A U.S. soldier killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone was a 30-year-old father from North Carolina who had served for nearly a decade, according to a military statement Tuesday and his family.Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, of Fayetteville, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted posthumously to staff sergeant. The Army said it was investigating the circumstances of his death Sunday at an air base in Irbil.He leaves behind a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, his mother said.“I will never recover from this, you should be home,” his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, posted Monday on Facebook. “We had so many plans for when you got back, I’m sick to my stomach.” She said she was notified Sunday that he had been killed.Two U.S. Army soldiers were also killed in Jordan last week while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. They were the first U.S. troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war.Swinton’s mother, Christel Swinton Andujar, told WRAL-TV on Tuesday that her son’s family was “the center of his world.”
“Every decision he made and every sacrifice he endured was with them in his heart,” she told the television station from her home near Fort Bragg.
