‘It was like a scene from an action movie’

The first of several Iranian missiles to hit the US military base rammed into the airstrip, nearly destroying a guard tower where two young Army specialists were on watch duty. Another crashed next to a dining hall and destroyed part of a building where some drone operators were still working.

The base, Ayn Al Asad, in western Iraq, was one of two hit last week in an Iranian attack in retaliation for the killing of Gen Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force. As flames, dust and debris filled the air and the building shook, the drone operators dived under their desks. The lights swung madly, and then went out.

US military personnel on Monday, Jan 13, 2020, survey the damage to a building at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar, Iraq that was struck by Iranian missiles last week. The base has about 1,500 American servicemen and women and 500 others from coalition countries. The New York Times

They had remained in the building despite warnings of an imminent assault because they wanted to get their drones into the air so they would not be destroyed by the missiles, and because “we didn’t know if there was going to be any ground attack,” said 1st Sgt Wesley Kilpatrick.

For the most part, they succeeded in preserving the drones.

Moments after the attack ended, one of the drone operators, Staff Sgt Costin Herwig, 26, stumbled outside to look for his colleagues.

“It was like a scene from an action movie,” he said. “I tried to get to a desk so I could bring down my drone, but my electrical wires were fried and I couldn’t get it back.”

On Monday, though, despite simmering tensions between Iran and the United States, and looming questions about whether the US military would be ordered to leave Iraq, as the Iraqi parliament demanded last week, the base seemed mostly normal.

US military personnel on Monday, Jan 13, 2020, survey the damage to a building at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar, Iraq that was struck by Iranian missiles last week. The base has about 1,500 American servicemen and women and 500 others from coalition countries. The New York Times

It was still forbidden to eat in the dining hall because it was not bombproof. So everybody grabbed their food — a reduced menu — and left. Some housing units were destroyed as well as workplaces — all empty when the missiles hit — but the rebuilding had already begun.

The drone lost by Herwig was one of the few casualties of the missile attack on the base, which was opened by Saddam Hussein in 1987. No one was killed or wounded in the five barrages of multiple missiles that night, although several military personnel who were working were checked for concussions.

The wreckage of a hangar on Monday, Jan 13, 2020, at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar, Iraq, that was struck by Iranian missiles last week. The base has about 1,500 American servicemen and women and 500 others from coalition countries. The New York Times

The absence of casualties seemed to be the result of luck and warnings. The first came early in the day, when all the bases in the region went on high alert. Another warning was issued around 11pm, putting the bases into lockdown.

Finally, the US military detected the missile launches in Iran and determined their likely targets, giving the military personnel at Asad Air Base 15 minutes to take cover.

US military personnel on Monday, Jan 13, 2020, survey the damage to a building at Al Asad Air Base in Anbar, Iraq that was struck by Iranian missiles last week. The base has about 1,500 American servicemen and women and 500 others from coalition countries. The New York Times

Most retreated to concrete bunkers where the greatest danger anyone faced was the collapse of one of the concrete walls. But they were able to jump out of the way in time.

The base has about 1,500 US servicemen and women and 500 others from coalition countries, principally Danes, Norwegians and Polish.

© 2019 New York Times News Service