American soldiers who survived a drone attack against a U.S. tactical operations center in Kuwait, which killed six service members, heavily dispute Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s narrative that one drone made its way through air defenses – claiming the center had little in the way of fortifications to begin with.
Hegseth initially described the deadly March 1 attack as a “once-in-a-while” incident in which a “squiter” made its way through air defenses and struck the “fortified” operations center located in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
“Painting a picture that 'one squeaked through' is a falsehood," one of the injured soldiers told CBS News. “I want people to know the unit…was unprepared to provide any defense for itself.”
One soldier described the tactical operation center as “a bunch of little tin buildings where we can set up makeshift offices,” surrounded by barriers that were designed to absorb blasts from a rocket but offer no protection against aerial attacks.
"It's not my intent to diminish morale or to disparage the Army or the Department of War more holistically, but I do think that telling the truth is important and we're not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn't happen,” one of the soldiers told CBS News.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the report, citing the ongoing investigation into the incident.
The survivors described the harrowing moment the drone struck the tactical operations center, saying they felt shaking before waking up to a cloud of dust and smoke, and their ears began ringing.
One service member described looking around at the scene and seeing “head wounds, heavy bleeding, lots of perforated eardrums,” and “shrapnel all over.”
"It was chaos," one wounded soldier told CBS News. "There was no single line of patients to triage. You're on one side of the fire, or you're on the other side of the fire."
Soldiers had to triage themselves with makeshift tourniquets and bandages before commandeering a civilian vehicle to drive to a local hospital.
“One of the hardest things for me is that I know we didn't get everybody out, so I know that at this point there are still soldiers inside there that still haven't been identified and evacuated," one survivor told the broadcaster.
Ultimately, six were killed and dozens of others were injured.
The comments from the surviving soldiers echo similar reports that emerged shortly after the deadly attack, which accused U.S. military officials of stationing troops within Iranian missile range in a facility that had little to no protection against aerial attacks.
Satellite imagery indicated the center was a trailer-style structure that lacked any substantial air capabilities and had little defense mechanisms beyond concrete T-walls.
Joey Amor, the husband of Sgt 1st Class Nicole Amor, one of the deceased soldiers, compared the tactical operations center to a shipping container-style building with no defenses, while speaking with the Associated Press.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, denied the initial claim that the tactical operations center lacked defense capabilities, first reported by CBS News.
“A Tactical Operations Center is not a ‘makeshift office space.’ The secure facility was fortified with 6-foot walls,” Parnell said in a March statement.
Trump ‘demands European allies secure Strait of Hormuz’ as ceasefire hangs by thread
Iran-US live: Trump considers removing US troops from Europe as NATO relations worsen
Starmer questions Trump’s values over threats to wipe out a ‘whole civilisation’
US is ignoring evidence Russia is helping Iran because it trusts Putin, says Zelensky
Melania Trump holds extraordinary press conference to deny Epstein link: Live updates
Melania Trump denies any connection to Epstein in White House address
