US soldiers who died in the Iran war remembered for their service and devotion to their families

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sgt. Declan Coady had been checking in with his family from Kuwait every hour or two after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran, even as Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab states that host U.S. armed forces.

When he didn't respond to messages Sunday, “most of us started to wonder,” Coady's father, Andrew, told The Associated Press. “Your gut starts to get a feeling.”

A drone strike at a command center in Kuwait killed 20-year-old Coady of West Des Moines, Iowa, and five other members of the U.S. Army Reserve who worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.

The other soldiers identified Tuesday by the Pentagon were: Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska. U.S. Army base Fort Knox, Kentucky, wrote on Facebook that the names of the other two will be released once next-of-kin notifications are complete.

The soldiers were assigned to an Army Reserve unit headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, which is temporarily operating under the 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Knox.

“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s the way it is,” President Donald Trump said of the deaths. Trump will attend the dignified transfers of the soldiers when they arrive in the U.S., the White House said Wednesday. The ritual honors service members killed in action.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the military “ensured that the maximum possible defense and maximum possible force protection was set up before we went on offense.”

“The terms of this war will be set by us at every step,” Hegseth said Wednesday.

Amor was just days away from returning to her husband and children.

“She was almost home,” her husband, Joey Amor, said 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 she grew with her son, a high school senior. 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 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.

She was working long shifts and he last spoke to her about two hours before she was killed. She told him she had tripped and fallen and they had been joking about that. The fun messages stopped abruptly.

“She just never responded in the morning,” he said.

Childhood friend Natalie Caruso wrote on Facebook that she was “absolutely heartbroken” about Amor's death.

“Nicole was always up for an adventure and she had such a contagious laugh!" Caruso wrote Wednesday. "Growing up next door to you was some of my fondest childhood memories!”

Coady recently told his father he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he received posthumously.

He was among the youngest people in his class, trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he impressed 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 was close to his family and often called, even if for only a few minutes. He was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines, and took 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."

Khork was very patriotic and wanted to serve in the military from childhood, 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, who loved history, 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.”

Abbas Jaffer posted Monday on Facebook about his friend of 16 years.

“My best friend, best man, and brother gave his life defending our country overseas,” Jaffer said.

Tietjens lived with his family in a mobile home park in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue, Nebraska. He was married with a son, according to a Facebook page.

He came from a military family and previously served alongside his father in Kuwait. When he returned home in February 2010, he was reunited with his overjoyed wife in a local church’s gym.

“I thought he was going to be the last person in, because he hates all this (hoopla),” his wife, Michelle Tietjens, told the Lincoln Journal Star at the time.

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 on Facebook.

On the mat and as a soldier, “he carried the same values: honor, discipline, service, and commitment to others,” the organization said.

Army Staff Sgt. Jeff Coleman said Tietjens was his mentor.

"You could call him day or night,” Coleman told KETV. “He always took the time, you know, he made you feel important. And that’s hard to find sometimes in the military.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday ordered U.S. and state flags flown at half-staff until the evening of Tietjens’ burial. State lawmakers held a moment of silence Wednesday to honor the fallen soldier.

“Noah stepped up to serve and defend the American people from foreign enemies around the world — a sacrifice we must never forget,” Pillen wrote in a tribute Tuesday.

“We are holding the Tietjens family close in our hearts during this unbelievably difficult time and will keep them in our prayers,” he said.

Tietjens’ cousin Kaylyn Golike asked for prayers, especially for Tietjens' 12-year-old son, wife and parents, as they navigate “unimaginable loss.”

“We lost a brave soldier this weekend and many hearts are broken,” Golike wrote on Facebook Tuesday.

Boone contributed from Boise, Idaho, and Toropin from Washington. Associated Press reporters Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Josh Funk and Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and David Fischer in Miami contributed.

Andrew Coady and his daughter Keira, right, talk about his son, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside their home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

This combination of images provided by the U.S. Army taken on May 16, 2025 shows, from top left, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Army via AP)

This combination of images provided by the U.S. Army taken on May 16, 2025 shows, from left, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Army via AP)

This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)

This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)

This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)

This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)

Andrew Coady and his daughter Keira, right, talk about his son, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside their home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Keira Coady holds a photo of her brother, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside her home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Keira Coady talks about her brother, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside her home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he soon will endorse a Republican candidate in the Texas Senate race, warning that the divisive contest “cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer.”

But Trump, a former reality television host, continued to stoke suspense over his decision by not immediately naming his choice, even as Republicans on Capitol Hill pushed him to support four-term Sen. John Cornyn over conservative firebrand Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general.

“IT MUST STOP NOW!” Trump wrote on social media after Cornyn and Paxton advanced on Tuesday to a May 26 runoff for the nomination. “I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!!”

Republicans are deeply concerned that the 83-day sprint to the Texas runoff election will be expensive and divisive as the party fights to maintain control of Congress in competitive states across the nation.

Texas, a state Trump carried by 14 percentage points, was not supposed to be among this year's political battlegrounds. But operatives in both parties believe Democrats have a real chance to claim a Senate seat here for the first time in nearly four decades.

Democrats nominated state Rep. James Talarico, a 36-year-old Christian progressive who Republicans privately believed to be a stronger general election candidate than his primary opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

There was already pressure on Trump to endorse Cornyn before the president's social media post Wednesday afternoon.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Cornyn was "the best bet to win the general election.” Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Mike Rounds of South Dakota said they have been sending similar messages to Trump.

The drumbeat has grown loud enough that Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Trump ally from Texas, said the expectation is the president will endorse Cornyn.

“It’s going to be probably more difficult for Paxton to beat Talarico than Cornyn,” said Jackson, who has not made an endorsement. Because Cornyn has been "dumping tons of money in the race,” Jackson said it makes sense to avoid spending even more “picking each other apart for weeks and then going into the general election as the nominee wounded.”

Cornyn and his allies spent nearly $70 million to survive the first round of the primary. He was slightly ahead of Paxton with more votes still being counted Wednesday.

Some right-wing allies of the president warned him against backing Cornyn, whom they view as insufficiently loyal to Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.

“Endorsing Cornyn will be more gutting to the base than the Iran air strikes,” wrote conservative influencer Mike Cernovich on social media.

It is unclear whether any level of attack can deter Paxton, who has long been shadowed by allegations of corruption and infidelity. He has fashioned himself as the kind of diehard supporter that Trump needs in Washington.

Paxton was defiant when speaking to a few hundred supporters at a Dallas hotel ballroom on Tuesday night, a far different scene from Cornyn's small news conference.

“We just sent a message, loud and clear, to Washington,” he said. “We are not going to go quietly, and we are not going to let you buy the seat.”

Cornyn's campaign argued that a runoff would not have been necessary without the “vanity campaign” by Rep. Wesley Hunt, who finished a distant third. It is not known how Hunt's voters would line up in the runoff.

The pro-Paxton Lone Star political action committee, in a memo, described Cornyn as a “Washington relic."

“The D.C. establishment has done its job: it rallied around its wounded incumbent, opened the fundraising spigot, and flooded the airwaves. But the results, the data, and the reality on the ground all point to the same conclusion: John Cornyn has no viable path to the Republican nomination,” the memo said. “Cornyn should suspend his campaign, concede the nomination to Ken Paxton, and refuse to allow another $100+ million in Republican resources to be burned in a race that is already decided.”

While Trump's endorsement looms, Cornyn made it clear that he would make the case himself. He told reporters that Paxton would be “a dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans" in November.

“I’ve worked for decades to build the Republican Party, both here in Texas and nationally,” Cornyn said. “I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton to risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years.”

Cornyn will face intense fundraising pressure, having already spent so much money in the first round of the primary. Aides said he had some small fundraisers planned but nothing in the days immediately after the election as he returns to Washington.

Peoples reported from New York and Mascaro from Washington. Follow the AP's coverage of the 2026 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/elections.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - This photo combination shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, in Dallas and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in Austin, Texas, both on March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, Jack Myer)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks during a primary election night watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to the media Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jack Myer)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks during a primary election night watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to the media Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jack Myer)