Iran Campaign 2026: How It Affects Every Service Member at Home and Abroad Part 3

🔒 CLASSIFIED LEVEL: UNCLASSIFIED // FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

Operation Epic Fury launched February 28, 2026. 1,000+ targets struck in 24 hours. 50,000+ service members in the fight. $11.3 BILLION spent in 6 days. And it's not slowing down.

This week on the SCIIF Trends Segment — Christian the HYPEMAN Sledge, Bee "Rabble" Rouser, LaRae Johnson, and Makayla Morante break down the campaign in Iran and what it ACTUALLY means for every service member in uniform right now.

⚡ PART 1 — THE SITUATION: What is Operation Epic Fury? The full operational timeline from June 2025 to today.

⚡ PART 2 — WHY IT MATTERS: How the pivot from Great Power Competition back to the Middle East is about to hit your training budget, your readiness posture, and YOUR FAMILY at home.

⚡ PART 3 — YOUR PLAYBOOK: Simple, no-excuses actions for the lowest common service member to protect themselves and their families — right now.

The GWOT vets know this environment. The junior force needs to catch up. And every family member sitting at home while their service member is on alert needs to hear Part 3.

📌 TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 — Cold Open / SITREP
2:30 — The Numbers: 50,000 troops, 7 KIA, $2B/day
4:00 — The Strategic Pivot: From GPC to CENTCOM
10:00 — Why It Matters: Funding & Training Impact
12:30 — Training Whiplash: GWOT Skills Are Back
14:30 — The Global Chess Board: What China Is Watching
16:30 — Homeland Threats: FBI & DHS on War Footing
20:00 — OPSEC & Digital Security (Do This Today)
23:00 — Home Front Protection Plan
25:30 — Deployment Readiness Checklist
28:00 — After-Action Review

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📲 Follow us on IG & TikTok: @SCIIFpodcast
💬 Drop a ⚡ in the comments if you or your family is navigating this right now.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Everybody knows about the situation out there in Iran. We talked about the situation. We talked about how it affects you. We're going to talk about what you can do in order to make sure that you and your family are aligned to where we're going, make sure you guys are all safe, and make sure we stay practical within that process. No politics, no doom scrolling. We ain't got no fear. GWAD already know what to do. But we're going to go ahead and pass that down to you guys, to you global power competition generation, so that you guys can be ready to go when they when it's time to roll. So these are just some simple executable actions, things that the lowest ranking service member on the lowest budget with the least amount of time can do this week just to protect themselves and their families. Okay. So we're going to break this down into three different zones. We're going to talk opse and digital security. We're going to talk home front protection and we're going to talk deployment readiness. And then who else better to talk about security other than our security forces expert and our fearless leader, Michaela? Michaela, please let us know what the business is. Let them know what they can do in order to be able to be ready for the campaign ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

So we're going to talk about the first one, off second digital security. I think the one, the first thing you need to do is lock down your social media today. And I see this all the time. The junior enlisted don't know how to some people don't know how to keep their social media on lock. So the adversary is using open source intelligence, social media, specifically to identify military personnel, their family members, and their location. Things you should not post, do not post at all. Don't even think about it. Your unit patches, your base, garrison, or installation location, deployment dates before, during, or after. Photos that show your base layout, vehicle configurations or equipments, and check-ins at military installations.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Very important to keep in mind. Tell your family members the same thing. Your spouse, your mother, parents posting, I'm so proud of my soldier deploying next month to so-and-so is an intelligence gift. You are giving the enemy, hey guys, we're here. We're coming out this time. This is what we have. You know, you're making it easy for them. Stop.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

We're laughing at it, but this is real. Like real. It's not funny, but we're laughing at it because we see it all the time. So dumb.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Even after we do tell them, they still do it. My baby, my baby deploying, and they're about to get on a rotator tomorrow and they hit it to the time.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Digital hygiene. Change your passwords on your baking app, emails, social media. All of your apps shouldn't have the same password. Change them up. Turn on your multi-factor authentication on every account. Make sure that it doesn't need just one way to get through. To continue, don't click on just random links, links in unsolicited emails or texts. I ran linked actors or running uh phishing campaigns against military fish affiliated personnel. If you get a suspicious message from someone claiming to be from your command, call to verify. Very critical. Because in the military, specifically, like if you're on six ring or if they tell you you're on standby, you have to be able to like answer all any phone call. You know, people call me all the time and they're not saved on my phone. And I have to be able to answer and be like, hello, it's me. All right, great. So be very vigilant on who's trying to contact you, be able to verify who is contacting you. And that's very important for your safety. Action three build your family communication plan. This is non-negotiable. Your family needs to know what to do if something happens, whether it's a domestic incident, a natural disaster, or a situation where you're unreachable. The plan needs five things: a meeting point if they can't reach you by phone, an out-of-state context that everyone can call as a relay, copies of important documents in a fireproof or digital cloud, IDs, insurance, your POA, um your will.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

When you say POA, what you talking about? Because people, you know, I'm just want to hit everybody, every level of people. So your POA is your power of attorney. I just want people to understand that because I didn't know what that was. You know, I'm I I know I'm doxing myself right now. Like I'm stupid, but I didn't know. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, your power of attorney gives you gives somebody that you trust access to some of the resources in case you're incapable or unable to do the thing. And then there's certain kind of POAs that are specific. Because if you give them a general POA, they have general access to you and general access to your resources. You may not want that person to have general access. So get with the legal team and say, hey, I want for you, for example, you, Michaela, you might say, Hey, if if I'm out of action or I'm not, I want Faye to be able to do the things on my behalf to take care of the family. So, but I don't want her to have access to this account. I want her to have access to that account. You can literally get a specific kind of POA that gives Faye the access to that specific thing and that only. But if you want, if you trust Faye and Faye is your other half, you're like, nah, I trust her completely. Then fine. Get her a general POA, power of attorney, and she can do everything that you can do as if she was you while you're out of action. Does that make sense? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yes. Number four. But you also need a 72-hour emergency kit, water, food, first aid medications, cash. That's a minimum.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

How much cash? How much cash, guys? No, they don't specify. I'm I'm I'm asking. What y'all, what y'all 72 hours?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

72 hours. For 72 hours, if you have a family, I would say at a minimum, like maybe 500. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I will tell you LJ is a big. LJ is a baller, right? She's rich. So LJ on minimum have 15 grand large in a fireproof safe.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Rich is the spirit.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

The spirit of 15 grand. My God. Oh, y'all, let's look funny.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

What's the last thing, Kay? Awareness of the nearest military installation and its emergency procedures.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Okay. All right. And for families near major urban centers, be aware of your surroundings. The FBI is warning that high population areas, especially those with schools, universities, and government buildings could be soft target environments for your, you know, run-of-the-mill terrorists that wants to kind of, you know, impact our daily lives. If possible, secure areas, lower uniform footprint, and affiliation with connected organizations.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

This is about situational awareness. If something feels wrong, report it. See something, say something. It's not a slogan right now, it's doctrine. This is literally what the GWAT generation had to do for 20 plus years. This is very, very important. Action four, report suspicious activity near your installation. If you see unusual surveillance near your base, your housing area, or your unit's training sites, report it to your chain of command and to your installation security office. Don't wait, don't assume. We had an incident where um one of our guys in my unit was followed home. Big thing is hey, like if you notice someone following you, don't go straight home. Do not go straight home. Not where your family is, not where the people you love is. Make a circle. All right, someone's following me, drive back to base or drive to your nearest police station because you do not want them following you. You don't want them knowing where you live. So just be aware. Every everything you do, the second you walk on and walk off the installation, is being watched right now. We've had so many people taking pictures of the installation and just recording us. Includes the protesters. Anyone with a camera, they're watching you. Everything you do gets uploaded onto the internet and there are eyes everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Hey, uh Kay, you know, not to sidetrack this, but just to ask one question. Do they still have the Eagle Eyes program? Am I dating myself right now? Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

No, you're not. That's like one that's a real thing. It's an active use. Let's go into zone three, deployment readiness. Whether you're heading down bridge or not, you need to be legally and financially ready right now. Here's a short version. Action five, check your legal documents this week. Is your will current? If you don't have one, your installation's legal option office does them for free. The next thing to think about is your power of attorney. Is it up to date? Your spouse or designated person needs this to handle your affairs. Look at your beneficiary designations. Are they current on your SGLI, your TSP, to include your bank accounts? If you got married, divorced, or had kids and didn't up these, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Remember, Steph just talked about this a couple weeks ago. We've seen SGLI pay to an ex-spouse because their service member never updated their beneficiaries. That cannot happen.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

It's a 10-minute fix, no excuses. Uh let's get into action six. Have a money conversation with your family before you deploy or even as a contingency measure right now. Does your spouse know how to access bank accounts? Do they know what bills are auto pay and from which accounts? Have you looked at your combat zone tax exclusion eligibility? If you're deployed to a designated combat zone, your base pay may be tax exempt. That's money back in your pocket. And while we're here, if you haven't looked at your life insurance coverage beyond SGLI, now is the time. Yep. We've talked about the financial shields on this show before. Run those dime numbers and make sure your family is actually covered. Know your unit's deployment SLP and pre-deployment health requirements. If your orders drop fast and they can, you do not want to be the soldier scrambling for dental clearance or medical records. Right now, make sure your dental and medical records are current. Make sure immunizations are up to date. Make sure you know your unit's recall roster and reporting procedures. And for any GWAT veterans who know the VA claims process, document your current health status now before you go not after.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Appreciate that, Kay. That's a lot of good intel for you guys. You guys have no excuses. These are the some quick things that you guys can do in order to align yourselves, align your families, make sure that folks have enough situational awareness. Like Chief said, how much SA do they have? How much essay do you have so that you can uh go out there and stay focused on what needs to happen? Because when you when you're not focused on things that need to happen, mistakes happen, people get killed unnecessarily. They'll say, hey man, we was going through something financially at home. I couldn't keep focused on the mission. So here's your armor to keep you focused on the mission. Regardless of how you feel about it, you can stay focused on it. So you can get home and your family is good to go. So that's your trend segment for the week of March 15, 2026. Let's do the live action review. Three things, keep it in mind, right? Talking about the situation, the United States in a full military campaign against Iran. Operation Epic Fury, 50,000 service members are engaged and more expected to go. We pivoted, we're trying to pivot unofficially from great power competition back to the Middle East, but we are still pressing with both campaigns. So expect things to be a little thick, a little sticky. Why does that matter? Funding, training, readiness are all being stress tested at this time. The homeland threat is real. FBI and DHS are on high alert. Sleeper cells, lone wolves, cyber attacks, that's all active. These are active threats. These are not hypothetical ones. We already have presented to you the evidence that this stuff is real. You are not safe necessarily at home. We're not trying to fear monger. We just gave you the facts. There's no excuses there. What can you do to guard yourself and keep yourself alive and active? Opsek. Lock down your digital life. Build a family plan. Get your legal and financial house in order. And if you're a GWAT veteran, speak up, right? Your veteran, your unit needs to know what you know. All right. This is not a moment to scroll past. This is a moment to get ready, right? We encourage you guys to stay locked in, stay sharp, and everything else, okay? You've heard it. The blueprint is right there. Despite how you feel about the campaign, we got to keep ourselves and our families ready to arm her up for the worst. If you're just sitting there nodding your head like you're struggling with that last push-up, that's not enough. I need you to log into the accounts, secure the information, armor up your fam. If you found this valuable, which I know you did, you already know what to do. Subscribe, comment, share, notifications, love. We don't get enough of it. All we getting these these vampires and bloodsuckers. So don't get caught off guard. You have the tools, you have the knowledge. Now go and execute. Stay safe out there, stay informed, and we will catch you guys on the next one. Skiffs out. See you guys later.