The U.S. military, engaging in the “largest single Patriot engagement” in its history, was able to successfully repel Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar this week, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a press conference Thursday.
After receiving warnings that Al Udeid would be hit following the United States’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear facility sites, a “minimum force posture” was adopted, meaning that most people left the base, “except for a very few” U.S. Army soldiers.
“At that point, only two Patriot batteries remained on base,” Caine said. “Roughly 44 American soldiers were responsible for defending the entire base to include Centcom forward headquarters in the Middle East and the entire air base, and all the U.S. Forces there. The oldest soldier was a 28-year-old captain. The youngest was a 21-year-old private who’d been in the military for less than two years.”
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