The Pentagon on Tuesday identified four of the six American troops killed in the opening hours of the war with Iran.
Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, died Saturday in Kuwait from an Iranian drone attack.
All soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Pentagon, Trump warn more US troops likely to die in Iran operation
All six died in the same attack at Shuaiba port in Kuwait, a commercial harbor that doubles as a logistics hub through which the U.S. military ships tactical vehicles and supplies into the region.
The other two names are being withheld until a day after the next of kin have been notified. An additional 18 service members were wounded in the strike.
The six represent the first Americans killed in action in the joint U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
"It [is] with deep sadness and unyielding grief that we acknowledge and recognize our Soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Our Soldiers relentlessly, consistently, and fearlessly served with sincere dedication and pride," said Brig. Gen. Clint Barnes, Deputy Commanding General, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, Operational Command Post. "They were the ultimate ambassadors for freedom."
Khork enlisted in the National Guard in 2009 and was commissioned as a Military Police Officer in the Army Reserve in 2014. He has prior deployments to Saudi Arabia, Guantanamo Bay, and Poland.
Amor, enlisted in the National Guard in 2005. She transferred to the Army Reserve in 2006 and first deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2019.
Tietjens enlisted into the Army Reserve in 2006, and had two prior deployments to Kuwait.
Coady, who was posthumously promoted from specialist, enlisted in the Army in 2023.
The joint U.S.-Israel campaign entered its fourth day Tuesday, with American forces having struck more than 1,700 targets inside Iran as fighting spread across at least a dozen countries.
Trump and top Pentagon officialswarned the toll is expected to rise.
"We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses," Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.
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Where the troops were killed
The troops in Kuwait were killed in a command and control center, a building which is effectively a large trailer, according two defense officials. The center was encircled by six-foot-tall concrete walls.
Infrastructure for troops in bases overseas such as Kuwait are generally above ground, cheap buildings made from trailers and shipping containers, often encircled by tall concrete walls and sometimes sandbags on the roof and skirting the sides.
"Every possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops -- at every level," Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement, pushing back on media reports of ill-defended buildings. "The Department is prepared for this engagement and has hardened our defenses."
Those defenses which worked well in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars against mortars, rockets and machine gun fire, but are useless against direct attacks from the air which represent a relatively new dimension of warfare for U.S. troops.
"We have incredible air defenders," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday. "Every once in a while you might have one. Unfortunately, we call it a squirter that, that makes its way through. And in that particular case it happened to hit a -- a tactical operation center. That was -- that was fortified. But these are powerful weapons."
"Every possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops -- at every level," Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement. "The Department is prepared for this engagement and has hardened our defenses."
When Iranian-backed militants struck Tower 22 in Jordan in January 2024, killing three U.S. troops and injuring 47, it served as a flashpoint for defense against drones, underscoring what that a hypothetical threat against U.S. troops was real.
Drones have emerged as a signature weapon in the Ukraine-Russia war, spurring significant investment into the technology from the Pentagon.
For more than a half-century, the U.S. military has owned the skies and faced no meaningful aerial threat for a generation, leaving its defenses against drone attacks underdeveloped.
Counter-drone efforts have focused largely on expensive counter weapons such as lasers, while base infrastructure has lagged behind.
"It's essential because things are going to get through, especially against more sophisticated enemies, there's no way to have a 100% interception rate," Molly Campbell, a drone expert with the Center for a New American Security, told ABC News about the need for more robust buildings for troops to operate out of abroad.
"It's a fetishization of technology, there are a lot of straightforward, actionable things that in many ways can help," she added referring to fortifications.
An Army investigation on the Tower 22 attack found it was most likely preventable. Investigators cited inadequate infrastructure that was not built to withstand an air attack, according to records reviewed by ABC News.
A separate Pentagon internal investigation in January, which focused on bases within the United States, found, "a large percentage of installations" do not have the ability to conduct counter-drone operations, adding there are critical gaps in training across the military and procedures for defense that aren't standardized.
The Defense Department released a blueprint in January for hardening bases against drones that slip past air defenses, outlining measures for commanders including netting to trap or prematurely detonate incoming drones and additional hardened overhead cover.
"For decades, physical security for public venues and critical infrastructure has focused on controlling access," the Pentagon memo noted. "Small unmanned aircraft systems change that assumption."