Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “almost 90%” of the 400 injured American service members had only minor injuries in the Iran war in March, but wounded soldiers told CBS News that their Iran war injuries were far more serious than the official designation claimed by the Trump administration:
Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Bearman’s body was riddled with shrapnel in the early hours of the war on March 1 when an Iranian drone slammed into his work station in Kuwait. Medical records reviewed by CBS News show he also suffered a concussion, hearing and vision loss, and damage to his lungs. The Army has classified his condition as “not seriously injured.”
“That assessment is unacceptable,” his wife, Amy Bearman, told CBS News in an interview.
Chief Bearman, 57, was one of more than 20 hurt in the deadliest strike of the conflict on American soldiers and the worst attack on American troops since 2021.
The Bearmans are also among several survivors and their families who told CBS News they weren’t being treated by the military as combat casualties for reasons they could not understand — a claim an Army spokesman strongly denied.
In several cases, injured service members said they had been cleared for duty. But that “duty” involves active orders to recuperate from injuries in specialized “soldier recovery units.” (A Pentagon spokesperson told CBS News that soldiers in recovery units are not counted as having returned to duty.)
Sergeant First Class Cory Hicks, 37, also suffered severe shrapnel wounds from the blast and underwent multiple emergency surgeries at a Kuwaiti hospital. He said his wife was told by an Army official after the strike that his injuries were “minor.”
(Source: CBS News)