Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, outlined some takeaways from the search-and-rescue mission for a missing U.S. airman on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” Sunday — and argued the mission’s success could deliver a “hard lesson for Iran.”
McKenzie noted that Iran was unable to find the missing weapons systems officer, who hid in Iran for more than a day, even though the country’s leaders put out a “broad appeal to their people to turn him in.”
“That does not appear to have been successful,” he told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe. “That’s maybe a sign of disaffection. Don’t know, but you can’t be happy with that if you’re a senior leader in Tehran this morning.”
McKenzie lauded the success of the search-and-rescue operation, saying the plan was executed “pretty effectively.”
“We train for this endlessly. It’s a part of every time we send air crew over enemy territory, we have detailed, elaborate plans to go get them,” McKenzie said. “It’s a very basic part of who we are as American fighting men and women.”
The former CENTCOM commander noted that while the U.S. lost a couple of aircraft in the mission, “it takes a year to build an aircraft.”
“It takes 200 years to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind,” he said.
