04/06/2026
1,500 soldiers and their families abandoned by Trump in Bahrain. They were allowed to leave with only backpacks.
NPR just published a story that should end every "support the troops" speech any Republican ever gives again. Over 1,500 Navy sailors, their families, and their pets were evacuated from Bahrain after Trump launched a war against Iran without doing the slightest bit of planning for what would happen to the Americans already stationed in the region.
They were given backpacks and told to go.
"They literally told them, 'Get what you can get in the backpack. You've got to go,'" said Derrick Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk, Virginia. "They came with no uniforms, nothing. The three we met first, they came with the clothes on their back, what they could fit in that backpack."
When they landed back in the United States, there was nothing waiting for them. No plan. No housing arrangements.
No supplies. No support. The base had to ask the local community to donate toiletries. Toothbrushes. Soap. Shampoo. For active duty military families. In the richest country on earth. During a war their own president started.
Dawn Cutler, a retired rear admiral and chief operations officer for the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, described seeing one young mother navigating the chaos alone. "She had a 2-week-old and a 2-year-old and a dog in a crate and a suitcase. She was just looking to get out of danger, get to someplace safe."
The Relief Society has handed out $1 million to roughly 2,000 sailors and families since the evacuations began. That money is going toward essentials and bridge loans so families can cover basic living expenses while they wait for the government to reimburse them. Which can take months.
Months.
These families fled a war zone with nothing. And now they're waiting months for the government that sent them there to pay them back for the toothpaste they had to buy when they landed.
This administration had time to plan a military parade. Had time to mint a gold coin. Had time to build a ballroom. Had time to rename an airport. But they didn't have time to figure out what would happen to military families when missile
