PBS Expert on Search-and-Rescue Previously (Repeatedly) Accused Hegseth of ‘War Crimes’

Clay Waters
April 5th, 2026 6:07 PM

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For a segment ostensibly about the (eventually successful) search-and-rescue mission for an airman downed over Iran, Friday’s PBS News Hour platformed a source who less than two weeks ago went on a radical radio show to accuse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of enabling war crimes in Iran -- and who also snuck in his radical anti-war points into his News Hour discussion about the rescue.

Co-anchor Amna Nawaz: For insight on what it takes to conduct a search-and-rescue operation for a downed combat aircrew, we turn to retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant. He spent his career in Air Force special operations and participated in these kinds of missions….walk us through what would be happening right now in a search-and-rescue mission. What are they trying to do to locate and rescue this second crew member?

Bryant spoke a bit of the tactics employed, before pivoting to criticism of the war itself, including its very legality.

Master Sgt. Wes Bryant (Ret.), U.S. Air Force: …. What we have seen here is clearly the collapse of what we call air superiority. The Trump administration, Hegseth himself, military leadership has almost, kind of in a propaganda-like manner -- not almost, but in a propaganda-like manner, told the world and the American people how much we have won in Iran, we have established dominance, we have established air superiority, there's no air defenses, there's no air force. That's never the case in any combat environment….

Later, Bryant again twisted a question to his liking.

Nawaz: We see the Iranians, of course, offering a reward for the capture of this U.S. airmen. If that ends up happening, if the service member ends up in the custody of Iranians or in the Iranian regime, what would that change? What does that mean for the landscape moving forward?

Bryant: Well, the Trump administration here, Hegseth himself, really our senior military leadership, have presented it really an utter failure to foresee the implications of this war. I mean, it's an illegal war. They have not foreseen the impact to regional partners here, the global instability, the regional instability, the energy crisis itself….

 

The host once again let her guest's anti-war ranting go unchallenged. Nawaz went on to praise “Iran's existing capabilities. They were able to shoot down an F-15. It looks like also that A-10 Warthog. They shot at a Black Hawk helicopter that was able to return safely to base.”

As a previous News Hour guest in April 2024, Bryant blamed Israeli Defense Forces for an accidental strike on an aid convoy in Gaza: “….this strike is just an effect or a demonstration of a broader problem. And that's a pattern of targeting negligence, a pattern of indifference towards civilian harm, and a pattern of disregard toward international humanitarian law that the IDF has….”

During a recent interview with the radical Pacifica Radio host Amy Goodman on her show Democracy Now!, he referred to “my colleagues at Airwars,” a U.K. “civilian harm” watchdog partially funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, before spouting about Hegseth directing "war crimes," not once, not twice, but four times. PBS made no mention of the Airwars affiliation.

DEMOCRACY NOW! HOST AMY GOODMAN: Talk about Pete Hegseth, who he is, his policies right now, talking about not having to be politically correct, which seems to be code for what? Committing war crimes?

WES BRYANT: Absolutely. Pete Hegseth has already directed the committing of war crimes. And unfortunately, our senior military leadership is bending the knee and carrying out whatever he tells them to do. And he expresses intent to commit even more war crimes, along with Trump himself, you know, talking about doing strikes on infrastructure just for the fun of it, talking about shutting down all of the power grid across Iran and then decimating Iran so that it can’t rebuild for generations — clear intent for war crimes. You know, Hegseth talking about giving no quarter to the enemy, a war crime.

A transcript is available, click “Expand.”

PBS News Hour

4/3/26

7:07:36 p.m. (ET)

AMNA NAWAZ: For insight on what it takes to conduct a search-and-rescue operation for a downed combat aircrew, we turn to retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant. He spent his career in Air Force special operations and participated in these kinds of missions.

Welcome back to the "News Hour," Wes.

Can you just tell us, based on what we know at this hour, walk us through what would be happening right now in a search-and-rescue mission. What are they trying to do to locate and rescue this second crew member?

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.), U.S. Air Force: Well, it`s twofold here.

Obviously, it`s using -- prioritizing all assets available. That`s not just all air assets, but all intelligence assets, and anything we have potentially on the ground, Iranian sources, for example, people that are pro-U.S. causes here, to locate this downed F-15 aircrew member.

And then, secondarily, it`s ensuring that we have protection of air assets that are going to push into Iran. What we have seen here is clearly the collapse of what we call air superiority.

The Trump administration, Hegseth himself, military leadership has almost, kind of in a propaganda-like manner -- not almost, but in a propaganda-like manner, told the world and the American people how much we have won in Iran, we have established dominance, we have established air superiority, there`s no air defenses, there`s no air force.

 

That`s never the case in any combat environment. And as we can see here, Iran still has sophisticated air defense capabilities. They have to be sophisticated in order to bring down something like an F-15. So that`s twofold.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): That`s securing the pilot`s location on the ground, and then ensuring that the assets that are going to be sent in to get that aircrew member will be safe when they get sent in. And that`s a difficult task at this point...

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you...

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): ... because things are -- as we have been told...

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you, if I may, about the specifics in this case with this war in Iran, because there are examples of rescue missions for U.S. service members behind enemy lines in other nations, right, Afghanistan more recently, earlier than that, Vietnam, Korea. Of course, everyone remembers the infamous Black Hawk Down mission in Somalia in the early `90s.

What are the challenges here that are different from those previous episodes?

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): Well, we have really no ground forces to speak of, no partner force of any substantial nature that can push in and what we say cordon and secure an area.

In many of those cases, we had at least some kind of aligned partner forces that could help in these situations. And then, of course, there`s this -- there`s a shock factor for the U.S. military, frankly, where we don`t have the superiority from an air platform standpoint that we apparently believed we did.

So now getting forces in, getting those ground components in, which are going to be a lot more at risk in low-flying helicopters, those can be shot down with rocket-propelled grenades, for example, even rifles at times. So you don`t need sophisticated air defense assets to shoot these troop carriers down.

So getting those forces in is going to be far more risk and far more difficult to plan here.

AMNA NAWAZ: We see the Iranians, of course, offering a reward for the capture of this U.S. airmen. If that ends up happening, if the service member ends up in the custody of Iranians or in the Iranian regime, what would that change? What does that mean for the landscape moving forward?

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): Well, the Trump administration here, Hegseth himself, really our senior military leadership, have presented it really an utter failure to foresee the implications of this war. I mean, it`s an illegal war.

They have not foreseen the impact to regional partners here, the global instability, the regional instability, the energy crisis itself. That`s one problem of many, and then, most importantly, the incredible risk, the undue risk to U.S. forces here.

And so I would hope that Iran wants to keep this aircrew member safe, for sake of ethics and morality and adhering to Geneva Conventions. My guess would be that they want the leverage. And that will be incredible leverage, because the U.S., for better or for worse, we have a very low tolerance for U.S. casualties, and especially for U.S. prisoners of war in the hands of a regime like the Iranian regime.

That`s going to be a whole lot of leverage against the Trump administration, unfortunately. And the most important part here is that we get our airman back safe and sound.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the minute or so I have left, you mentioned how this is a bit of a revelation in terms of what it shows us about Iran`s existing capabilities. They were able to shoot down an F-15. It looks like also that A-10 Warthog. They shot at a Black Hawk helicopter that was able to return safely to base.

Does all of this and could all of this change the U.S. war effort moving forward, how operations are planned and carried out?

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): You know, I certainly hope so. It absolutely should. There should be a pause to operations.

Typically, with downed aircraft, down crew members, there will be a pause sometimes theater-wide, and all assets, all priorities are put to that recovery effort. But there should also be a pause and a reassessment of what we call risk to the force, to U.S. forces versus risk to the mission.

Continue -- we have -- the U.S. has bombed so many targets in the last few weeks. Making the decision to just continue forward and continue a strike campaign with a risk that we haven`t properly assessed yet to our own forces would be, frankly, just incredibly irresponsible at this point.

So I hope there is a halt and a reassessment strategically and operationally here.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant joining us tonight.

Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

MASTER SGT. WES BRYANT (RET.): Thank you.

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