iran, and the way that guides what I do, day in and day out.”

While “Bravo” agreed to be interviewed on camera, his counterpart “Alpha” did not — much to the dismay of Hegseth, who had been pushing for both of them to be interviewed on camera.

CBS were only able to obtain the interview after its MAGA-curious boss Bari Weiss leaned on Pete Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, to secure it.

Hegseth—who earned the nickname “No Tab Pete” in the Pentagon because, while in uniform, he had none of the patches such as “Ranger” and “Sapper” that signify special combat skills— was also interviewed in the segment, along with several political appointees.

CNN reported that the DOD was adamant that the airmen speak on the show, despite the airmen’s concerns about inadvertently revealing classified information about the rescue effort.

Viewers of 60 Minutes also appeared confused by the segment, given that Bari Weiss took over operations at CBS News last year. She has raised eyebrows for her MAGA-coded sensibilities as she attempts to make the storied network more appealing to conservatives.

And many viewers simply turned away: the episode opened to an audience of about 7.94 million, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings, marking the lowest viewership for the newsmagazine’s season premiere since at least the turn of the century. The coveted 25-54 demographic also dropped one-third to 1.6 million viewers.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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