Three U.S. soldiers who helped rescue and treat fellow service members after an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia have been awarded Purple Hearts, according to Stars and Stripes.
Missile blast, then screams
Staff Sgt. Kalob Mitchell, Sgt. Xavier Jones, and Spc. Nicholas Cabo of the 6th Battalion, 56th Air Defense Artillery Regiment were recognized for actions during a March 27 attack at the base, Stars and Stripes reported on Oct. 20. The outlet said an “Alarm Red” siren warned of an incoming strike less than a month after the Iran war began. A 550‑pound Iranian ballistic missile landed near their bunker, sending shock and sonic waves through the area, the outlet reported.
“Everything went black,” Mitchell told Stars and Stripes. “We’d been hit.”
Tourniquets and triage in the bunker
After another soldier roused them, the three moved toward cries for help. “Two soldiers, I’m not too sure who they were, had significant injuries; (we) ran over there, applied tourniquets, T Triple C (Tactical Combat Casualty Care), everything,” Mitchell recounted to Stars and Stripes. The outlet reported they aided a gravely injured soldier, treated another with a neck injury, and calmed a service member disoriented by the blast.
“I think it was just the adrenaline,” Cabo told Stars and Stripes. He said he noticed his own leg was bleeding but “it wasn’t anything like crazy bleeding, so we just heard screams and went to go help those guys.”
Recognition amid wider conflict
At the award ceremony, the soldiers’ unit commander, Capt. Tyler Ritter, read thank‑you notes from those they helped, Stars and Stripes reported. The article said it was unclear how many were wounded in the March 27 attack.
More broadly, the Defense Casualty Analysis System had recorded 21 killed and 865 wounded since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, according to the same report. The article also said multiple American military installations have been struck during the conflict, causing billions of dollars in damage to military and diplomatic facilities and damaging hundreds of buildings within the U.S. defense infrastructure.
