A U.S. soldier killed in an Iranian drone strike at a command centre in Kuwait Sunday was just days away from returning home to her family, her grieving husband has said.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, from White Bear Lake in Minnesota, “was almost home,” her widower 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,” he added.
Sgt. Amor was one of six U.S. service members killed in the attack, according to the Pentagon, which identified three other soldiers killed in the attack: Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.
Two other soldiers remain publicly unidentified. The six killed were all members of the Army Reserve, assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, and played a crucial role in logistics, ensuring troops received vital food, water, fuel, ammunition and equipment.
“These men and women all bravely volunteered to defend our country, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said.
The fatal strike occurred just a day after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury. In retaliation, Iran launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and several Gulf Arab states that host American armed forces.
“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends,” President Donald Trump said of the casualties. “That’s the way it is.”
A mother of two who loved gardening
Amor, 39, 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 last spoke to her about two hours before she was killed. He said she was working long shifts and they had been messaging about her tripping and falling the night before.
“She just never responded in the morning,” he said.
One of the youngest in his class
Sgt. Coady had just told his father last week that he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he duly received after death.
He was one of the youngest people in his class but seemed to impress his instructors, his father Andrew Coady said Tuesday.
“He was very good at what he did,” he said.
Sgt. Coady trained as an IT specialist with the Army Reserves and was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines. He was taking online classes while in Kuwait and 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
Capt. 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 Reserve Officers’ Training Corps 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,” said his mother, Donna Burhans, his father, James Khork, and stepmother, Stacey Khork.
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 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.
The pair had been friends for more than 16 years, he said.
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 on Facebook.
On the mat and as a soldier, “he carried the same values: honor, discipline, service, and commitment to others,” the organization said.
Nebraska Gov. Jim 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.”
