U.S. Army Reserve Soldier Killed in Drone Strike Was Days Away From Coming Home

In the final hours before tragedy struck, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor was doing something ordinary—texting her husband about everyday life. For her family, those simple messages would become their last connection.

Nicole Amor, 39, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, was among six American service members killed in a reported drone strike at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. According to her husband, Joey Amor, they had exchanged messages just hours earlier. The conversation was routine, the kind couples have when one partner is deployed and counting the days until coming home.

“She was almost home,” he later told reporters. When morning came, the messages stopped.

Nicole had spent years serving in military logistics, ensuring that troops had the supplies and support they needed in operational zones. She first joined the Minnesota National Guard in 2005 as an automated logistics specialist before transferring to the U.S. Army Reserve the following year. Her work with the 103rd Sustainment Command took her to deployments in both Kuwait and Iraq.

Family members shared that shortly before the strike, she had been relocated from the main base to a smaller container-style structure as part of dispersal efforts meant to reduce risk. The attack happened one day after large-scale military operations in the region intensified.

But to those who knew her at home, Nicole Amor was far more than a soldier.

She was a mother of two—a high school senior son and a fourth-grade daughter—who loved spending time outdoors with them. She enjoyed rollerblading, biking, gardening, and cooking. One of her favorite small traditions was making homemade salsa using vegetables from her backyard garden.

The strike that took her life also killed several other American troops, including Cody Khork, 35, of Florida; Noah Tietjens, 42, of Nebraska; and Declan Coady, 20, of Iowa. The Department of Defense has not yet released the names of the remaining two service members who died in the attack.

For Nicole’s family, the loss is especially painful because her return home was only days away. A long-awaited reunion was just around the corner—one that will now never happen.

As investigations continue into the circumstances of the strike, Nicole Amor is being remembered not only for her service in uniform, but also for the life she built beyond it—as a wife, a mother, and a community member whose days were filled with care for the people around her.

Her family has asked for privacy as they mourn and begin the difficult process of moving forward without her.