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Trump attends dignified transfer of soldiers killed in Iranian attacks

▶ Watch Video: Trump attends dignified transfer for 4 dead U.S. soldiers, 12th night of strikes launched

Washington — President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attended a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday honoring the four U.S. Army soldiers killed in the Middle East in recent days during the ongoing war with Iran. 

The Trump administration is investigating attacks at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan that led to the deaths of two of the soldiers, and the presumed death of one other who was initially described as missing. The dignified transfer also included an Army sergeant killed at a base in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone. 

The service members who were killed were:

  • Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii
  • Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas
  • Sgt. Angel Rampersad, 28, of New York
  • Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of North Carolina

The White House said the president met with each of the soldiers’ families. 

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth salute during a dignified transfer for Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on July 22, 2026.
President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth salute during a dignified transfer for Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on July 22, 2026.

SAUL LOEB /AFP via Getty Images

“We’re going to Dover,” the president told reporters before attending the transfer. “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.”

Feehan and Gonzales were both killed in action during the strikes on the base in Jordan, according to the Pentagon. U.S. Central Command had announced Rampersad as missing in action, but updated her status Tuesday to whereabouts unknown, and she is believed to have been killed in the same attack.

Swinton, a father of two, was killed at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq during the detonation of an Iranian drone.

Photos of four soldiers killed in Iranian attacks
From left: Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas; Sgt. Angel Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York; 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Sgt. Michael Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Department of Defense

The president told reporters Wednesday that the administration would share the results of the probe into the attacks in Jordan. 

A dignified transfer is a nonceremonial 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, not caskets, and carried by members of the military. It is customary for the president or other high-ranking administration officials to attend.

Colombia limits foreign rescue teams as earthquake survival window narrows

By CNN
(CNN) — Colombia has begun receiving international aid and rescuers after initially refusing some offers in the crucial hours following Monday’s devastating earthquake.The delay is considered the first controversy of the country’s new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office on Friday.News of the holdup comes as the clock nears the end of the critical 72-hour window for rescuing survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings, after which rescuers warn that the possibility of finding anyone alive drops dramatically.Leaders across the Americas had offered support right after the 7.4 magnitude quake struck this week – just as they had done with Venezuela when it was hit by two powerful tremors in June. The difference is that Venezuela immediately received dozens of international rescue groups without question, while Colombia either turned some of them down or limited how they would help.Political scientist Sandra Borda argued that the difficulties in aid management are related to the tense political transition between the current and previous administrations, which lacked a formal handover. Notably, it was only on Wednesday that David Tamayo Roldán was appointed director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, the agency responsible for Colombia’s disaster preparedness and response.“Without a transition and with that kind of personnel change, it was perfectly normal for these short circuits to occur,” said Borda, a professor at Universidad de los Andes.The outlook on Tuesday was uncertain as multiple countries and organizations, including the UN, said they had not received a request for aid from Colombian authorities.“If that happens, the United Nations system and humanitarian actors are prepared to provide all the support we can,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.Mexico, which had prepared tons of supplies and a contingent of 255 military personnel, also it had not received a request from Colombia and that the deployment depended on it.Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador to Colombia Zhu Jingyang “urgently” asked Colombia to establish an official channel to coordinate international assistance, saying, “We hope the Colombian Government will immediately announce the name of the official and their contact to coordinate international assistance for the earthquake victims.”As the hours passed, coordination finally began.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced Tuesday afternoon that he was sending humanitarian aid to Colombia but noted that de la Espriella’s government requested aid “only in the form of supplies” for those affected.“We have been informed that their rescue teams, medical personnel, and other emergency bodies are deployed and attending to the situation, so at this time, they do not require personnel support,” he said.However, Peru confirmed Wednesday that it will dispatch volunteers to support search and rescue efforts.The Colombian Foreign Ministry later said it was preparing a list of “specific needs” to request international aid and that it had asked the United Nations Development Programme to provide support.The new head of disaster management also said Wednesday that the government has requested rescue teams from only four countries – the US, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel – because, in Colombia’s view, their rescue teams have the international and national certifications required for the job.Foreign Minister Omar Bula insisted that the country has “not excluded absolutely any country in terms of the offers that have been made to us,” adding, “We work with countries without any ideological or political consideration.”The US confirmed Wednesday that had mobilized search and rescue teams from Virginia and California to Colombia after receiving a request from its government.Borda commented that the new government showed “a deep distrust of some parts of the international community,” which she considered “difficult to understand.”She added that there was “no clarity about the procedure that was to be followed” regarding the arrival of rescuers, saying, “I think this happened to us at a very difficult time. It is truly a regrettable situation.”She also said that the subsequent acceptance of the arrival of experts undermined the argument that they were not needed.“There was a perception from the beginning that the rescue teams would be sufficient, although a technical assessment was never made public to confirm that they would indeed be enough to deal with all the damage and destruction caused by the earthquake,” she said.In any case, it is also unclear where international personnel are needed. The emergency chief of the fire department in Cali, one of the most affected cities, indicated that volunteers should not approach collapsed sites “because there are already enough specialized personnel to carry out the rescue work without complications.”The Topos Tlatelolco Rescue Brigade, a Mexican group with extensive experience responding to natural disasters, said Wednesday that Colombian authorities “will not allow the entry of external rescue groups” because the work is being handled by national rescuers.Meanwhile, in Pereira, another severely affected city, the foreign ministry celebrated the arrival of 19.5 tons of aid from Mexico.“Additional flights are expected in the coming days. Colombia is not alone! The international community is with us,” the ministry said on X.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that her government had finally coordinated with its Colombian counterparts, who “requested specific items” and that the flight also included “members of the Mexican Army to assist in the efforts.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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