MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In a week when President Trump witnessed the dignified transfer of the remains of four soldiers, the president was posting on social media. He compared their deaths and those of the other 14 troops killed in this war to the losses suffered in previous conflicts.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Everything from Trump's own operation in Venezuela with no fatalities, to Vietnam, where 58,000 troops were killed or went missing. But the war with Iran has now led to more deaths for American troops than during the entire four years of the Biden administration. Sixteen troops died then, including 13 killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
MARTIN: But we wanted to hear more about how military families are thinking about all this. So we called Steve Walsh, who covers the military and veterans at member station WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia, which is home to the largest naval station in the world. Good morning, Steve.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So what have you seen and heard in the last couple of weeks in Norfolk?
WALSH: You know, we've seen a lot of ships deploying since the beginning of the Trump administration, not only the build-up for the war in Iran. A number of Navy ships were sent to the area around Venezuela and have remained down there. I was recently at the homecoming for the USS Fort Lauderdale. The ship carries sailors and Marines. They left in August and spent more than 11 months in the Caribbean. They were extended several times, the last time to help with the earthquake relief in Venezuela. Andrea Brewer of Tennessee was waiting for her son, Thomas Jones, an electronic technician on board the ship.
ANDREA BREWER: You can't help when you're a mom to worry. I'm going to worry. You know, I was worried whether there'd be aftershocks or anything like that, but I truly did feel like he was in good hands and they were going to keep him safe.
MARTIN: So what else have service members and their families been talking to you about?
WALSH: Well, opinions in the military vary as widely as they do in the rest of the country, but you do get a sense of the weariness around the pace of deployment. I talked with Estephany Pino, who was waiting for her wife, Lieutenant Marien Rincon Media, a supply officer on board the USS Fort Lauderdale. Pino says she struggled with her wife being gone for nearly a year.
ESTEPHANY PINO: Sometimes it's really difficult. Sometimes you just can cry. And, you know, she's doing something really important. And, you know, that's the important thing. It's her job.
MARTIN: You've also been reporting on the troops and families who were evacuated from Bahrain and other U.S. bases in the region at the beginning of the Iran war. What's happening with them?
WALSH: So we're reaching out to sailors and spouses. Hundreds of sailors and their families came through Norfolk and Fort Lauderdale, where CENTCOM is headquartered. Many were rushed out of the U.S. bases in the region with only a backpack, leaving everything else behind. The Navy says they have not worked out a permanent solution for many of them. One woman I talked to says she and her husband are on their seventh hotel room. And now, with the fighting escalating again, they don't expect to return to Bahrain anytime soon.
MARTIN: That is Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk. Steve, thank you.
WALSH: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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