Did you see the gigantic CF that the rescue of the downed U.S. airman turned into? The Yanks went into Iran with a major armed force, they all landed at a disused airstrip near the mountainous terrain the pilot was lost in. Then they had to scramble through 7000' mountains to get to him, and bring him back to the airstrip to fly him home.
But then, when they all went to take off, 2 x C-130's developed "technical problems" that stopped them from taking off. So rather than fly in technicians and parts to fix the aircraft, they flew in with another lot of aircraft - and blew up the 2 x C-130's, to stop the Iranians getting the use of them!
They wouldn't hang around to fix the machines, obviously fearful of a major enemy firefight, and the possibility of many more lives lost! So now, we (and the Iranians) know what ONE U.S. Colonel is worth - around US$250M, the replacement cost of 2 x C-130's!