The Minnesota widower of a U.S. Army soldier killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait confronted Vice President JD Vance on Saturday about alleged military leadership failures that he believes contributed to his wife’s death.
Joey Amor, whose wife, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, was among six American soldiers killed in the March 1 attack, demanded accountability during a CBS News town hall, prompting Vance to acknowledge that he was hearing about the alleged failures for the first time.
“I am damn proud of my wife and the five soldiers that stood next to her and died alongside her,” Amor said. “They raised their right hand, and they gave an oath. They understood what they were doing. They understood the sacrifice that they were potentially giving.”
“There are now six families living in a nightmare. It is a hard price to pay,” he continued.
Amor then alleged that mistakes and failures in military leadership contributed to the deadly attack.
“Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that,” he said.
Amor referenced previous CBS reporting and said his wife had shared information with him before her death. He also suggested that other soldiers knew more about the circumstances surrounding the attack but weren’t speaking publicly.
“There’s a failure in the leadership, and I want to know how this administration is going to start holding those leaders accountable to the actions and the deaths of the soldiers that we honor and we love,” he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. AmorU.S. Army Reserve
Vance expressed his condolences before acknowledging that he had not previously heard about the alleged failures.
“If there were failures, and I don’t doubt there were, I just, literally the first time I’ve heard of this is this conversation, and I want to fix this stuff,” Vance said.
Two days after the deadly attack, CBS News cited U.S. military sources in a report on concerns that the base wasn’t properly fortified and didn’t have the firepower to shoot down incoming drones.
“When you talk about failures that we were implicated in — the administration, the Department of War, whoever you want to say was implicated in — I want to know about that stuff,” Vance said.
“I want to understand what we can do better and what those soldiers are seeing. Because part of the problem with this job — this job’s an amazing honor — but you live in a bit of a bubble, and sometimes information doesn’t filter up to me. This is an opportunity for it to filter right directly to me, and I promise you I will take every single failure extremely seriously and will work on it,” Vance continued. “I promise you that one of the ways that I’m going to show gratitude to your wife is by taking this seriously and trying to figure out what exactly happened and what exactly we can do better.”
Asked if he was satisfied with Vance’s response, Amor said, “Yeah,” and then sat down.
“I promise you I’ll work on it,” Vance concluded.
Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, was assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command out of Des Moines, Iowa. She was an avid gardener, and in the wake of her death, Joey said he planned to build a greenhouse in her honor as “a place that would have made her incredibly happy and at peace.”
Related Articles
This story was originally published by Bring Me The News on Oct 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN News section. Add Bring Me The News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.