DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an air force base in Delaware.<\/p>\n
The president saluted as four transfer cases were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander-in-chief. It was the third Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.<\/p>\n
Trump was scheduled to meet privately with the grieving families. Speaking to reporters on his way to Dover, Trump called the ritual \u201cone of the hardest things to do as a president.\u201d His message to the families, he said, was, \u201cWe love you. We love your child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no games, there\u2019s no nothing \u2014 that\u2019s their child,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd all you can do is throw out your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump was accompanied by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.<\/p>\n
During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place. Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan were returned during the dignified transfer. The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks was also returned, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.<\/p>\n The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, the Defense Department said.<\/p>\n The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, North Carolina.<\/p>\n The White House said Feehan\u2019s family would be joining on Air Force One later on Wednesday as Trump travels to Georgia for an event promoting his administration\u2019s investment accounts for children.<\/p>\n Trump previously said the soldiers died while protecting America and other nations from Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran \u201cin honor\u201d of the fallen troops. The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, \u201cthey will pay for that killing many times over!\u201d<\/p>\n Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.<\/p>\n Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.<\/p>\n \u201cThey did slip something through in Jordan,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on: \u201cWe\u2019ve stopped almost everything, but when you let other people do your job with the United States \u2014 we let other people do the job \u2014 and sometimes it doesn\u2019t work out so well.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.<\/p>\n Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March. Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.<\/p>\n Feehan\u2019s family said in a statement that their hearts were shattered by his loss. They remembered Feehan, who went by \u201cTivo,\u201d as someone who \u201cpacked in more living\u201d in his 25 years than most do in a lifetime.<\/p>\n \u201cHe chased adventure relentlessly,\u201d the statement said. \u201cHe believed deeply in the power of military service, especially what it builds in a person: discipline, leadership, character.\u201d<\/p>\n He planned to marry his fiance and attend law school after his deployment. The family said they\u2019re starting a scholarship in his name.<\/p>\n Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.<\/p>\n Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday\u2019s attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.<\/p>\n Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an air force base in Delaware. The president saluted as four transfer cases were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer … Continue reading Trump pays respects to 4 US service members killed in the Middle East<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 18:02:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1526830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526908,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526830\/revisions\/1526908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1526830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1526830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1526830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFallen troops came from Hawaii, Texas, New York and North Carolina<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nTrump vows to retaliate for each US death<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSoldier had planned to marry fiance and attend law school<\/strong><\/p>\n