By Timothy Frudd
Contributing Writer
The War Department identified two U.S. soldiers on Monday who were killed in action during Iranian strikes on a U.S. military base in Jordan.
The Pentagon named 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as the two soldiers killed in action at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base on Friday. Both active-duty soldiers were serving in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military mission to defeat ISIS.
The deaths of the two service members came after the United States launched repeated strikes against Iran to degrade the regime’s military capabilities and prevent Iran from continuing to target commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran responded to the U.S. strikes by announcing attacks against U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Syria.
Gonzales was killed in action on Friday, the day of the Iranian attack against the U.S. air base in Jordan, while Feehan died the following day, the Pentagon said. Officials noted that the incident was under investigation.
Feehan was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Gonzales was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, based in Ansbach, Germany.
On Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced that the two U.S. service members were killed in Jordan as U.S. and partner forces were defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. In addition, CENTCOM said a third service member was missing in action.
In a Saturday post on social media, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed the deaths of the two soldiers, writing, “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”
The Iranian strikes against U.S. forces in Jordan also resulted in four U.S. service members being medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan. The service members were later discharged from the hospitals. Other personnel sustained minor injuries during the strikes, CENTCOM said.
On Sunday, CENTCOM confirmed that U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location of the Iranian strikes. The military said it initially withheld identification until notifying the service members’ next of kin.
A third U.S. service member was killed in action in northern Iraq on Saturday during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from an Iranian one-way attack drone, CENTCOM said, adding that a second U.S. service member sustained a minor injury.
The three deaths of U.S. service members on Friday and Saturday brought the total number of U.S. troops killed to 17 since the start of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military operation in Iran, on Feb. 28.
On Sunday night, CENTCOM said U.S. forces completed the ninth consecutive evening of attacks against Iran at 10 p.m. ET. The strikes targeted the regime’s military command centers, missile and drone launch sites, maritime capabilities, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, and communications networks.
The latest round of strikes against Iran was intended to protect commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. It added that the U.S. military is “holding Iran accountable” at President Donald Trump’s direction and that the U.S. forces in the region remain “highly vigilant, focused, lethal and ready.”
The United States and Iran have traded military strikes following the collapse of the memorandum of understanding that was signed in June to resolve the conflict after the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April.
Trump directed the U.S. military to resume strikes against Iran after Iranian forces attacked multiple commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The regime also declared that the strait would remain closed “until the United States ends its intervention in the region.”
The U.S. military responded by resuming its blockade of Iranian ports on July 14 and launching nine consecutive days of strikes against Iran. In addition to hitting Iranian military targets, the U.S. military launched attacks against Iranian power plants, bridges, and other infrastructure.
On Thursday, an Iranian military spokesperson warned that the regime would attack “all infrastructure throughout the region” if the U.S. military followed through with Trump’s threats to target Iranian infrastructure. Trump previously said U.S. forces would target Iranian infrastructure if Iran’s leaders did not return to negotiations with the United States.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that negotiations with Iran remained ongoing.
“Iran very much continues to talk to the United States of America and express that they want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows on behalf of our United States military,” she said.
