As the first victims of the 2026 war on Iran are laid to rest, communities across Ohio, Iowa, and Kentucky are asking a painful question: Why are we fighting this war?
A Funeral in Ohio
At the Dayton National Cemetery in southwest Ohio, ground staff have cleared space for a new grave site. It will be where Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, of the 121st Air Refueling Wing, will be laid to rest on Friday.
Angst, from Wilmington, Ohio — a 45-minute drive away — died on March 12 when his aircraft collided with another US plane over western Iraq. All six crew members onboard were killed.
He had been married for just 17 months.
Nearly Half of US Fatalities Come From Three States
Of the 13 US service members killed so far in the Iran war, nearly half hail from Ohio, Iowa, and Kentucky.
- Kentucky: Benjamin Pennington and Ashley Pruitt grew up 30 minutes from each other. Pennington was killed in an Iranian attack on a US base in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Pruitt died in the same mid-air collision as Angst.
- Iowa: Two Iowans from neighboring communities outside Des Moines were among six US service members killed in Kuwait on March 1 after an Iranian drone attack on a makeshift office space.
Veterans Are Baffled
Bob Baylor, a colonel from Ohio and veteran of the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, says he and others are confused about the conflict.
“I still don’t know what our objective is. As a colonel, as a graduate of the Air War College, one of the first things you learn is what are your objectives so that you know what forces need to be deployed,” he says.
“It’s absolutely tragic. What is our objective? We are losing people.”
Baylor’s two daughters went to school with Capt. Angst in Wilmington.
“One of the things I’m hearing is that people don’t want us to get into another war. They want to support the troops, but as far as the president, there are a lot of questions about what are we doing, why are we there, why aren’t we getting the heck out of there.”
Questions About Legality and Planning
Kenny Fogle, a 25-year veteran of the US Air Force and Kentucky Air National Guard, lives in Bardstown — the same town as Ashley Pruitt.
“We are very cognizant of the threat of what a nuclear Iran could be. We just believe that all diplomatic efforts were not exhausted,” he says.
“We have serious questions as to the imminent threat, the absence of congressional involvement, the actual reasoning behind the initial attack and the lack of consultation with our NATO allies.”
Joe Stutler, an Iowa veteran who served nearly 10 years including during Operation Desert Storm, is blunter:
“This is a war of opportunity, not a war of necessity. The further we get into it, the more we’re learning that there wasn’t really a plan.”
Then he added: “If it’s that damn important, deploy Barron [Trump]. Put Barron out there on the front with the rest of them.”
Political Trouble for Trump?
Last weekend, an estimated 8 million people across the country protested the war. Some Ohio Republicans have defied Trump by voting to call for an end to the attacks on Iran.
In Iowa — which hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 2012 — a Democrat recently won a state senate district that Trump carried by double digits in 2024. Thousands of farmers have been hit by high diesel and fertilizer prices resulting from the conflict.
Baylor notes that while Wilmington is broadly conservative — more than three-fourths of voters backed Trump in 2024 — satisfaction with the president may be declining.
“Without clearcut objectives, we could find ourselves in a situation that keeps escalating with no clear exit,” he says.
“The department [of defense] and secretary of defense and the president really don’t seem to understand what forces they need to use because I don’t think they understand what it is they are trying to do.”
Source: The Guardian
