Source: New York Post · 2026-09-12 · Original article ↗

Acting Navy secretary admits Iran ‘blew the hell’ out of Bahrain logistics hub

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The Fifth Fleet's home took the hit. The acting secretary said it out loud. The repair tag is $400 million.

Summary

  • The New York Post reports Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told the Epoch Times that Iran 'blew the hell out of Bahrain,' meaning Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, and that a task force is studying whether the base can or should be restored.
  • Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told a displaced sailor last week, 'we're not getting back in there anytime soon,' when asked about retrieving personal belongings, Navy Times reported.
  • Iran first hit the installation Feb. 28, hours after U.S. and Israeli opening strikes. The Pentagon then said operations were not significantly affected and there were no fatalities. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that command headquarters, at least a dozen buildings, and two satellite communications terminals were hit, with repairs estimated around $400 million.
  • Damage left carriers such as USS Abraham Lincoln unable to restock in Bahrain, adding to shortages and falling morale. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi taunted Cao on X. If the Navy does not return, the Post notes a shift elsewhere in the region, including Israel, farther from Iranian projectiles.

Commentary

A Navy spouse still sits on a vinyl waiting chair and knows a seabag is supposed to come home from a locker, not sit under rubble while a task force debates a rebuild. She did not keep a household on allotment so a $400 million hole could be called 'no significant impact.'

Feb. 28 hit. June $400 million. 'Not anytime soon.' The honest household already paid the sea tour. The logistics hub is a crater with a study attached.

Look every working father who still sends a kid to a fleet in the eye and answer this: if the Fifth Fleet home is already a wreck, who still owns the next pier in that gulf?

Comments

If the Journal already priced $400 million, why did the first brief say no significant impact?
u/border_dad · 5h

Feb. 28. $400 million. Caudle's not-soon. Keep that order.

u/midwest_vet · 4h

I stood a pier so a carrier could restock. A smashed comms terminal is not a briefing line.

u/rule_first · 4h

HQ hit. Dozen buildings. Two SATCOM terminals. Print the three.

u/tokyo_ally · 3h

Allied fleets still treat a wrecked logistics hub as a war-damage file, not a rumor.

u/docket_rat · 3h

Cao task force. Lincoln shortages. Araghchi taunt. File the three.

u/night_shift · 2h

I still clock a dock at 2 a.m. I want the next sailor's locker standing, not studied.

u/texas_mom · 90m

A seabag under rubble is not a talking point. It is a warning the street already paid.

u/gulf_watch · 55m

A dead Fifth Fleet home is a second strait. The first hit should have rewritten the brief.

u/press_clip · 30m

The Post printed Cao's line, $400 million, and Caudle's not-soon. Argue those nouns.

u/soc_lead · 15m

Keep the task force honest. Keep the fleet supplied. A crater is not a closed case.

Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.

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