The seventh US service member killed in the conflict with Iran — a 26-year-old from Kentucky — was brought home Monday night in a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, from Glendale, Kentucky, died Sunday after sustaining accidents the week prior in an assault by Iran on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. Pennington was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, a unit throughout the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.
Vice President JD Vance joined high navy officers observing the solemn occasion.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear known as Pennington a “hero who sacrificed everything serving our country” in a Facebook put up on Monday. Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, stated in a information launch that Pennington “gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country that he loved.”
“That makes him nothing less than a hero,” Gainey stated, “and he will always be remembered that way.”
Pennington enlisted in the Army in 2017 as a unit provide specialist. The Army stated Monday he can be posthumously promoted to employees sergeant.
A message from the Hardin County college district, the place Pennington graduated the identical 12 months he enlisted, stated he “represented the very best of our community, state, and nation.”
“We are profoundly grateful for his service and his devotion to our country,” the message stated. “His dedication was exemplary and he has proven that by rendering the ultimate sacrifice.”
Flags had been flown at half-staff in Hardin County in Pennington’s honor. County Judge-Executive Keith Taul stated he’d identified Pennington’s father for many years and that his household is “hurting pretty bad right now.”
Pennington’s return home comes simply two days after six soldiers who had been killed final week in a drone strike on their operations middle in Kuwait had been also brought home to Dover. Those troopers — Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens and Sgt. Declan Coady — had been every members of the identical Army Reserve sustainment unit out of Iowa, the 103rd Sustainment Command.
President Donald Trump, who attended the Saturday ceremony, stated over the weekend that assembly with the households of these six troopers didn’t give him pause in regards to the war.
“The parents said to me, everyone one of them, ‘Please sir, win this for my boy,’ and in one case a young woman, as you know. ‘Please, win this for my child,’” Trump stated.
The president didn’t attend Monday’s ceremony. He was flying to Washington from Florida, the place he addressed House Republicans at their legislative retreat and gave a press convention on the war with Iran.
Trump and different senior officers have made clear there would seemingly be extra casualties earlier than the tip of the US navy’s operations in opposition to Iran. Asked Saturday whether or not he thought he’d must attend extra dignified transfers, Trump responded, “I’m sure. I hate to … but it’s part of war.”