Air Force officer prayed while "free-falling" after being shot down in Iran

The Air Force colonel needed help when he crashed over a mountainous part of Iran's desert, separated from his crewmate, the pilot of the F-15E, after being shot down by Iran in April.

The U.S. aviator free-fell to the ground at an estimated 70-100 mph; the Iranian shoulder-fired missile had damaged his parachute. He was the backseater, the weapons-systems officer on a two-man crew with the mission call sign Dude 44. The pilot was Alpha; he was Bravo.

"At one point when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen," Bravo said in his first public account of what happened. "So I paused, right then, and I prayed, 'Lord, your will be done. But if I'm getting through this, I need help.'"

Help took two days to come. Bravo, who broke his back, an arm and a shoulder after hitting the ground at such high speed, hid and survived two days behind enemy lines before his rescue . He calls it a "modern-day miracle."

"I believe that it's a testament to God's provision in my life to bring me through that moment in a way that didn't prevent injuries, but prevented any catastrophic injuries that would have affected my ability to survive," Bravo, identified by his mission call sign due to security threats, said.

The U.S. military has flown around 13,000 missions so far in the war with Iran , according to Adm. Brad Cooper, the American commander of U.S. Central Command leading U.S. forces in the Middle East. Dude 44's mission the night of April 2 was near a mountainous area south of the city of Isfahan, close to where Iran had been keeping much of its highly enriched nuclear material . According to Cooper, Dude 44's mission that night was to conduct a strike on industrial facilities related to Iran's drone and missile program.

"We had air superiority, but clearly we weren't flying over Kansas," Cooper said.

The $30 million two-seat F-15E, a workhorse of American air combat operations for decades, was brought down by a shoulder-fired missile, which can cost around $100,000.

"That day was just another day in the war for us, until the moment where we got hit by an Iranian weapon," Bravo said.

When the missile hit, a moment Bravo describes as "getting hit by a freight train," Bravo said he and Alpha did everything they could to try to save the fighter jet. It quickly became clear the plane couldn't be saved, so the pair ejected.

Alpha, who ejected safely and was rescued before Bravo, is already back flying for the Air Force. He declined 60 Minutes' request for an interview due to security considerations . Alpha expressed his gratitude for the rescue of both himself and Bravo in a statement provided to 60 Minutes.

"I am still in awe of the professionalism and tactical prowess of the Combat Search and Rescue specialists and the Joint Force who executed the rescue missions of me and DUDE 44 Bravo, both those in theater and behind the scenes," Alpha said in a statement.