What resources are being brought to bear?

Well, everything that's available, John.

The Joint Personnel, uh, Coordination Center, uh, for Recovery, uh, you know, is stood up even when there isn't an incident, but they are obviously solely focused on using every intelligence asset, both unmanned as well as their satellite capability, also the aircraft.

They're flying up over Tehran and, and broader Iran this evening to try to make communication with, uh, this isolated crew member.

And then of course, in terms of the air and ground capability, both the Marine Expeditionary Unit have a capability specifically task organized to go and, uh, retrieve a downed airman, as well as the, uh, the Air Force, uh, personnel recovery capability that you saw, uh, today, the HC-130 aircraft and the Pave Hawk heli- helicopter.

So a lot of capability, a lot of redundancy.

And so, uh, finding the crewman first, making that communications contact, and then, uh, assessing the threat where that crewman's at to be able to go in and safely recover him.

If they found this person, there would be, they would be trying to use this for propaganda purposes.

What do you make of that?

Well, none of that's helpful, obviously.

And the, the fracture that's taken place, you know, with the NATO alliance and just our European, uh, you know, partners writ large i- is concerning.

Um, you know, we didn't communicate to the degree that we have done in the, in previous combat, um, operations or lar- long-standing conflicts before going into them with our allies, and I think this is a, you know, a result of that.

We, we certainly need to have, uh, basing opportu- you know, or not opportunities, but basing locations.

It helps with really the agility and, and the, uh, geometry as you build a, a military campaign.

So none, none of that is helpful and makes, you know, frankly, the job a lot more difficult, and it puts aircraft that we could otherwise put on the European continent at risk, you know, having them i- in Saudi Arabia like we saw over last weekend when those were struck by, uh, ballistic missiles from Tehran.

Can the US do that?

Do any of them sound like the right move to you?

Well, I think the last one that was, uh, mentioned, the blockade, is probably the most, uh, reasonable.

Uh, in, in my [laughs] military experience, I don't see any benefit of putting troops on the ground at, on Siri Island, Abu Musa, which are right there as you're entering the Strait from the west, or on Kharg Island.

We own Kharg Island now.

We can deny it, uh, through our air superiority that we have.

We can deny the transit of Iranian oil by blockading the, uh, you know, the mouth of, uh, the Gulf of Oman as it leads into the Strait.

And, and frankly, commandeer and take control of, of anything that flows, um, out of, you know, from Iran, from those, uh, those oil terminals on Kharg Island once it goes into the Gulf of Oman.

Does the military have any way to avoid that very scenario, General?

And General, when you look at this and you see about the potential for ground operations, what's your sense of at least what they're preparing to give themselves the potential to do?

Well, I think first, the intent of bringing these 82nd Airborne paratroopers forward is to take the slack out of, you know, potential employment of ground forces.

Obviously, the Marines, two MEUs are moving into the area of operations as well.

Marines and infantry from the United States Army, they do a multitude of tasks, but seizing terrain is certainly high on that list.

I mean, if this, let's say the president does this, and we don't know that he is going to, but if he does, what would, I mean, can you explain to us what that would look like in the initial phase at least?

Well, what's coming in with the MEU is the rotary wing lift that would be necessary to bring forces on Karg Island or potentially on the shore of Iran on the north side of the Strait of Hormuz, for instance.

So they have the capability to move the force as the RMEU comes in and you've got the ground forces to do that.

But you also have to bring in all the enablers.

What exactly does it mean in your view that this was struck?

Well, now Cargillan is being held at risk by the United States now that all the defensive capabilities and also some of the offensive capabilities have been reduced over the course of this uh you know this sorry period that took place over you know last early last night um and then all the way into today so that's the that's what's significant it's as significant to the to iran as the straits of hormones is to all the gold states and obviously those that are reliant on the oil coming out of the terminal in karg island for instance

Should they choose to change that or recalculate as the president is saying, you need to open up the Strait of Hormuz, that's why we spared it? What would that mean if the United States did go after that?

Well, one, I think it's certainly going to have a major impact on the strategic economy for oil.

And then also there's the environmental impact that I'm sure that the Gulf and we as the United States would be concerned about as well.

But I think that Karg Island can continue to be held at risk throughout the course of this conflict.

You mentioned the Marines coming into the CENTCOM theater.

We're going to have to put one Marine or one soldier on the ground to continue to contest You know, that tabletop of limestone, it's about four and a half kilometers by eight kilometers wide.

Why hasn't the U.S. used some of the U.S. military aircraft in the region, gone into some of those air bases in these friendly countries, and told Americans, go to these air bases, you'll get on a military plane, and you'll be allowed to escape the Middle East?

Well, I think that's a very viable option.

And I am surprised that while we've seen some of our allies, like you mentioned, the UK doing this already, that we haven't done that as well as, you know, maybe U.S. Central Command working with the State Department are orchestrating some major operations.

overland movements into Egypt, into Jordan, which are the two best places, obviously, to move out.

But there's also the maritime avenue to leave the country.

And so there's opportunities with maritime vessels, merchant marine vessels.

And having been in UCOM, I know we looked at that whole variety of options that you mentioned, using U.S. military airlift as well as using maritime vessels.

What's your reaction?