Sgt. Michael Swinton to receive Bronze Star, Purple Heart, posthumous promotion
The Pentagon on Tuesday identified Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, as the soldier who died Sunday while disarming an Iranian drone during a controlled detonation at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq. The military said it is investigating the death.
Swinton, assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade out of Fort Bragg, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action Badge, and be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, the Pentagon said.
The identification follows the deaths of two other U.S. soldiers in Jordan on Friday. The military said those soldiers were killed while defending against an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack, marking the first U.S. troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the war’s opening days.