STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One thing that's missing from our understanding of the war is much detail of the experience of American troops. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, I was one of many reporters who went in with the troops, witnessing their experiences for their fellow citizens back home. In other operations, we've heard from military bases, from aircraft carriers, even from inside planes. This time around, it has been harder to learn what it's like to be in the service.
Now NPR has learned some details. Thousands of sailors and their families were evacuated from bases in the Middle East. Steve Walsh from WHRO in Norfolk has some details of what happened at one base at the start of the war. Mr. Walsh, good morning.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Which base is this?
WALSH: This is NSA Bahrain. So we can see from satellite images that the Navy base in Bahrain was hit several times in the early days of the war - in late February, early March. Bahrain is home to the Navy's 5th Fleet, making it a central hub for providing maritime security in the Middle East region, including protecting commercial shipping. It's an island in the Persian Gulf that sits roughly 124 nautical miles away from the coast of Iran. That makes Bahrain well within the range of Iranian drone and missile attacks.
INSKEEP: Sure.
WALSH: U.S. personnel were ordered to shelter in place while others have been airlifted out of the region as the fighting continues. Sailors have been arriving in Norfolk since at least the middle of March, and that's got the community here scrambling.
INSKEEP: Oh, that's interesting. How so?
WALSH: So we've been told by several groups that provide aid to military personnel that sailors arrived with very little. A call came out to community groups asking for basic supplies like hygiene products. It can still be quite chilly in Norfolk during March. They didn't have coats and jackets. American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk hosted a spaghetti dinner for some of the sailors, says Keith Shanesy, the post vice commander.
KEITH SHANESY: They literally told them, get what you can get in a backpack. You've got to go. So 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.
WALSH: So the Navy has not said how many people have been evacuated. But Bahrain base alone normally houses some 8,000 people. It's unclear how many of them remain in that country.
INSKEEP: So some of them were relocated with little notice all the way back to the United States. What happens next for them?
WALSH: So that's the question. The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society says it's handed out $1 million to 2,000 troops and their families since the evacuation began, says the group's chief operating officer, Dawn Cutler, a retired rear admiral.
DAWN CUTLER: I saw one girl, she had a 2-week-old and a 2-year-old and a dog in a crate. She was just, at the moment, you know, looking to get to someplace safe. Now we're at the point where families are back. And they're starting to ask the question, well, what's next? Will we go back?
WALSH: When troops move overseas, they don't keep a home in the United States. Some have gone to stay with relatives. Some remain on bases in the United States. Tampa and Charleston have also been hubs for returning flights. The Navy just released updated guidance for sailors and families who were evacuated. They have worked out some of the details for how people can be reimbursed for living in hotel rooms, and those who have had to wait at secondary locations while they made their way back to the United States. The Navy still doesn't have answers for what happened to cars and furniture left behind. The Navy is also not telling evacuees when or even if they will be returning to their bases in the Middle East.
INSKEEP: OK. That's WHRO's Steve Walsh in Norfolk, Virginia. Thanks so much for your reporting.
WALSH: Thanks, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF ANDREW WASYLYK'S "A FURTHER LOOK AT LOSS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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