The Pentagon has identified the seventh US service member killed in the war with Iran as 26-year-old Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington of Glendale, Kentucky. Officials say Pennington was gravely injured on March 1 in an Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and died Sunday from his wounds, CNBC reports. Pennington served with the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, based at Fort Carson, Colorado, part of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Speaking at an event Monday in Washington, DC, Vice President JD Vance said Pennington's remains were expected to be returned to the US later in the day and asked attendees to pray for the fallen.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called Pennington "a hero who sacrificed everything serving our country," the AP reports. The Army said Pennington, who graduated from high school in 2017, enlisted as a unit supply specialist that year and was assigned to the space and missile command last June.
- Former Hardin County Early College and Career Center auto tech instructor Tom Pitt says Pennington was an "American hero," the AP reports. "A lot of times as a teacher, you have students who are smart, you have students who are charismatic, who are likable, dare I say, enchanting," Pitt says. "Rarely do you have students who are all of those. And Ben Pennington was all of those. He was basically the quintessential all-American."