Trump honors 4 US soldiers killed in Iran war at Dover transfer
The soldiers killed in Jordan and Iraq bring the U.S. military death toll since the war began to 18.
President Donald Trump honored four U.S. Army soldiers recently killed in Jordan and Iraq during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 22.
Trump stood at attention and saluted as Army carry teams removed four flag-draped transfer cases from a military aircraft, according to photographs published by Fox News. War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine joined the President for the ceremony.
Trump met privately with the soldiers’ grieving families before the transfer. Speaking to reporters, he described the ceremony as one of the most difficult responsibilities of the presidency and said his message to the families would be, “We love you. We love your child.”
Also present were Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Chris Coons, D-Del. It was the third dignified transfer Trump has attended since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began Feb. 28.
During a dignified transfer, the remains of fallen service members are carried from the aircraft that returned them to the U.S. and placed in vehicles bound for the mortuary facility at Dover. The ceremony is conducted in silence.
The four soldiers were 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas; Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York; and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Feehan, Gonzales, and Rampersad were casualties of an Iranian missile and drone attack July 17 on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
The Department of War said Gonzales was killed in action July 17 and Feehan died the following day. They were the first U.S. troops killed by direct Iranian fire since the war’s opening days.
Feehan served with the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He will be posthumously promoted to captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action Badge.
His family remembered him as an adventurous young man who believed military service formed discipline, leadership, and character. Feehan had planned to marry his fiancée and attend law school after his deployment, according to AP News.
Gonzales served with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She had graduated from Hebron High School near Dallas only last year.
Rampersad, who served in the same command, was initially listed as missing following the attack. The military later said unidentified remains had been recovered and that Rampersad was believed to be deceased.
Swinton was killed July 19 during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian attack drone at Erbil Air Base in Iraq. The Army is investigating the circumstances of the detonation.
A father of two who enlisted in 2017, Swinton served with the 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bragg. He will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action Badge.
“He answered the call to duty with courage, honor, and selfless dedication,” Brig. Gen. John Dawber, commander of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said.
The four deaths bring the number of U.S. service members killed since the Iran war began to 18.
Military archbishop mourns fallen, recalls moral costs of war
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, offered condolences to the families after the Jordan attack and called for a quick end to the conflict.
“The continued conflict with Iran has occasioned more victims,” Archbishop Broglio wrote in a July 20 statement. “On behalf of all the faithful of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, I express heartfelt condolences to the families whose loved ones have been killed or are missing in action — most recently in Jordan.”
The archbishop, whose pastoral jurisdiction includes Catholics serving in the U.S. armed forces, also appealed to people of goodwill to pray for peace and for an end to innocent deaths on both sides.
Archbishop Broglio’s condolences come after he questioned the moral justification for the war itself earlier this year. As Zeale News reported, the archbishop told CBS News in April that the U.S. campaign did not appear to satisfy Catholic just-war principles because it sought to eliminate a potential nuclear threat before that threat had been realized.
Archbishop Broglio reiterated Pope Leo XIV’s calls for negotiation, while acknowledging the difficulty of negotiating with the Iranian regime. He also warned at the time that lives were being lost both in the Middle East and among American troops as the conflict continued.
Further, his criticism was directed toward the government’s decision to wage war, rather than toward rank-and-file service members. Archbishop Broglio has said military personnel are generally obligated to follow orders unless those orders are clearly immoral and has counseled troops to minimize harm and protect innocent life.
Trump has maintained that the war is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He said the soldiers killed in Jordan were fighting to protect the U.S. and other nations from that possibility.
However, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community assessed that Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program had been destroyed in 2025 and that Tehran had made no effort to rebuild it before the current war began. Gabbard said the claim that Iran posed an imminent nuclear threat was Trump’s determination, rather than an assessment reached by U.S. intelligence agencies.
The dignified transfer occurred as renewed fighting entered its 11th consecutive day, with the U.S. launching strikes inside Iran and Iranian forces attacking American positions, allied nations, and commercial ships across the region.
