Granted that this is not my area of expertise, but it seems to me that something is seriously wrong, when, in this day and age, we can’t protect our planes from a small (15 or 19 attackers) lightly armed ground force.
From our enemies’ standpoint, this was a very successful attack. And if the attackers all died, so much the better: They are heroic martyrs.
As for this not being in the news, maybe we should be deluging those media outlets and commentators that might push this story, with e-mails asking for coverage... Eventually, perhaps it might get traction with, oh, say, Fox, and then the others might be under more pressure to report on it too.
Correction - I just saw the post: 18 killed, 1 captured.
Title of coverage? Maybe:
Worst one day planes loss since Vietnam.
In a combat zone why weren’t these planes protected by revetments? You can’t tell from the pictures, but it appears that the temporary hangars shown are not concrete.
I seem to recall that lining up planes without protection was a problem at Pear Harbor, over 50 years ago.
Never underestimate your enemy’s capacity to achieve tactical successes.