When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about the toll of the conflict with Iran in March, he told reporters that "almost 90%" of the 400 injured American service members had sustained only minor injuries and had since returned to duty.

Now, some of those wounded soldiers tell CBS News the injuries were far more serious than the official designation provided by the military.

Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Bearman's body was riddled with shrapnel in the early hours of the war on March 1 when an Iranian drone slammed into his work station in Kuwait. Medical records reviewed by CBS News show he also suffered a concussion, hearing and vision loss, and damage to his lungs. The Army has classified his condition as "not seriously injured."

"That assessment is unacceptable," his wife, Amy Bearman, told CBS News in an interview. 

Chief Bearman, 57, was one of more than 20 hurt in the deadliest strike of the conflict on American soldiers and the worst attack on American troops since 2021. The Bearmans are also among several survivors and their families who told CBS News they weren't being treated by the military as combat casualties for reasons they could not understand — a claim an Army spokesman strongly denied.

In several cases, injured service members said they had been cleared for duty. But that "duty" involves active orders to recuperate from injuries in specialized "soldier recovery units." (A Pentagon spokesperson told CBS News that soldiers in recovery units are not counted as having returned to duty.) 

Sergeant First Class Cory Hicks, 37, also suffered severe shrapnel wounds from the blast and underwent multiple emergency surgeries at a Kuwaiti hospital. He said his wife was told by an Army official after the strike that his injuries were "minor." 

"They said your husband was injured, he has a minor jaw injury, and he's going to be returned to duty," said Hicks. He told CBS News he "absolutely" believes the Army and the Pentagon have tried to downplay the incident.  

In a statement to CBS News, the Army strongly pushed back against that claim and said such military designations as "not seriously injured" and "combat casualty" had specific definitions that were being misconstrued by the families. 

"The care and well-being of our Soldiers is of the highest priority," an Army spokesperson wrote. "Any assertion that the Army seeks to downplay a soldier's injuries is simply not true."

Citing Army protocols, an Army spokesman explained that a soldier who is classified as "seriously injured" or "very seriously injured" is someone at risk of dying from their wounds within 72 hours.

A life-changing phone call

Amy Bearman said she knew to stay away from the TV when the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28.

Her husband had left for Kuwait in September 2025 — his fifth deployment since they were married nearly 25 years ago. His unit, the Iowa-based 103rd Sustainment Command, relocated from Camp Arifjan to a small tactical outpost at Port of Shuaiba weeks before war broke out.

"A lot of friends were calling, texting and wanting to know what I knew," Bearman told CBS News. "From being a military spouse for the last almost 25 years, I knew that if anything ever happened to my husband while he was serving, I knew I would receive either an official phone call or an official visit."

On March 1, an Iranian drone slammed into the multi-trailer work station at Port of Shuaiba. The next day, Amy Bearman received an official call from Fort Knox.

"They told me that my husband's injuries were classified as NSI, and they described that, or they defined that, as 'not seriously injured,'" she recalled. "He was treated and released back to duty. That was a huge relief. I think maybe that was the first time that I took a breath in 24 hours."

But her husband's injuries turned out to be worse than she said the Army led her to believe.

On March 3, Amy Bearman received another phone call, this time from her husband, Rodney, who had just spent the night in a Kuwaiti hospital.

"I could just hear him breathing and then he finally said, 'I'm going to be OK.' I waited a few moments and then asked if he returned to duty. It seemed like forever before he answered me, and then he said, 'I can't go back.'"

The strike on Port of Shuaiba killed six U.S. soldiers. 

In April, a CBS News investigation revealed there were multiple warnings ahead of the strike, related to force protection. Soldiers told CBS News they were left unprotected from the drone attack despite intelligence showing Iran was targeting their position in Kuwait. The findings sparked an investigation from Senate Democrats.

CBS News then spoke with other survivors of the blast who detailed requests to leadership for more resources ahead of the strike. Those requests focused on the number of medical personnel as well as the availability and accessibility of medical supplies.

"This was a failure," Major Stephen Ramsbottom said in an interview with CBS News last month, adding he believed Master Sergeant Nicole Amor, one of the six soldiers killed, could have survived her wounds had there been a doctor, a fixed aid station or more than one ambulance at the post.

The soldiers, according to witnesses, instead triaged themselves with makeshift bandages, braces and tourniquets. They commandeered civilian vehicles to drive the wounded to two local Kuwaiti hospitals.

Doctors noted that Bearman perhaps should have stayed longer in the hospital in Kuwait, but the Army "pulled him out" because of security concerns, medical records show.

The Army spokesperson said the investigation into "the facts and circumstances of the attack" has been completed, and findings from the probe will be released once next of kin have been briefed.    

"Our hope for the investigation is that an honest assessment by the Army will prevent this from happening again to other service members," said Amy Bearman. 

Once stabilized, Hicks was airlifted to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany and later to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, where he required inpatient care for several weeks. 

Now nearly four months since the attack, he remains at Walter Reed in a soldier recovery unit with a "pretty severe" traumatic brain injury, and expects to stay there for at least the next six months.

A spokesperson for Walter Reed declined to comment due to privacy laws. 

In a written statement to CBS News, an Army spokesman declined to comment on what was told to Hicks' wife, but said, "What I can tell you is that SFC Hicks received the care and treatment necessary in theater to prepare him for evacuation outside of the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to receive a higher level of care as dictated by his wounds."

Army defends "not seriously injured" designation

Chief Bearman returned to the United States on March 18, still injured and still with pieces of shrapnel throughout his body.

Bearman himself then applied for and was granted a request to be assigned to a soldier recovery unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which was within driving distance from his wife, Amy, and their home in West Virginia.

On March 26, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito wrote to the Army on Bearman's behalf, seeking clarity and answers on what happened to him in Kuwait and why Amy was told her husband was "not seriously injured."

Nearly two months later, on May 13, Major General Michael J. Leeney responded to Capito and Bearman, defending the [not seriously injured] designation but noting "this technical classification is in no way intended to minimize [Chief Warrant Officer] Bearman's contribution and sacrifice."