The seventh US service member killed in the conflict with Iran — a 26-year-old from Kentucky — was brought home Monday evening in a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, from Glendale, Kentucky, died Sunday after sustaining injuries the week prior in an attack by Iran on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. Pennington was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, a unit within the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.
Vice President JD Vance joined top military officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, in observing the solemn event. They saluted as the transfer case was taken across the tarmac.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called Pennington a “hero who sacrificed everything serving our country” in a Facebook post on Monday. Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said in a news release that Pennington “gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country that he loved.”
“That makes him nothing less than a hero,” Gainey said, “and he will always be remembered that way.”
Pennington enlisted in the Army in 2017 as a unit supply specialist. The Army said Monday he would be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.
A message from the Hardin County school district, where Pennington graduated the same year he enlisted, said he “represented the very best of our community, state, and nation.”
“We are profoundly grateful for his service and his devotion to our country,” the message said. “His dedication was exemplary and he has proven that by rendering the ultimate sacrifice.”
Flags were flown at half-staff in Hardin County in Pennington’s honor. County Judge-Executive Keith Taul said he’d known Pennington’s father for decades and that his family is “hurting pretty bad right now.”
Pennington’s return home comes just two days after six soldiers who were killed last week in a drone strike on their operations center in Kuwait were also brought home to Dover. Those soldiers — Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens and Sgt. Declan Coady — were each members of the same Army Reserve sustainment unit out of Iowa, the 103rd Sustainment Command.
President Donald Trump, who attended the Saturday ceremony, said over the weekend that meeting with the families of those six soldiers did not give him pause about the war.
“The parents said to me, everyone one of them, ‘Please sir, win this for my boy,’ and in one case a young woman, as you know. ‘Please, win this for my child,’” Trump said.
The president did not attend Monday’s ceremony. He was flying to Washington from Florida, where he addressed House Republicans at their legislative retreat and gave a press conference on the war with Iran.
Trump and other senior officials have made clear there would likely be more casualties before the end of the US military’s operations against Iran. Asked Saturday whether he thought he’d have to attend more dignified transfers, Trump responded, “I’m sure. I hate to … but it’s part of war.”
