April 7, 2026 • 10 mins
Ryan talks with Founder and Chairman of Grey Bull Rescue, Bryan Stern, about the overlooked details of the airman rescue in Iran.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah
accident attorneys from Tampa, and.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Right now I want to bring in the founder and
chairman of Grabel Rescue, a veteran led donor funded nonprofit
that rescues Americans all around the world. You can learn
more and grabel Rescue dot org. Brian Stern is back
with us, and Brian, I want to thank you so
much for joining us this morning. You know, when I
was watching all the details come in about this rescue
(00:31):
mission in Iran, I thought of no better person to
help break.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It down than you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You've conducted so many different rescue operations all around the world.
So when it comes to what the US military pulled
off rescuing our airmen in Iran over the weekend, what
is it that really stands out to you about the operation?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
There's kind of there's.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Three parts of this thing that are really remarkable that
that I think are getting lost a little bit. One
is the integration of the intelligence community into a very
tactical operation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The CIA.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
You know, what's getting reported and what everyone's focused on
is that agency was tracked. Who is who found the
pilot using birth technology from his beacon and that's great.
The deception part of the operation is getting a little
bit of play, but that's being kind of glossed over.
It's actually a major part of these kinds of operations.
We do this all the time. When we look at
(01:35):
Maria Karina Machado, about fifty percent of that operation was deception.
And the deception piece is so important to these kinds
of ops when you operate behind enemy lines. We need
to remember these kinds of ops are actually relatively new
for the US military.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We haven't done this in a long, long, long time.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Afghan you know, we haven't worked in a contested area
where someone owns the real estate with a demonstrable force
in a really long time. The Taliban thought that plumbing
was a novel idea. They were illiterate and were flip flops.
The Iranians are not that this is big boy war.
So to operate deep behind enemy lines is actually relatively
We haven't done this in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's been, it's been.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
You know, this is not Somalia, this is not Yemen,
this is not Afghanistan.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Iranian is shooting down airplanes, right.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
So the deception piece with these kinds of operations, which
is what Grabel specializes in. We've done options inside Russia,
we've done option in side Venezuela, we have done stuff
inside of Iran in some other places. The deception piece
is so, so so important to these kinds of ops.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So it's that's getting a little glossed over.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
People are talking about the deception piece, but it's actually
just as important as the helicopter itself that picks up
your package. It's that important. It is a critical part.
So that's one part. The other part that a lot
of people are talking about is that the colonel, you know,
traversed the thing traversed. The mountain is seven thousand feet,
and he was hurt and wounded all those other good things,
and that's all great. What's being glossed over is that
(03:04):
this is a This is a service member who's a
full bird colonel.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
He's about to be a general. That means that he's
got gray hair.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
This is not you know, conceptually we think about a
fighter pilot.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Dudes, Tom Evert don Yeah, you know, this is this
is a very senior old you know, I want to
call him old because he's probably closer to my age.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
But I'll tell you I woke up this morning and
my knees hurt. My hip, sir, I'm in a hard life.
I've been rolled, you know, uh, you know, road hard,
put away wet as they say. You know, this is
a full bird colonel that pulled this off. But that's
a real, real, real testament to fortitude. And you know
he's probably in his uh, if I had to guess,
(03:47):
I've seen some imagery, so it's hard to but the
pictures I've seen that I can't really tell. He looks
to me in his mid mid forties, maybe even late forties,
and I don't know many late forties. You know guys
who who are with with pretty significant injuries traversing seven
thousand foot mountains in evading.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Capture from Iran. I'm early forties and with no injuries.
I'm not evading capture and getting up seven thousand feet now,
So you.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Know that part. I think it's gonna put you.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
All these great details are coming out of great but
there's some parts of these things and it's kind of
being glossed over. Oh yes, he's a Yeah, that means
that he's senior, not junior. This is not you know
Maverick and top Gun was lieutenant uh you know, there's
a colonel, his next rank is brigadier general. So and
then also, I think the other thing that's also important
(04:36):
to talk about is we had to blow up. We
had a it's called bent blow in place, a couple
of aircraft. That's annoying and that sucks, and the imagery
is very poor whatever. But the part of that that's
so important is is that the resources that were brought
to bear and from a planning perspective, that.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
We were able to lose the two Xville aircraft right
and and still Xville.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That the plan was so good and the contingencies were
so well thought out that we were able to pivot
like that. And we talk about this agreeable all the
time I've been, We've talked about it on your show,
My Team and I that we admit to we've done
eight hundred and nine missions is what we admit to
just in the nonprofit world.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
In our government world, it's like in the thousands, yeh
but eight.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Hundred and nine that we admit to just about eighty
eight hundred people that we've saved in eight hundred and
nine missions, almost all of them behind enemy lines. Other
than natural disaster stuff that we do other than that,
not once have we executed a plan A not once.
We have never ever ever said this is what we're
gonna do from Tampa.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
This is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And step one, step two, step three. The first casualty,
the first casualty of war is the plane.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And you know we always say the enemy, the enemy
of any good war story is the truth, right. Uh
uh So to lose the two Xville airplanes. And what's
funny is I've been parts of I've been part of
literally thousands of these things, between my government life and
my privates aren't and nonprofit life. And what happens is
(06:16):
in there's command centers all over the world, right all
over the place that I'm watching this whole thing from
them from the White House all the way down. Sent
com here in Tampa, so com here in Tampa, Uh
Admiral Bradley, uh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Admiral Cooper.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You know these they're they're watching, you know, intently, because
they're the bosses. As soon as the operators get to
the objective, meaning they get their hands on the colonel
and they you know, right and on the radio, what
they there's always a code name, right, So, uh, I'm
training Machida was golden dynamite.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Right, they all have different names.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We say jackpot, jackpot, jackpot, objective, objective, golden dynamite, jackpot, jackpot, jackpot. Right.
As soon as that happens, and all these I've seen
it hundreds of times. As soon as that happens, everyone
starts high fiving each other.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Oh yeah, hugs and kisses. Huggy kissy, huggy kissy, huggy kissy.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
The way home is worse the way because you've just
been real loud, You've just killed.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
A bunch of people. You've just broke a lot of china.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
There's lots of glass on the floor, and and oh yeah,
by the way, you're plus one and in this case
plus one kernel with.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Injuries, who has to be hided, moved, probably on a stretcher.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
He's not exactly like putting on his body armor and
grebin ag. He doesn't become one of the team. He's
a mouth to feed. Okay, then you have to get back.
And in this case, the x fral aircraft got stuck
in the mud, is what happened. They got stuck, right, what.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Do you do?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
This exact thing actually happened to us with a helicopter
one time this exact thing where our xvil our way
out went sideways in the middle of the thing. And
it's one of those moments that as a boss is
a can and myself, I I it's like it's it's like,
you know, you have to count to ten for a moment, yeah,
because it's one.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Of those like, oh no, this is about.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To become catastrophic problem that the last time we did
this in Iran it went extremely poorly.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It was a fail which led to the end of
a presidency.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
At operation uh, if they're an Operation Eagle Claw, it
doesn't at the landing site does at one uh, this
looks a lot like that airplanes getting blown up in
the Iranian desert in the middle of a hostage rescue.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know, there's a lot of parallels here.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And if I'm if I'm any of these bosses, I'm going,
oh god, oh god, oh god.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's remarkable how we that that that.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
The commanders, the resources, the Air Force, the the operators,
the soft guys, the Jaysat guys, the agency guys were
able to pivot.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah, that passed and dashates to the rescue das shates.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Are our Air Force aircraft and are propeller driven. Uh,
these crappy airplanes that have been around for forever, and
they always they always worked on my favorite airplanes and
that's what expelled everybody.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Remarkable. Remarkable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Brian Stern, founder and chairman of gray Bul Rescue, I
knew you'd have amazing insight into this. I wish I
could talk to you for the next hour about this.
I've got so many more questions. But again, this is
a veteran led donor funded organization that's rescuing Americans from.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
All around the world.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
This is what gray Bul Rescue and Brian and his
team do, so make sure you check them out and
support the work they do at grabel rescue dot org.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Again, that's grabul Rescue dot org.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Brian, I got to have you back on real soon
to talk more just about the situation and Iran and
what you all have been up to, because I know
you've been over there in the Middle East doing incredible work.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
But I do want to thank you for coming on
this morning. Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
We just got done three hundred and forty American citizens
we've pulled out this month amazing pretty bad spots.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So we need help and thank you for having us on.
You know, grable Rescue dot organs where people can.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Go to donate anytime again Brian Stern with Grabul Rescue. Brian,
thanks so much. Grabel Rescue dot org Again is the website.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Follow the show and give us your hot take on
TikTok and YouTube at Ryan Gorman Show presented by Farah
and Farah Accident Attorney's Tampa
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah
accident attorneys from Tampa, and.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Right now I want to bring in the founder and
chairman of Grabel Rescue, a veteran led donor funded nonprofit
that rescues Americans all around the world. You can learn
more and grabel Rescue dot org. Brian Stern is back
with us, and Brian, I want to thank you so
much for joining us this morning. You know, when I
was watching all the details come in about this rescue
(00:31):
mission in Iran, I thought of no better person to
help break.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
It down than you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You've conducted so many different rescue operations all around the world.
So when it comes to what the US military pulled
off rescuing our airmen in Iran over the weekend, what
is it that really stands out to you about the operation?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
There's kind of there's.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Three parts of this thing that are really remarkable that
that I think are getting lost a little bit. One
is the integration of the intelligence community into a very
tactical operation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
The CIA.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
You know, what's getting reported and what everyone's focused on
is that agency was tracked. Who is who found the
pilot using birth technology from his beacon and that's great.
The deception part of the operation is getting a little
bit of play, but that's being kind of glossed over.
It's actually a major part of these kinds of operations.
We do this all the time. When we look at
(01:35):
Maria Karina Machado, about fifty percent of that operation was deception.
And the deception piece is so important to these kinds
of ops when you operate behind enemy lines. We need
to remember these kinds of ops are actually relatively new
for the US military.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We haven't done this in a long, long, long time.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Afghan you know, we haven't worked in a contested area
where someone owns the real estate with a demonstrable force
in a really long time. The Taliban thought that plumbing
was a novel idea. They were illiterate and were flip flops.
The Iranians are not that this is big boy war.
So to operate deep behind enemy lines is actually relatively
We haven't done this in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's been, it's been.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
You know, this is not Somalia, this is not Yemen,
this is not Afghanistan.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Iranian is shooting down airplanes, right.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
So the deception piece with these kinds of operations, which
is what Grabel specializes in. We've done options inside Russia,
we've done option in side Venezuela, we have done stuff
inside of Iran in some other places. The deception piece
is so, so so important to these kinds of ops.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So it's that's getting a little glossed over.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
People are talking about the deception piece, but it's actually
just as important as the helicopter itself that picks up
your package. It's that important. It is a critical part.
So that's one part. The other part that a lot
of people are talking about is that the colonel, you know,
traversed the thing traversed. The mountain is seven thousand feet,
and he was hurt and wounded all those other good things,
and that's all great. What's being glossed over is that
(03:04):
this is a This is a service member who's a
full bird colonel.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
He's about to be a general. That means that he's
got gray hair.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
This is not you know, conceptually we think about a
fighter pilot.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Dudes, Tom Evert don Yeah, you know, this is this
is a very senior old you know, I want to
call him old because he's probably closer to my age.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
But I'll tell you I woke up this morning and
my knees hurt. My hip, sir, I'm in a hard life.
I've been rolled, you know, uh, you know, road hard,
put away wet as they say. You know, this is
a full bird colonel that pulled this off. But that's
a real, real, real testament to fortitude. And you know
he's probably in his uh, if I had to guess,
(03:47):
I've seen some imagery, so it's hard to but the
pictures I've seen that I can't really tell. He looks
to me in his mid mid forties, maybe even late forties,
and I don't know many late forties. You know guys
who who are with with pretty significant injuries traversing seven
thousand foot mountains in evading.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Capture from Iran. I'm early forties and with no injuries.
I'm not evading capture and getting up seven thousand feet now,
So you.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Know that part. I think it's gonna put you.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
All these great details are coming out of great but
there's some parts of these things and it's kind of
being glossed over. Oh yes, he's a Yeah, that means
that he's senior, not junior. This is not you know
Maverick and top Gun was lieutenant uh you know, there's
a colonel, his next rank is brigadier general. So and
then also, I think the other thing that's also important
(04:36):
to talk about is we had to blow up. We
had a it's called bent blow in place, a couple
of aircraft. That's annoying and that sucks, and the imagery
is very poor whatever. But the part of that that's
so important is is that the resources that were brought
to bear and from a planning perspective, that.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
We were able to lose the two Xville aircraft right
and and still Xville.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That the plan was so good and the contingencies were
so well thought out that we were able to pivot
like that. And we talk about this agreeable all the
time I've been, We've talked about it on your show,
My Team and I that we admit to we've done
eight hundred and nine missions is what we admit to
just in the nonprofit world.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
In our government world, it's like in the thousands, yeh
but eight.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Hundred and nine that we admit to just about eighty
eight hundred people that we've saved in eight hundred and
nine missions, almost all of them behind enemy lines. Other
than natural disaster stuff that we do other than that,
not once have we executed a plan A not once.
We have never ever ever said this is what we're
gonna do from Tampa.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
This is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And step one, step two, step three. The first casualty,
the first casualty of war is the plane.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And you know we always say the enemy, the enemy
of any good war story is the truth, right. Uh
uh So to lose the two Xville airplanes. And what's
funny is I've been parts of I've been part of
literally thousands of these things, between my government life and
my privates aren't and nonprofit life. And what happens is
(06:16):
in there's command centers all over the world, right all
over the place that I'm watching this whole thing from
them from the White House all the way down. Sent
com here in Tampa, so com here in Tampa, Uh
Admiral Bradley, uh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Admiral Cooper.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You know these they're they're watching, you know, intently, because
they're the bosses. As soon as the operators get to
the objective, meaning they get their hands on the colonel
and they you know, right and on the radio, what
they there's always a code name, right, So, uh, I'm
training Machida was golden dynamite.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Right, they all have different names.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We say jackpot, jackpot, jackpot, objective, objective, golden dynamite, jackpot, jackpot, jackpot. Right.
As soon as that happens, and all these I've seen
it hundreds of times. As soon as that happens, everyone
starts high fiving each other.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Oh yeah, hugs and kisses. Huggy kissy, huggy kissy, huggy kissy.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
The way home is worse the way because you've just
been real loud, You've just killed.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
A bunch of people. You've just broke a lot of china.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
There's lots of glass on the floor, and and oh yeah,
by the way, you're plus one and in this case
plus one kernel with.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Injuries, who has to be hided, moved, probably on a stretcher.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
He's not exactly like putting on his body armor and
grebin ag. He doesn't become one of the team. He's
a mouth to feed. Okay, then you have to get back.
And in this case, the x fral aircraft got stuck
in the mud, is what happened. They got stuck, right, what.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Do you do?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
This exact thing actually happened to us with a helicopter
one time this exact thing where our xvil our way
out went sideways in the middle of the thing. And
it's one of those moments that as a boss is
a can and myself, I I it's like it's it's like,
you know, you have to count to ten for a moment, yeah,
because it's one.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Of those like, oh no, this is about.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To become catastrophic problem that the last time we did
this in Iran it went extremely poorly.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It was a fail which led to the end of
a presidency.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
At operation uh, if they're an Operation Eagle Claw, it
doesn't at the landing site does at one uh, this
looks a lot like that airplanes getting blown up in
the Iranian desert in the middle of a hostage rescue.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know, there's a lot of parallels here.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And if I'm if I'm any of these bosses, I'm going,
oh god, oh god, oh god.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's remarkable how we that that that.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
The commanders, the resources, the Air Force, the the operators,
the soft guys, the Jaysat guys, the agency guys were
able to pivot.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah, that passed and dashates to the rescue das shates.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Are our Air Force aircraft and are propeller driven. Uh,
these crappy airplanes that have been around for forever, and
they always they always worked on my favorite airplanes and
that's what expelled everybody.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Remarkable. Remarkable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Brian Stern, founder and chairman of gray Bul Rescue, I
knew you'd have amazing insight into this. I wish I
could talk to you for the next hour about this.
I've got so many more questions. But again, this is
a veteran led donor funded organization that's rescuing Americans from.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
All around the world.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
This is what gray Bul Rescue and Brian and his
team do, so make sure you check them out and
support the work they do at grabel rescue dot org.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Again, that's grabul Rescue dot org.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Brian, I got to have you back on real soon
to talk more just about the situation and Iran and
what you all have been up to, because I know
you've been over there in the Middle East doing incredible work.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
But I do want to thank you for coming on
this morning. Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
We just got done three hundred and forty American citizens
we've pulled out this month amazing pretty bad spots.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So we need help and thank you for having us on.
You know, grable Rescue dot organs where people can.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Go to donate anytime again Brian Stern with Grabul Rescue. Brian,
thanks so much. Grabel Rescue dot org Again is the website.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Follow the show and give us your hot take on
TikTok and YouTube at Ryan Gorman Show presented by Farah
and Farah Accident Attorney's Tampa
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