The U.S. Air Force weapons-systems officer shot down over Iran months ago has broken his silence, recounting in an interview with 60 Minutes how he survived for two days in enemy territory while Iranian forces hunted for him and American troops raced to bring him home.

The officer, identified only by his mission call sign “Bravo,” was a weapons-systems officer in the back seat of an F-15E Strike Eagle when an Iranian missile struck his aircraft back in April. The force of the impact, he told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, felt like being “hit by a freight train.” The other pilot, identified as “Alpha,” was the one to initiate the ejection sequence, a decision Bravo credited with saving both men’s lives. But getting out of the aircraft was the easy part.

The attack had damaged Bravo’s parachute, leaving him in what he described as the most terrifying moment of his life: a near free fall over Iran’s mountains. Military debriefers later estimated he struck the ground at between 70 and 100 mph. The impact broke his back, as well as his arm and shoulder, and yet somehow did not kill him. Alone, seriously injured and deep behind enemy lines, Bravo spent roughly 50 hours without food or water, and armed with only his sidearm and some communication equipment, climbed a 7,000-foot ridgeline to avoid capture. 

While Alpha, who had landed about five miles away, was recovered by U.S. forces within hours, Bravo had to wait nearly two days to be rescued eventually by the Air Force's elite pararescue.

Throughout the interview, it was clear that Bravo attributed his survival in large part to God, recounting how he prayed that he would survive the initial impact to the first message he was able to send back to U.S. forces.

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"When I got to the moment where I could review and think about all that I'd gone through, I sent, 'God is good,' as a recognition of all that he had brought me through," Bravo said.