"This will not be the end of the casualties" in the Iran war, retired Marine Corps colonel says

Now, let's bring in retired Marine Corps Colonel Mark Canian. He's a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thanks so much, Mark, for being with us. First of all, your reaction to what we're seeing today. >> Well, of course, this is a very solemn moment, and the president has made the point that this will not be the end of the casualties. They will continue. Although with Iranian uh drones and missile attacks going down, we hope that there won't be very many in the future. I would note uh something that came up earlier, this movie Taking Chance, that was based on a real event. The uh Chance was Chance Phelps. He was a Marine who was killed in Iraq. uh and it's the story of his return to his family and the casualty assistance officer uh who was portrayed by uh Kevin Bacon who real life was a colonel named um Mike Strobble. Uh so it was a very powerful story in the Marine Corps and then of course turned into a movie. Uh Mark, I want to go back to something that uh James was talking about a moment ago, the circumstances surrounding why these Army reserists were actually in Kuwait. Tell us a little bit about that. We heard from James that there was intelligence apparently uh that allowed uh uh Iran to know where these American soldiers were. Why were these reserveists in Kuwait in the first place? The interesting uh thing about the army is that most of its logistics is in the reserve component. The army reserve uh is entirely uh reserve uh logisticians. Uh they do trucks, they do communications, engineering, uh supply. uh the army can't really operate without its reserve component even for relatively low-level uh operations uh and what we're seeing in the uh Gulf now, you know, has required these reservers to be on duty. And the are the army did this deliberately. Uh they moved a lot of the active duty troops into combat forces. They did this back in the 1970s. uh and then put the um logistics support into the reserves. One effect of which was that uh for the United States to go to war uh for the army to go to war, they had to call up a lot of reservists. So you're going to see reser all over the theater even though you haven't seen reference to a mobilization. James, let me turn back to you. And you mentioned the tactical operations center where these reserveists were operating out of, but you also described as sort of a a trailer. Was this a hardened trailer? Was there protection? And if so, what kind of protection would have been present there for that center? >> Sure. So the tactical operations center um that we're talking about is really indicative of the type of uh tactical operation center we we saw throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wall uh Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Um they are typically made out of either uh triple wide trailers uh some are smaller or are shipping containers. And you know the threat in Iraq and Afghanistan was really you know um improvised explosive devices. It was mortars. It was artillery. Uh things of that nature. Uh even um improvised explosive devices attached to you know individuals or or or vehicles. That was the main threat. And so this tactical operation center was really built for that. It was it was the trailer um these trailers surrounded by sixoot T- walls. T- walls are um steel reinforced concrete barriers that were surrounding it. But there is no protection from the air which is how um Iranian Shiad 136 drones operate is uh the T- walls are essentially ineffective [clears throat] regarding you know an aerial attack from drones. Uh so that that's sort of the extent the extent of the fortification that was was at this type of operation center. And um let me ask you as well, James, President Trump, who has called for Iran's quote unconditional surrender, said today that Iran will be hit very hard. What has he said about the potential of additional lives lost? uh he has not held back in terms of his bluntness that uh the American people could see more casualties. Um that statement it sort of depends on who you ask. Uh some people appreciate his forthcomingness on that. Uh because the American people should know that you when uh a nation decides to go to war and put uh troops into harm's way that a result of that could be casualties. So, some actually appreciate that bluntness. Others feel that, you know, the commander-in-chief is not only is the commander-in-chief, you know, uh, head of the armed forces, but, uh, they need to be the comforter and chief and well, uh, the comforter chief as well. And so, you know, some people could, you know, criticize that the president could take a more softer tone in the sense of like, you know, look, we're not we're doing everything we can to prevent uh casualties, you know. So it really depends on who you ask in terms of his bluntness. But but he's not wrong. Uh I mean when service members um take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and and against all enemies foreign and domestic and in addition to that they agree to obey the lawful orders of the president and the officers appointed over them. And the subtext to all that is service members are signing a check to potentially give their life for their country. And so it's important that the American people don't lose sight of that. You regardless of, you know, where politics may fall. Um that's the agreement that an American joining the military makes with the country that they're serving in and protecting the Constitution. Mark, a moment ago you talked about the role of reservists, but as this conflict continues, how should we think about that? Um, there are many people throughout this country who serve as reserveists and um, obviously this is the unimaginably horrific um, result that no family wants to think about. give us a sense of what the role reserveists will be here as this conflict continues. >> Well, I think there were already a lot of service involved in the operation. Reserveists uh they uh air force for example many of their tankers, many of their cargo aircraft are flown by reservists. Uh these are pilots who often fly for the airlines during the week and then will fly for the air force. um on weekends or when they have time available. Uh we have army logisticians. We could have more uh as uh the war goes on and the need for logistics and sustainment increases. Uh I don't expect a large mo reserve mobilization. Now, if we were ever have uh troops boots on the ground, uh which right now we're not uh moving towards, but if we were, then that would require a lot of reserves. And I would note that the army, as I mentioned before, was structured this way intentionally. The um story uh likely true is that General Abrams who was chief of staff of the army and made a deal with Secretary Slesinger that they would move a lot of the active army into the combat forces uh and backfill with reser. He said he wanted to make sure that the uh army could not go to war without the reserves in bringing in you know all the hometowns of America. And you see on your screens there, the six killed in action, speaking of the hometowns of America. They were uh based out of Iowa, but as you can see there, they came from all across this country. And I want to ask you in particular, Mark, because you actually previously played a role in notifying the families of fallen soldiers. Tell us about your part. How does that process work? Well, uh, as we heard, the military moves to notify families very quickly. They want to make sure that families hear, uh, from the government first. They don't just get a phone call from, you know, a comrade in theater. Uh, when a casualty occurs in theater, they shut down the internet so that people uh, can't uh, send messages back. uh the local whatever military post is uh closest to the family is notified and they send an officer out to notify this the family. I I did that on two occasions. I went with the uh chaplain and it is an extremely difficult task. There is no way you can uh face a a young woman, a wife, and tell her that she's not a widow.

Retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian joined CBS News to discuss the dignified transfer of six Army reservists who were killed in the conflict with Iran. CBS News' James LaPorta has more. CBS News 24/7 is the premier anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations that is available free to everyone with access to the internet and is the destination for breaking news, live events, original reporting and storytelling, and programs from CBS News and Stations' top anchors and correspondents working locally, nationally and around the globe. It is available on more than 30 platforms across mobile, desktop and connected TVs for free, as well as CBSNews.com and Paramount+ and live in 91 countries. Subscribe to the CBS News YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/cbsnews Watch CBS News 24/7: https://cbsnews.com/live/ Download the CBS News app: https://cbsnews.com/mobile/ Follow CBS News on Instagram: https://instagram.com/cbsnews/ Like CBS News on Facebook: https://facebook.com/cbsnews Follow CBS News on X: https://twitter.com/cbsnews Subscribe to our newsletters: https://cbsnews.com/newsletters/ Try Paramount+ free: https://paramountplus.com/?ftag=PPM-05-10aeh8h For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com