The pilot of an F-15 flying an air-to-air training mission out of Okinawa bailed out of his fighter before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 10 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2005. About 20 minutes later, an Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk team from the 33rd Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base, picked up the pilot, who is with Kadena’s 44th Fighter Squadron. Air Force officials say the fighter was a 1978-vintage F-15, tail # 498.
The Pentagon’s cost estimate for the Iran War has risen to $37.5 billion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional committee July 21—and without emergency supplemental funding, the military will have to “curtail” training to cover those costs, he added.