Soldiers accuse Army of downplaying wounds after Kuwait drone attack

The March 1 drone attack at Kuwait’s Port of Shuaiba killed six U.S. service members and wounded 20 more. Wounded soldiers said they warned Army leaders weeks earlier that their defenses were too thin and their medical supplies too limited. Now they are questioning whether the Army is being transparent about the injuries that followed the strike.

All of the dead and wounded came from the Army Reserve’s 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), based in Des Moines, Iowa. The unit moves food, fuel, water, ammunition and transportation support to deployed forces, and it includes 79 subordinate units and more than 7,000 reservists spread across Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Louisiana. The Army later identified four of the dead in one release, then announced the final two names afterward.

Survivors said they had asked for additional medical support weeks before the attack and were turned down. They said the aftermath was more serious than the Army initially described, with dozens of service members suffering brain trauma, shrapnel wounds and burns. At least one wounded soldier may require an amputation. Hicks, one of the survivors, said an Army official told his wife after the strike that his injuries were a “minor jaw injury” and that he would be returned to duty.

The Army rejected that characterization and said casualty labels are tied to specific medical definitions. Under the service’s standard, “seriously injured” and “very seriously injured” refer to people at risk of dying from their wounds within 72 hours. The Army said any claim that it is trying to downplay soldiers’ injuries is false, and it said the attack remains under investigation.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin questioned Army Secretary Dan Driscoll over why the request for additional medical supplies was denied, and her office said the unit did not receive proper care until nearly a month after the attack.