Nation's Leaders Honor the Fallen During Dignified Transfer

President Donald J. Trump; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth; Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and others attended a dignified transfer today to honor four soldiers killed in the U.S. Central Command region.

The deaths are related to Iranian aggression.

Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, was killed July 18, 2026, during an enemy attack on July 17, 2026, at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

Feehan was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, was killed July 17, 2026, during an enemy attack on July 17, 2026, at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

Gonzales was assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, Ansbach, Germany.

Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, is believed to have been killed July 17, 2026, during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

Rampersad was assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, Ansbach, Germany.

Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed during a controlled detonation of a downed one-way unmanned aerial system July 19, 2026, at Erbil Air Base, Iraq.

Swinton was assigned to D Battery, 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, Fort Bragg.

All incidents are under investigation.

About the Dignified Transfer

A dignified transfer is the process by which, upon the return from the theater of operations to the United States, the fallen are transferred from the aircraft at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to an awaiting vehicle that transfers the fallen service member to Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at Dover.

The dignified transfer is not a ceremony. Rather, it is a solemn movement of the transfer case by a carry team composed of military personnel from the fallen member's service. A senior ranking officer of the fallen member's service presides over each dignified transfer.

It is the War Department's policy to return America's fallen to their loved ones as quickly as possible.