They were a skeleton crew of only 44, ranging in age from 21 to 28, and were left behind in Qatar to defend their base from an incoming bombardment of Iranian missiles — and they “crushed it,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.
The place — the critical Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday, an installment normally occupied by 10,000 American soldiers.
“Imagine you’re that young first lieutenant,” the general said in a Pentagon news briefing Thursday. “You’re 25 or 26 years old, and you’ve been assigned as the tactical director inside the command and control element. You, at that age, are the sole person responsible to defend this base.”
The rest of the base’s soldiers were evacuated in anticipation of Iran’s response to the U.S.’s Sunday attack on facilities containing Iran’s nuclear development program.
The crew left behind two manned Patriot surface-to-air missile defense systems.
“We believe that this is the largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history,” Caine said. A Qatar deployment joined in the defensive effort.
The general did not reveal if any of the Iranian missiles got through or seriously damaged the base. The Qataris have claimed one missile penetrated air defenses.
“There was a lot of metal flying around,” Caine told reporters. “And yet our U.S. air defenders had only seconds to make complex decisions with strategic impact. Simply stated, they absolutely crushed it.”
The Al Udeid base serves as a hub for logistical operations for the U.S. mission to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Fox News reported. It also hosts Central Command’s forward headquarters as well as its air forces and special operations in the region. It has also been used as a headquarters for British involvement in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq.
Iran used short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles to attack the base, according to the Pentagon, but no casualties were reported.
President Donald Trump revealed earlier in the week that Iran had given the U.S. a heads-up on the attack. It was believed to be a way for the Iranian regime to save face at home and symbolically hit back at the strikes without leading to greater conflict.
