President Trump is attending the dignified transfer for three U.S. Army soldiers killed during the ongoing war with Iran.
U.S. Army Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii was killed in action on July 18, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, was killed in action on July 17 during an attack on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in southern Jordan, according to the Pentagon.
Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, is believed to have been killed in the same attack. She had previously been listed as missing in action but U.S. Central Command updated that status on Tuesday to whereabouts unknown and said she is believed to have been killed.
The incident is under investigation, and President Trump told reporters Wednesday that the administration would share the results of the probe.
The third soldier whose remains are being transferred Wednesday is 30-year-old U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of North Carolina, who was killed at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone. Swinton was a father of two.
President Trump, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth salute as a U.S. Army carry team carries the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, on July 22, 2026. Swinton was killed in action on July 19 at at Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
SAUL LOEB /AFP via Getty Images
A dignified transfer is a non-ceremonial movement of a fallen U.S. service member killed in a theater abroad back to the United States. The fallen are moved in flag-draped cases and carried by members of the military.
“We’re going to Dover,” the president told reporters ahead of the trip. “Some of you are going with us, to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and they — all of them said very strongly — we can’t let, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won’t have a nuclear weapon. So we’re going to honor them. And it’s one of the hardest things to do. For me, it’s one of the hardest things to do as a president. But, has to be done.”