Nine U.S. service members wounded in the Iran war have gone on the record about the military medical care they received, which they say left them fighting for treatment on their own, according to the Associated Press.
Going on the record is "rare for troops still in the Army," the AP noted.
They were among dozens injured in an Iranian drone strike on March 1 at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait, which killed six troops on the second day of the war. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said a drone "squirted" through U.S. defenses, but survivors disputed that account to CBS News.
"Painting a picture that 'one squeezed through' is a falsehood," one soldier said.
Army Lt. Col. Arturo Lincón was hit by shrapnel that damaged an artery supplying blood to his brain and put him at risk of a stroke, the AP reported. Rather than being admitted to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, he was sent to Army barracks and "told to schedule outpatient appointments," AP reported.
"I was just kind of on my own, at least it felt like that," Lincón said.
Maj. Stephen Ramsbottom, who had shrapnel removed from his head, said he waited more than four months for MRI results.
"I've had to build my own case for everything," he told AP. "It's very frustrating."
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rodney Bearman, who had shrapnel embedded from his face to his legs, and stated that it was "some 10 days after the attack, the soldiers were loaded onto a cargo plane, bound for Germany, "where "they sat on the floor with straps, including Bearman, who could barely eat or lie down."
Once there, they learned they "had not been documented as wounded in combat" and would not be hospitalized, which Bearman attributed to a coding error. "Never did I think that if I was wounded that these things would happen," said Bearman. "Some sacred trust that I thought would never be broken was broken."
Medical records show some soldiers weren't diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries until they reached Fort Hood in Texas, the AP reported.
The Pentagon, led by Hegseth, told the AP that wounded troops arriving at its medical facilities are evaluated and may be admitted based on the severity of the injury, according to physicians following "healthcare-industry practices." The Army declined to comment, saying it hasn't yet briefed the families of those killed on its investigation into the attack.
