Never-before-seen video of the attack on Al Asad Airbase

now david martin on assignment for 60 minutes  the u.s airstrike against iranian-backed militias   thursday night was the latest chapter in the  poisonous relationship with iran president biden   inherited from the trump administration 13 months  ago the two countries came perilously close to war   it began with an american drone strike which  killed iran's most powerful general and ended   with an iranian ballistic missile attack against  u.s troops in iraq it was the largest ballistic   missile attack ever against americans tonight we  will show you for the first time drone video of   the attack and talk to the troops who were there  the night the u.s and iran went to the brink the story will continue in a moment hey buddy if you're seeing this video  some bad things happened to dad last night   so i need you to be strong okay for mom and just always know in your  heart that i love you okay bye buddy a few hours after army major allen  johnson recorded that message to his son iranian   ballistic missiles began raining down on al-assad  air base in iraq where 2 000 u.s troops were based   as a drone recorded the attack americans caught  in the crosshairs could do nothing but run or   duck and cover holy holy god damn each missile  carried a warhead weighing more than 1 000 pounds   stay right here bro don't move well words  can't even describe the amount of energy   that is released by these these missiles johnson  was taking cover in a bunker designed to protect   troops against much smaller warheads weighing only  60 pounds knocked the wind out of me followed by   the most putrid tasting ammonia tasting dust that  swept through the bunker coated your teeth after   the blast wave and debris came the flames the fire  was just rolling over the bunkers you know like   70 feet in the air johnson's monker provided no  protection from that we're going to burn to death   we start heading down 135 meters make it about a  third of the way there the big voice we call it   clicks in incoming incoming take cover take  cover take cover i've got another football   field to run i don't know when this next missile  is going to hit can you hear the incoming like   a freight train going by you johnson wasn't the  only one frantically searching for cover it's six   people running for their lives to get to this next  bunker uh we get to the bunker and realize there's   roughly 40 people trying to stuff themselves  into this bunker that's made for about 10 folks   and i grab the guy in front of me i'm just like  you got to get in the bunker and just like like   shoved everybody in there but when you're running  between bunkers it's just a matter of what luck   look the only thing i can actually come up was  that the hand of god protected us because really   nobody should have lived through this things  are happening that could take us to war if   if we don't take make the correct move here  marine general frank mckenzie commander of   u.s forces in the middle east monitored the  attack from his headquarters at tampa florida   ducking into this small room off his main  operations center where he could talk directly   to the only two people above him in the chain of  command they bring in the secretary of defense   and then a little bit later they brought  in the president to this conversation   we're listening to the reports of the missiles  flying have you ever been on one like this i've   never been on one like this where real missiles  being fired at our forces and where i thought the   risks were so high the iranian attack on al-assad  was in retaliation for a stunning u.s operation   president trump ordered six nights earlier a drone  strike which killed iran's most powerful general   qasim suleimani the blood of many americans is  on the hands of kasim solimani he was as close   to an indispensable man as you could find inside  iran where he went violence and death followed   during the american occupation of iraq suleimani  had orchestrated attacks which killed more than   600 u.s troops and according to mckenzie he  was planning to do it again we saw intelligence   reports where kasim solomoni was moving various  attack streams forward against our forces in iraq   against our embassy and against other bases there  or the imminent perhaps in hours perhaps in days   probably not weeks until then the u.s had  shied away from going after suleimani for fear   killing such a high-ranking government official  would only provoke more iranian attacks i never   take killing anyone as a as an easy decision  but i think the risk of not acting in this case   outweighed the risks of acting so  yes i was good with the decision   on january 3 of last year an airport security  camera recorded suleimani's arrival in baghdad   on a commercial flight from damascus mackenzie  was watching from a different angle you have   the drones overhead do you see him get off the  airplane yes yes as suleimani's entourage pulled   away from the plane mackenzie gave the kill  order to the commander controlling the drones   and then i said take your shot when you got it  missiles slammed into both vehicles simultaneously   there's no back slapping there's no cheering  because now i have to prepare to deal with the   consequences of the action general mackenzie was  sure iran would retaliate but he didn't know how   and neither for a while did the iranians i  believe they went into a period of disorganization   because they had lost the officer who  really spoke up and shaped everything   up and told them what they were going to  do so it was kind of a ominous silence   it was a very ominous silence and what was the  first sign that iran might really be thinking of a   ballistic missile attack they began to move their  ballistic missiles the attack was just hours   away when major allen johnson got the word iran's  most powerful weapons were aiming for al-assad my   intelligence officer pulled me aside and basically  said sir i've got some bad news for you what's up   we have uh information that iran is  fueling 27 medium-range ballistic missiles   and their intention is to level this base and we  may not survive this was a completely different   um threat lieutenant colonel tim garland  commanded an army battalion at al assad   a sprawling air base about 120 miles west  of baghdad where the u.s operated scores of   helicopters drones and other aircraft did the base  have any defense against ballistic missiles no sir   it was such a unprecedented threat i don't think  it was ever calculated so the the capability to   prevent a ballistic missile attack it wasn't  there did you have a plan for what to do   we we came up with a plan the only real  defense against a ballistic missile attack   is to get out of harm's way air force lieutenant  colonel stacy coleman and the rest of al-assad   scrambled to evacuate more than 50 aircraft and  1 000 troops before the missiles hit but the base   still had to be manned we still needed to be  able to do our mission so the first decision   was to split our team by combat capability  what did you think was going to happen to the   people you were telling to  stay the honest truth is   i didn't think that we were going to survive  the best shelter was air raid bunkers built   during the rule of saddam hussein but there  weren't enough of them and i just remember   a very heavy sinking feeling setting in i was like  man we we are not going to come up with a bunker   plan that's going to be adequate for the number  of people that we're talking about so garland sent   most of his soldiers out into the desert where  they watched the attack from a safe distance there was a lot of people who didn't want to leave   they didn't want to be that guy that was going  to relative safety a lot of people might have   trouble understanding what you just said tell me  why a soldier wouldn't want to go to a safe place   they want to carry the burden they want to  share in the danger from his headquarters   in tampa general frank mckenzie had tried to time  the evacuation just right if you go too early you   risk the problem that the enemy will see  what you have done and adjust his plans   the iranians monitored al-assad by purchasing  photos like these taken by commercial satellites   mckenzie waited until after iran had downloaded  its last picture for the day so the last time   the iranians took a look with their commercially  acquired spy photos what would they have seen they   would have seen airplanes on the ground and people  working so when they launched those missiles   they thought that was going to be a full flight  line i think they expected to destroy a number   of u.s aircraft and to kill a number  of u.s service members a clock stopped   at 1 34 a.m when it was knocked off the wall  recorded the moment the first missile landed   it's like the sun rising instantaneous that's  how bright it was air force master sergeant john   haynes and his security team were outside their  armored patrol vehicle when the first missile   struck across the radio we heard incoming incoming  incoming and what do you do i just threw the phone   down and ran to my vehicle and once that impact  happened the back pressure blew our doors closed   and then you just see cloud of dirt fire they call  it a a shock wave and and you kind of feel that   that wave almost internally like you it's almost  as if your organs are you know kind of wavering   around inside sergeant kimo kelts was outside the  bunkers manning a guard post in case the missile   barrage was followed by a ground assault we got  down and we protected our vital organs our heads   and we waited did it blow you around  one of the closest ones i had hit um directly near us had actually lifted my body   about two inches off the ground iran fired a total  of 16 missiles from three locations five missed   11 landed at al assad this was an attack like  no other it was attacked certainly like nothing   i've ever seen or experienced what have you  learned so far their missiles are accurate   did that surprise you we knew it but to see it  they fired those missiles to significant range   and they hit pretty much where they wanted to hit  from first launch to last impact was 80 minutes   somehow no one was killed when the sun  came up the survivors surveyed the damage shells of a building you know skeletal  frames left with nothing else craters   about a room size deep into the ground concrete  barriers blown across a field or a street   it looked like a scene from a movie  where everything is destroyed around you   but yet no one was killed i still have no idea  or understanding other than you know god being   on our side that no one was seriously injured  and there were no you know no no fatalities   the news traveled fast up the chain of command and  president trump tweeted all as well that turned   out to be premature there are people throwing up  uh everybody had headaches i had a concussion for   two weeks what did it feel like someone hitting me  over the head with a hammer over and over and over   finally you know hours later we realized we have a  mass casualty event here of traumatic brain injury   military doctors diagnosed more than  100 cases of traumatic brain injury   major allen johnson and 28 other  soldiers received purple hearts   do you have any lingering effects today headaches  every day horrible tinnitus or ringing in the ears ptsd i'll be willing to admit that i still have  nightmares but the nightmare of war with iran   had been averted had americans been killed it  would have been very different have you ever   done an estimate on if you hadn't evacuated the  damage that would have been done so i think we   might have lost uh 20 or 30 airplanes and we might  have lost 100 to 150 us personnel you had a plan   to retaliate if they killed americans david we  had a plan to retaliate if americans had died   iran was on alert for a possible u.s  strike and hours later mistakenly shot down   a ukrainian airliner thinking it was an american  bomber 176 entirely innocent people died

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 7,522,570

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, al asad airbase, iran, iraq

Id: lGP7hZQuTL0

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021