Army Officer's Death Raises Pentagon's Public Toll in Iran Conflict to 19 - [your]NEWS

The death of Army Capt. Bianca C. Wilkerson has increased the Pentagon’s publicly acknowledged U.S. military death toll linked to operations during the war with Iran to 19. The 37-year-old died Sept. 18 while deployed in the Middle East in what the Army described as a noncombat-related incident. She was posthumously promoted to major. The Pentagon said Wilkerson was assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Army Central & Third Army at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina and deployed to Doha, Qatar, supporting U.S. operations in the region. A defense official said she suffered a medical emergency aboard a military flight headed for Saudi Arabia; an autopsy is pending.