The Pentagon has identified two American soldiers killed in an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
They were 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii.
The second soldier was Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas.
Two names. Two young lives given in service to the United States.
The U.S. Department of War said both soldiers were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve when the enemy attack struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base on July 17. The military’s official release says the incident remains under investigation.
Feehan was killed in action on July 18. Gonzales was killed in action on July 17.
The release also identified their exact commands, showing that both soldiers served in air-defense units tasked with protecting American forces from airborne threats. Feehan’s unit was based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, while Gonzales served under a brigade headquartered in Ansbach, Germany.
Operation Inherent Resolve is the continuing American-led mission against ISIS. Neither soldier was simply passing through Jordan; both were deployed in support of an active U.S. military mission when the attack took their lives.
1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan
Feehan served with the 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, under the 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
He was 25 years old and came from Ewa Beach, Hawaii.
Pvt. Isabella Gonzales
Gonzales served with the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, under the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade and the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.
She was 19 years old and came from Carrollton, Texas.
Their mission was not a vague posting somewhere overseas. Operation Inherent Resolve is the continuing U.S.-led effort against ISIS, and both soldiers belonged to air-defense formations entrusted with protecting American forces and allies from threats in the sky.
That duty has become brutally real as Iranian missiles and drones target American positions across the region.
ABC News reported that four other American service members injured in the attack were medically evacuated to a hospital in Jordan and have since been released. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the strikes.
The Pentagon described Feehan and Gonzales as having been killed during an enemy attack, while U.S. Central Command said American personnel had been defending against Iranian ballistic missiles and drones. Those statements establish the larger assault surrounding their deaths, although the military has not yet published a detailed account of exactly how each soldier was killed.
The attack unfolded during a renewed surge in fighting across the region, with Iran striking locations that host American forces and the United States launching additional attacks against Iranian military targets. Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, located in Jordan, became one of the places where that widening confrontation imposed a direct human cost.
Military investigators are still working to establish the full sequence of events.
They must be remembered as more than a number.
Breaking news moves quickly, especially during war. Casualty counts rise.
Maps change, and another strike replaces the last one on television.
But the cost of war is not abstract.
It is a 25-year-old officer from Hawaii and a 19-year-old private from Texas who put on the uniform, went where their country sent them, and did not come home.
The Associated Press reported that the U.S. military has now attributed 17 American service-member deaths to the wider war with Iran. The Jordan deaths show why American forces face lethal danger even when they are stationed beyond Iran’s borders.
Missiles and drones can carry the battlefield across the region in minutes. American personnel stationed in Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and aboard ships at sea can all face the consequences of a conflict centered hundreds of miles away.
AP also reported that another American service member was killed Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone. A second service member suffered a minor injury, underscoring that the danger continues even after a weapon has been intercepted or brought down.
The nation now knows the names of the two soldiers the Pentagon identified.
1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan.
Pvt. Isabella Gonzales.
May their families be surrounded by strength, and may these two fallen Americans never be forgotten.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
