(WASHINGTON) — The B-2 bomber pilots and crews who helped to strike Iranian nuclear sites earlier this month are being told to keep a low profile this weekend if they take up President Donald Trump on his offer to come to the White House on Friday on the July Fourth holiday.
Trump insists the pilots “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program entirely during a June 21 bombing mission and that the B-2 pilots were “devastated” by news reports that questioned his assessment.
Insisting the pilots should be feted as heroes, Trump invited them and their crews to celebrate the July 4 holiday in Washington, which the White House said would include flyovers with B-2 bombers, as well as F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, which were also part of the recent bombing operation.
Officials say though that as of Wednesday no public ceremony is planned and the pilots’ identities are not being disclosed for security reasons.
“Our adversaries are skilled at exploiting the digital realm, collecting and analyzing open-source information, and leveraging advanced technologies to target U.S. military personnel, operations and activities,” according to an Air Force statement.
“Airmen involved in sensitive missions are briefed on the risks and vulnerabilities posed by the changing information environment to assist in managing the public release of information in a manner that protects the safety and security of personnel and assets,” the statement added.
According to the Pentagon, the 14 pilots aboard seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew more than 36 hours straight from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri as part of “Operation Midnight Hammer.”
The pilots dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on the Fordo and Natanz nuclear sites in Iran. A third site, Isfahan, was struck by Tomahawk missiles.
In the immediate hours following the attack, the Defense Intelligence Agency produced an early assessment estimating that the sites endured significant damage but estimated that Iran’s nuclear program was set back by “months.”
According to the two people familiar with the classified report, the bombing sealed off the entrances to two of the three nuclear sites targeted in the attack but that most of the damage was done to structures above ground, leaving the lower structures intact.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe later said “new intelligence” found the bombing campaign set the program back by years.
The disclosure of the DIA findings, first reported by CNN, enraged Trump who said the pilots were “devastated.”
“You know, I got a call from Missouri — great state that I won three times by a lot,” Trump said. “And I got a call that the pilots and the people on the plane were devastated because they [the press] were trying to minimize the attack … I spoke to one of them [who] said, ‘sir, we hit the site. It was perfect. It was dead on.”
“Because they don’t understand fake news, because they have a normal life except they have to fly very big, very fast planes. But it’s a shame. You should be making them heroes,” Trump said.
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