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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sgt. Declan Coady diligently kept his family informed with frequent updates from Kuwait amidst heightened tensions following the U.S. and Israel’s joint military operations against Iran. These messages reassured loved ones of his safety, even as Iran launched counterattacks targeting Israel and Gulf nations housing U.S. military personnel.
However, concern grew when Sgt. Coady stopped responding to messages on Sunday. “Most of us started to wonder,” his father, Andrew Coady, shared with The Associated Press. “Your gut starts to get a feeling.”
The unsettling silence was tragically explained when a drone attack on a command center in Kuwait claimed the life of 20-year-old Sgt. Coady from West Des Moines, Iowa, along with five other U.S. Army Reserve members. These soldiers, integral to logistics operations, ensured troops were well-supplied with essentials like food and equipment.
Among the fallen, formally identified by the Pentagon on Tuesday, were Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, from Winter Haven, Florida; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, from Bellevue, Nebraska. The identities of two additional soldiers remain undisclosed at this time.
Reflecting on the loss, President Donald Trump commented, “Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s the way it is.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that the military “ensured that the maximum possible defense and maximum possible force protection was set up before we went on offense,” he said Wednesday. “The terms of this war will be set by us at every step.”
A mother of two who loved gardening
Amor was just days away from returning home to her husband and two children.
“She was almost home,” her husband, Joey Amor, said from their home Tuesday. “You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts.”
Amor was an avid gardener who enjoyed making salsa from the peppers and tomatoes in her garden with her son, a senior in high school. She also enjoyed rollerblading and bicycling with her fourth-grade daughter.
A week before the drone attack, Amor was moved off-base to a shipping container-style building that had no defenses, her husband said.
“They were dispersing because they were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separate places,” he said.
He said she was working long shifts and that he last spoke to her about two hours before she was killed. He said she told him she had tripped and fallen and that they had been joking with each other about that. The fun messages stopped abruptly.
“She just never responded in the morning,” he said.
One of the youngest in his class
Coady had recently told his father he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he received posthumously.
He was one of the youngest people in his class, trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he seemed to impress his instructors, Andrew Coady said Tuesday.
“He trained hard, he worked hard, his physical fitness was important to him. He loved being a soldier,” Coady said. “He was also one of the most kindest people you would ever meet, and he would do anything and everything for anyone.”
Coady came from a close-knit family and was always calling, even if it was only for a few minutes. Coady was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines, and he was taking online classes while in Kuwait. He wanted to become an officer.
“I still don’t fully think it’s real,” his sister Keira Coady said. “I just remember all of our conversations about what he was going to do when he came back.
A calling to serve his country
Khork was very patriotic and drawn from a young age to serving the U.S., his family said in a statement Tuesday.
He enlisted in the Army Reserve and joined Florida Southern College’s ROTC program.
“That commitment helped shape the course of his life and reflected the deep sense of duty that was always at the core of who he was,” his mother, Donna Burhans; father, James Khork; and stepmother, Stacey Khork; said in a statement.
Khork also loved history and had a degree in political science.
His family described him as “the life of the party, known for his infectious spirit, generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him and for everyone blessed to know him.”
One of Khork’s friends, Abbas Jaffer, posted on Facebook on Monday that he had lost the best person he had ever known.
“My best friend, best man, and brother gave his life defending our country overseas,” Jaffer said. Khork and Jaffer had been friends for more than 16 years.
A loving father and husband
Tietjens lived with his family in the Washington Terrace mobile home park in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue, Nebraska. He was married with a son, according to a Facebook page.
Tietjens earned a black belt in Philippine Combatives and Taekwondo and was “an instructor who gave his time, discipline, and leadership to others,” the Philippine Martial Arts Alliance said in a Facebook post.
On the mat and as a soldier, “he carried the same values: honor, discipline, service, and commitment to others,” the organization said.
Nebraska Gov. Gov. Pillen paid tribute to the family Tuesday.
“Noah stepped up to serve and defend the American people from foreign enemies around the world — a sacrifice we must never forget,” he wrote.
“We are holding the Tietjens family close in our hearts during this unbelievably difficult time and will keep them in our prayers,” he said.
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Boone contributed from Boise, Idaho, and Toropin from Washington. Associated Press reporters Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Ed White in Detroit; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; David Fischer in Miami and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.