When the United States went to war with Iran in late February, the American public was told little about what was happening to the troops stationed across the Middle East. There were no embedded journalists. Casualty details trickled out slowly. Images of damage to American bases were almost nonexistent.
Now, service members, civilian contractors, and military families are breaking their silence.
MeidasTouch, in coordination with our partner VALOR Media Network, has obtained dozens of never-before-published photos and videos showing damage to U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, along with firsthand accounts from people who were there. They describe destroyed aircraft, bombed-out barracks and mess halls, troops digging their own foxholes, and military families hiding in parking garages while Iranian missiles flew overhead.
“It’s so much worse than people realize,” one source said.
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because, they said, they have been repeatedly threatened with disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for speaking out or sharing images. The accounts were gathered by VALOR Media correspondents El Powers and What in Clay Nation, who provided their notes and the images to MeidasTouch.