{"id":3593,"date":"2026-03-15T04:17:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T04:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=3593"},"modified":"2026-03-15T04:17:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T04:17:59","slug":"u-s-service-members-killed-in-refueling-aircraft-crash-in-iraq-identified-as-ohio-national-guard-members-and-florida-based-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=3593","title":{"rendered":"U.S. service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq identified as Ohio National Guard members and Florida-based crew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-0\">\n  <!-- lil observer --><br \/>\n      <span class=\"content__observer-marker content__observer-marker--fixed lazyload\"\/><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body\">\n<p><span class=\"link\">Six U.S. service members<\/span>\u00a0who were killed in a military refueling aircraft crash over Iraq last week have been identified as members of the Ohio Air National Guard and Florida-based crew members.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Defense on Saturday identified them as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana<\/li>\n<li>Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio<\/li>\n<li>Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio<\/li>\n<li>Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama<\/li>\n<li>Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington<\/li>\n<li>Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Koval, Angst and Simmons were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Klinner, Savino and Pruitt were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/15\/353d839a-3fab-4e05-90a6-c22d36022230\/thumbnail\/620x517\/72ae810f6e420b9aada3e64043f7cec6\/ng-members.jpg#\" alt=\"U.S. service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq identified as Ohio National Guard members and Florida-based crew \" height=\"517\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/15\/353d839a-3fab-4e05-90a6-c22d36022230\/thumbnail\/620x517\/72ae810f6e420b9aada3e64043f7cec6\/ng-members.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/15\/353d839a-3fab-4e05-90a6-c22d36022230\/thumbnail\/1240x1034\/4f90b5735c5ce4236c40f5f02eced6fa\/ng-members.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Clockwise from top left: Capt. Seth R. Koval, Capt. Curtis J. Angst, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, Capt. Ariana G. Savino, and Maj. John A. Klinner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                National Guard<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Simmons&#8217; mother, Cheryl Simmons, recalled to\u00a0CBS affiliate WBNS\u00a0Friday the moment uniformed officers arrived at their home to deliver the news.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When he opened the door he said, &#8216;Oh no,&#8217; and I jumped up and ran in there and they were lined up out on the porch,&#8221; she told the station. &#8220;&#8216;You got to be kidding me.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The six serviced members died on March 12 when an aerial refueling aircraft taking part in operations against Iran\u00a0<span class=\"link\">crashed in western Iraq<\/span>. The KC-135 aircraft went down near Turaibil, which is along the Iraqi-Jordanian border, an Iraqi intelligence source told CBS News.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised them as &#8220;American heroes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the crew was on a combat mission but flying over friendly territory when the crash happened. The incident is under investigation, the Defense Department said.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<p class=\"content__meta--contributors\">\n<p>                                  Tucker  Reals<\/p>\n<p>        contributed to this report.\n    <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p> U.S. service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq identified as Ohio National Guard members and Florida-based crew<br \/>\n<br \/>#U.S #service #members #killed #refueling #aircraft #crash #Iraq #identified #Ohio #National #Guard #members #Floridabased #crew<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six U.S. service members\u00a0who were killed in a military refueling aircraft crash over Iraq last&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3337,3289,1631,3501,3500,2926,3246,434,1327,2238,3499,3336,1326,774],"class_list":["post-3593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-aircraft","tag-crash","tag-crew","tag-floridabased","tag-guard","tag-identified","tag-iraq","tag-killed","tag-members","tag-national","tag-ohio","tag-refueling","tag-service","tag-u-s"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ng-members-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=7\" rel=\"category\">Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}