U.S. military identifies soldier killed in strike on American base in Saudi Arabia

Department of Defense | MGN

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday that Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., was the soldier killed in the early hours of the war with Iran in an airstrike on a major U.S. base in Saudi Arabia. He is the seventh American service member confirmed to have died in Iran’s hail of retaliatory missile and drone fire across the Persian Gulf and beyond.

Pennington “died of his wounds on March 8, 2026, from injuries sustained during an enemy attack on March 1, 2026, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia,” the Pentagon said Monday, adding that the deadly incident remained under investigation.

The six other U.S. troops killed in the war thus far died of injuries sustained in an Iranian attack on a U.S. military installation in Kuwait, also in the initial hours of the conflict.