The U.S. military has confirmed the deaths of four American soldiers in the escalating war against Iran, marking the first confirmed U.S. military casualties.
The Pentagon identified the four soldiers as members of an Iowa-based Army Reserve unit, killed when a drone struck a U.S. military facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on Sunday.
A total of six U.S. military personnel have died so far in the ongoing conflict. The four who have been identified ranged in age from 20 to 42 and served in the 103rd Sustainment Command, which is part of the Army’s global logistics and supply operations.
Soldiers identified
The U.S. Army Reserve confirmed the identities of the fallen:
-
Captain Cody A. Khork, 35, Winter Haven, Florida
-
Sergeant 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, Bellevue, Nebraska
-
Sergeant 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, White Bear Lake, Minnesota
-
Sergeant Declan J. Coady, 20, West Des Moines, Iowa (posthumously promoted from specialist)
Most of the soldiers had prior overseas experience. Khork had deployments to Saudi Arabia (2018), Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (2021), and Poland (2024). Amor had served in Kuwait and Iraq in 2019, and Tietjens had two previous deployments to Kuwait. Coady had only joined the Army Reserve in 2023.
Rising threats in the Middle East
The U.S. military’s Central Command reported that Iran has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones across the Middle East in retaliatory strikes against U.S. and Israeli operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed lawmakers on Tuesday, warning that additional American casualties are likely.
Senator Chris Murphy said, “They told us in that room that there are going to be more Americans that are gonna die — that they are not … going to be able to stop these drones.”
The U.S. facility in Kuwait was protected by concrete blast walls but lacked a fortified roof, leaving it vulnerable to the drone attack. Officials indicated that it was unclear whether air defenses were in place and no alarms reportedly sounded before the strike.
Major General Todd Erskine of the 79th Theater Sustainment Command extended his “deepest sympathy and respect” to the families and unit members of the soldiers.
