{"id":1259,"date":"2026-07-21T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:40:09","slug":"us-military-identifies-soldier-killed-disarming-a-drone-in-iraq-as-a-30-year-old-from-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=1259","title":{"rendered":"US military identifies soldier killed disarming a drone in Iraq as a 30-year-old from North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>The U.S. military on Tuesday identified a soldier who was killed while disarming an <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-21-2026-1664f6a4dad005a99771b2ad15213585\">Iranian drone<\/a> in Iraq as a 30-year-old from North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The military said it was investigating the death of Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of Fayetteville during a controlled detonation on Sunday at an air base in Irbil in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Swinton will get a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and be promoted to staff sergeant, the military said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He enlisted in the Army in 2017, and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cSgt. Swinton was an experienced noncommissioned officer who took great pride in his work and the people around him,\u201d said Brig. Gen. John L. Dawber, commanding general of the Army Air and Missile Defense Command. \u201cHe answered the call to duty with courage, honor, and selfless dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed in Jordan while defending against <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/video-circulating-appears-to-show-moment-iran-missiles-hit-jordan-base-killing-2-us-service-members-0000019f7b6bd788a1df7fffff5c0000\">Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks<\/a> on Friday. They were the first U.S. troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/us-military-identifies-soldier-killed-disarming-drone-iraq-134948419\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; The U.S. military on Tuesday identified a soldier who was killed while disarming an Iranian drone in Iraq as a 30-year-old from North Carolina. The military said it was investigating the death of Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton of Fayetteville during a controlled detonation on Sunday at an air base in Irbil in northern&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}