Arturo Lincón is a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and a 1995 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and has served with the Defense Logistics Agency; as of October 2026 he was an instructor at Fort Leavenworth, according to the Associated Press.
Case
Soldiers wounded in the March 1 Iranian drone strike at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, say they lacked drone defenses and faced delayed care. Hegseth called the drone a "squirter" that hit a fortified site, and the Army has not released its investigation.
Role at the time: U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with the Defense Logistics Agency, wounded in the March 1 strike
Response to this claim
Wounded soldiers told the Associated Press that the military's medical system failed them: they say they were not documented as wounded in combat, were sent to barracks instead of being admitted at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, and waited weeks or months for brain-injury diagnosis and care.
“I was just kind of on my own, at least it felt like that”
The reference point is whether the military failed the soldiers at Port Shuaiba in protecting them or in caring for the wounded. Lincón's quoted words criticize his care: he says he was on his own after the Army sent him to barracks rather than admitting him at Landstuhl. In a separate report the AP paraphrases him giving reasons the port suited the unit, but those are not his quoted words and do not change his stated view of his care. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional; it loses because the quoted statement attaches no condition and voices no support for how he was treated. Evidence: a direct quotation in an Associated Press report.
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
Statement dates: October 5, 2026
