JD Vance attends dignified transfer of fallen soldier killed in Operation Epic Fury as Trump reveals vice president was ‘less enthusiastic’ about war in Iran

JD Vance oversaw the honorable transfer of a seventh US military member to die in the Iran war, just hours after Donald Trump’s vice president admitted he was “less enthusiastic” about the ongoing conflict.

Vance was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for Army Sergeant Benjamin N Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, who was killed during an attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Pete Hegseth and Vance saluted alongside senior military officials as the transfer bag, draped in an American flag, was carried from the plane to a waiting vehicle.

Earlier Monday, Trump said Vance was “a little different from me philosophically” at the start of the war in Iran, but dismissed the idea that there was a disagreement between the two.

Vance, a veteran of the US war in Iraq, has largely avoided the spotlight and the media since the US began launching attacks on Tehran and Trump acknowledged they more or less disagreed.

“We get along very well on this,” Trump told reporters. ‘I would say that he is a little different from me philosophically. I think he was less enthusiastic about going, but quite enthusiastic.’

Trump quickly added: ‘But I thought it was something we should do. ‘I didn’t feel we had any choice.’

Vance was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on behalf of Army Sergeant Benjamin N Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky.

An honorable transfer is considered one of the dreariest tasks for any commander-in-chief.

Trump said witnessing the transfer during his first term was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do” as president.

‘I want to start on a somewhat somber note here, because on a personal level, I was honored to be able to participate in the honorable transfer of six American soldiers killed abroad in this conflict with Iran. “And I’ve never done this before,” Vance began.

He then asked for prayers for the missing ‘seventh soul’ and the families of the fallen heroes.

Pennington was assigned to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

According to their website, the unit’s mission focused on ‘missile warning, GPS and long-distance satellite communications’.

In a statement from the army, it was stated that Pennington entered service as a troop supply specialist and was appointed to Space and Missile Command on June 10, 2025.

His awards and decorations included the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon.

Military members carry the transport bag during the dignified transfer of Sergeant Pennington’s body

“We get along very well on this issue,” Trump told the press about his meeting with Vice President JD Vance. ‘I would say that he is a little different from me philosophically. I think he was less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic.’

The vice president’s X account has only a few posts since the Iran war began

Vance has long warned that his time with the Marines in Iraq shaped his views that the United States should not encourage wars abroad. Vance even penned an op-ed explaining that Trump’s best foreign policy in 2023 is “not to start any wars.”

Some social media critics noted that the vice president posted less about X during the war. He has yet to call it a war, as the President has, opting instead for ‘conflict’ or ‘operation’ in his typically busy narrative.

Vance is seen as the most influential adviser in the president’s inner circle, according to a new exclusive Daily Mail/JL Partners survey of registered voters.

19 percent of respondents said the vice president was the most influential member of Trump’s inner circle.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio came in second with 12 percent, followed by Donald Trump Jr. and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ranked third.

The vice president previously emphasized on Fox News earlier this month that the president would not allow the Iran war to be a repeat of U.S. operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“There is no way Donald Trump will allow this country to engage in a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear goal,” Vance said.

‘He defined this goal as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and must be determined never to attempt to rebuild nuclear capability in the long term. It’s pretty clear. It’s pretty simple, and I think that means we’re not going to get into the problems we had with Iraq and Afghanistan,” Vance told Fox.

The President said Monday he and the Vice President differed ‘philosophically’ on Iran

Trump shared on Monday that the United States will not give up its attack against the Islamic Republic.

“If Iran does anything to stop the flow of oil in the Strait of Hormuz, it will be hit 20 TIMES harder than it has already been hit by the United States,” Trump said on social media.

“We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” the Iranian Revolutionary Guard military force said in a statement.

In a televised press conference, the president said Iran had no ‘air force’, lacking radar, telecommunications, anti-aircraft systems and, most importantly, leadership.

He added that Iran’s military drone capacity has fallen to 25 percent and is expected to drop to zero soon as most of the country’s missiles are destroyed.

When asked this week how long it would take to end the war with Iran, Trump declined to say, saying only “soon.”