U.S. Cadets Were Stuck in the Persian Gulf After Trump Bombed Iran

When the United States dropped its first bomb on Iran in the early morning of Feb. 28, approximately half a dozen American cadets were in the Persian Gulf, working on U.S.-flagged ships, unaware their home country had started a war that would put them in immediate danger.

Five privately owned vessels flying American flags that work closely with the U.S. military were in the Persian Gulf the day the conflict began in the Middle East. Aboard two of them were students from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, a federal service academy that trains officers to serve in the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Merchant Marine and the transportation industry, NOTUS has learned.

Breaking from past precedent, the Department of Defense did not give any kind of warning or hint to the vessels, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy or the Department of Transportation that the U.S. was going to strike the region, three sources close to the situation told NOTUS.

The Department of Transportation oversees the academy and the privately owned vessels enrolled in the Maritime Security Program and the Tanker Security Program, which allow the U.S. military to use private vessels in times of emergency.

“Nobody told them. They were caught unawares,” one source close to the situation told NOTUS, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the matter. “It was very strange that [officials] weren’t even given a whiff, weren’t even given an indication.”

These five U.S.-flagged private vessels are ships that work with the U.S. military and are usually given some kind of preparatory warning in the event of a major conflict, the sources familiar with the situation said. The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz became a central tension point from the moment the war with Iran began, and U.S. flagged vessels quickly became potential military targets, with one taking a hit in the early days of the conflict. The Pentagon’s lack of communication has frustrated both Transportation Department officials and the private companies that own the vessels.

The Defense Department did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.

Without advance notice, there was no clear way to evacuate the cadets — and the five ships and their crews — after the bombing began, two people familiar with the situation said. The U.S. government did not have arrangements in place to evacuate American citizens from the region at the time the war began, as NOTUS previously reported. And the government didn’t have a plan in place to help the vessels get through the Strait of Hormuz, either, two people familiar with the matter said.

“If they’d had even just a day’s notice, they could have gotten them out,” said one person familiar with the situation.

Instead, the ship crews found safe harbors in the region for the vessels and kept the academy students on board for weeks, two people familiar with the situation said. The cadets were evacuated about a month after the war started, according to the three people familiar with the situation. It remains unclear whether all of the cadets have returned to American soil, the sources said.

The five ships have close relationships with the U.S. Navy, which frequently relies on them to move military equipment and fuel. They are considered essential and trusted security partners of the Department of Defense, and they are paid by the U.S. military for the services they provide. Unlike the cadets, the ships have no way to exit the Gulf unless they get safety guarantees to cross through the Strait of Hormuz.

Though there are more than 800 vessels trapped trying to exit the Persian Gulf, only the five enrolled in the security programs and identified by NOTUS could be immediately called upon to serve the U.S. military in times of need, making them possibly vulnerable to Iranian attacks.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to be on one of those ships,” Michael Roberts, a former executive at Crowley Maritime, told NOTUS.

A Crowley oil tanker, the Stena Imperative, was struck by an Iranian projectile in the early days of the war, leaving a hole in its hull and killing a dockworker. Crowley Maritime did not respond to request for comment.

Another U.S.-flagged vessel was nearly hit by a projectile, two sources said. A third ship is loaded with cargo and losing money every day it cannot get out of the Strait of Hormuz, one person said. “Had they known, they could have at least tried to get their cargo out there,” they said.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called on U.S. Central Command’s Adm. Brad Cooper to protect and support U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed commercial vessels operating in the Persian Gulf amid the hostilities. Citing the “many, many” American sailors stuck in the region, he asked that their ships be given prioritized port access and a means of communicating with U.S. authorities.

Blumenthal, in an interview with NOTUS, criticized the Trump administration for failing to alert such vessels before attacking Iran, describing his concerns as “sky high.” He said the oversight was emblematic of the administration’s poor planning for the economic consequences of the strait’s closure.

“The idea that these ships would be stranded was absolutely foreseeable, and it seems to me there were ways to issue warnings to them to, you know, get the hell out of there,” he said. “It was no secret that we were building a force there; it would have been prudent and reasonable to say to American-flagged ships with American citizens working on them, ‘You would be well advised to leave that area.’”

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy declined to confirm the presence of the cadets in the Persian Gulf at the start of the war.

“Since World War II, the United States Merchant Marine Academy has assigned cadets to fully operational military and U.S.-flag commercial vessels. At any given point, about 200-300 USMMA cadets are on vessels around the world helping keep America’s vital supply lines strong and secure,” a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy spokesperson said in a statement sent to NOTUS from the Department of Transportation.

“For national security reasons, USMMA does not disclose vessel names and locations of cadets,” the spokesperson said.

The parent and alumni associations with the academy declined to comment, directing NOTUS to the academy’s communications team.

Cadets are required to go on “sea year” training, and they have occasionally been caught on ships in conflict zones. In 2023, when major Houthi attacks damaged dozens of commercial ships in the Red Sea, all the cadets opted to stay on their vessels during heightened tensions, with some qualifying for medals for their service, one person familiar with the situation told NOTUS.

Midshipmen, the term used for cadets when they’re on land, have trained for dangerous situations, two sources familiar with the academy told NOTUS. Cadets have been training on ships since World War II, which has become a source of pride, as the Merchant Marine Academy is the only federal service academy of the five to apply a battle standard.

In conversations with NOTUS, several former academy leaders and academy alumni cited the fact that more than 140 cadets died in World War II.

“The cadets are part of the crew. The bigger point in my mind is why didn’t the administration think this through, any of this?” one of the sources tied to the academy said.

Industry insiders were surprised the Pentagon did not give the vessels a warning, four sources said.

If the vessels had been prepared, the Strategic Sealift Officer Force could have deployed Navy Reserve officers to support the ships and crew in dicey environments that would have secure lines to the DOD, according to the two sources familiar with the academy.

“They literally do not think about the second-, third- or fourth-order implications,” one person familiar with the situation said about the current DOD leadership. “This is the weirdest I have ever seen when it comes to a major operation like this. With everything else, we got at least some indication something might be happening.”