After US rescues airmen in Iran, commando opens up about IDF’s own daring extractions |
The extraction of two downed US pilots from Iran this month was widely seen as a striking feat of military coordination and risk-taking. In Israel, Unit 669, the country’s elite aerial rescue squad, is tasked with preparing for similar high-stakes operations as well as saving civilians trapped in life-threatening situations..
Established in 1974 in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, the unit was originally tasked with rescuing downed pilots in enemy territory. Over the decades, its mandate has expanded significantly, with troops now operating in combat zones to extract wounded soldiers and, at times, save hikers, car crash victims or others needing to be lifted out of harm’s way.
“We could be sent out to evacuate a wounded soldier on the border. We could be evacuating civilians from a car accident,” said Guy M., a reservist combat medic in the unit. “We never know what the mission is.”
Despite its broad operational scope, Unit 669 remains highly selective and relatively small, with only a few dozen soldiers completing its grueling training pipeline each year — cementing its reputation as one of the Israel Defense Forces’ most elite units.
The author of two books about the unit’s operations, Guy offered The Times of Israel a rare glimpse of what missions like the United States’ dramatic rescue in Iran demand from those who carry them out.
“Special operations are all about accuracy, about planning, about doing the best,” said Guy, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on special unit personnel.
He noted that rescues like the one that took place in Iran were exceedingly uncommon, and dangerously complicated.
A glimpse into history being made
American officials have described the US military’s extraction of two airmen from Iran as one of the most complex special forces rescue operations in US history — a rare mission that saw American forces penetrate deep into hostile enemy territory and coordinate a massive air operation involving multi-day extraction under active enemy pursuit.
“I assume that we only know as a public the tip of the iceberg of what went down there,” Guy said about the operation.
The pilot of the downed F-15E fighter jet was rescued on April 3, the same day the aircraft was shot down. But commandos did not reach the jet’s weapons officer until April 5, and his extraction was complicated by the original rescue aircraft getting stuck on the ground, necessitating the deployment of a backup plan that involved blowing up the army’s own planes it was forced to leave behind.
“When operations like that happen… and the Air Force is going out there with so much ammunition and taking high risks in order to get to those targets… there always needs to be a plan B,” Guy explained. “You can never anticipate how challenging it’s going to be.”
Speaking after the operation, US President Donald Trump said 21 aircraft took part in the initial search, flying “in broad daylight over Iran for seven hours” under heavy enemy fire. A far larger effort — involving 155 aircraft and thousands of troops — was later mobilized to complete the second rescue.
“As in all rescue missions, it’s a race against time — because that pilot is bleeding,” he said, stressing that while a military scrambles to locate its stranded personnel, enemy forces are simultaneously working to find and capture them.
While US and Israeli aerial rescue units operate under different structures — with the US military fielding multiple specialized units and the IDF relying solely on Unit 669 for a wide range of operations — Guy said their tactics are often similar, as reflected in the recent American mission.
According to a report by The New York Times, after suffering an injury during his ejection, the second airman “hiked up a 7,000-foot ridgeline and wedged himself into a crevice,” from where he used emergency communications equipment to contact rescuers and even help direct airstrikes against advancing Iranian forces.
Guy said the airman was effectively applying the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training program — designed to help military personnel survive in hostile territory, evade capture and facilitate rescue. In Israel, Unit 669 plays a role in preparing pilots for exactly these scenarios.
“If we are responsible for making sure that they make it back home… it only makes sense that we can also teach them how to increase their chances of surviving in enemy territory,” he said.
How rescue missions unfold in real time
According to Guy, rescue missions are reliant on speed. To maximize response time, Unit 669 is dispersed across multiple bases throughout the country, allowing teams to reach incidents anywhere in Israel — and beyond — as quickly as possible.
Once a call comes in, a siren sounds at the nearest base, triggering an immediate countdown. From that moment, the team has just two and a half minutes to gear up.
In that short span of time, soldiers must drop whatever they’re doing and make it to the launch room, where they are met with what Guy described as “endless equipment” — from medical kits to scuba gear — given the wide range of rescues they may need to undertake.
From there, the team races across the base, boards a helicopter and takes off.
“Fifteen minutes — that’s the golden number,” Guy said. “From the siren to being in the air, no matter what the situation is.”
The flight itself becomes a mobile planning room. Based on initial and often incomplete information, the team builds its operational plan — while continuing to receive updates midair.
“Many times, as we’re on our way, everything shifts,” Guy explained. “Sometimes they’ll tell us there’s one casualty. And then, as we’re flying… they’ll tell us, well, actually, there’s more, because there’s still ongoing combat.”
“We don’t choose our missions,” he added. “We respond — and do the best we can as it unfolds.”
Writing what others won’t say
Unit 669 has been behind some of Israel’s most well-known and high-stakes missions, notably the 2018 rescue of two airmen whose F-16 was downed in northern Israel by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile.
While such operations demand extreme physical endurance, Guy said the mental toll can be even greater.
He described treating soldiers with injuries that rendered them unrecognizable, identifiable only by their berets, which link troops to the unit they serve in.
“Sometimes, it’s a unit where you have friends, and you’re just thinking the whole way… maybe you’re actually treating someone who you grew up with,” he said.
To cope, Guy began writing — at his father’s urging — keeping a diary that became a form of catharsis after particularly intense missions.
He said the writing even served as a “shield” in real time.
“I was looking not at what was happening in my hands in the moment, but at how I was going to describe it later,” he said, recalling how he would return to base and immediately start putting pen to paper.
Those entries became his first book, “Full Throttle: Against All Odds with Israel’s Elite Para-Rescue Commandos,” which he noted is “probably the only book in the world written during service in a special forces unit,” rather than in retrospect — something Guy believes gives it a raw, unfiltered edge that sets it apart from accounts written after the fact, which he said often tend to romanticize the realities of combat.
The book, written in Hebrew, quickly became a hit in Israel, prompting Guy to begin translating it into English to reach a wider audience.
But as he worked on the translation with former government spokesman Eylon Levy, he was pulled back into the very reality he had been writing about — called up to reserves on the morning of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Guy was among the first soldiers from his unit sent to the Gaza border area, before the IDF had a full operational picture of the scale of the onslaught.
“Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw,” Guy said.
He and his team treated casualties in some of the hardest-hit locations, including the Nova music festival, Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Be’eri.
Those experiences later formed the basis of his second book, “The Rescue: October 7 Through the Eyes of Israel’s Para-Rescue Commandos,” offering a firsthand account of a day many soldiers still struggle to speak about.
Guy said the two books “complete each other,” with the first focusing on how Unit 669 soldiers are made, and the second illustrating the real-life outcome of that training.
“When the [first] book was about to come out, I didn’t believe anyone would want to read it,” he recalled, saying he initially saw it simply as a gift to his comrades — a way to preserve the shared experiences of their service.
“Then, within weeks, it was everywhere… people were talking about it,” Guy said, adding that he has since spotted strangers reading it on the train.
The response, he said, went far beyond his unit. Young Israelis in the midst of their military service have reached out, identifying with his authentic accounts, some even beginning to keep diaries of their own.
Others encountered the book before enlistment and took it as inspiration to pursue combat roles — with many aiming specifically for Unit 669.
Guy said he hopes the English translations of his books will offer “a window to many teenagers worldwide,” both Jewish and non-Jewish, into “the role of the IDF soldier in a different way than how it’s presented these days, and maybe even inspire them to join the IDF.”
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