Dover Air Force Base, Delaware - Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday attended the ceremony marking the return of remains of the seventh American service member killed in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

US Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington died March 8 from injuries sustained in a March 1 strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

The 26-year-old's hometown was Glendale, Kentucky, and he was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade out of Fort Carson, CO.

Vance, who declined to answer questions from the press, was joined by Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

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During the ceremony, uniformed soldiers silently carried a flag-draped coffin from a C-17 aircraft to a transfer vehicle while Vance, Hegseth, and Caine saluted.

Six other soldiers killed in the war launched by President Donald Trump – five men and one woman – have been returned to US soil.

After the US began a massive campaign of unprovoked strikes on Iran alongside Israel on February 28, Tehran responded with waves of missiles and drones targeting countries in the region that host US military personnel or bases.

"It is a profound reminder of the cost of war," Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, told CNN after the silent ceremony. "I want to prevent other service members from dying."

"I want to stop the waste of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and I think the way we do that is by demanding that these administration officials come to Congress, in public, answer questions – because that matters."