Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is scheduled to headline a “Top Gun”-themed political fund-raiser next week for a Republican congressman whose constituent was among the four American soldiers killed in the opening hours of the war with Iran. All four service members had been stationed in the district before deployment.
The event, on behalf of Representative Zach Nunn, who is facing a potentially competitive re-election race, comes as the secretary has signaled he expects more U.S. casualties in the broadening regional conflict.
Four Army Reserve soldiers assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Mr. Nunn’s Des Moines district were killed by an Iranian drone in Kuwait on Sunday. The fallen soldiers included Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, who was a resident of Des Moines; Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Nebraska; and Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of Minnesota.
In promotional materials, the event is billed as “Operation Top Nunn — A Salute to the Troops!” and themed after the action-adventure movie “Top Gun.” On Tuesday, hours before the Pentagon released the names of four out of the six U.S. troops killed after the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, Mr. Nunn announced the secretary would attend.
Democrats are eyeing Mr. Nunn’s seat as one they could potentially flip in November’s midterm elections.
“WINGMAN CONFIRMED,” Mr. Nunn, a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, posted on social media, adding that the event Mr. Hegseth planned to join would be “a tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform and defend our freedom.” Tickets for the event in Ankeny, Iowa, on March 14, start at $26, but those who pay $1,000 or $3,500 also gain admittance to a V.I.P. reception.
The release of the names of the soldiers killed came Tuesday night as lawmakers were in a classified briefing on the military operation in Iran. Several congressional Republicans said their deaths were the cost of war, echoing Mr. Hegseth.
“This is really tough stuff,” said Senator Jim Justice, Republican of West Virginia, on Wednesday. “But when you go into a conflict like this, you’re going to have casualties.”
Mr. Nunn said in an interview on Tuesday evening that the soldiers died countering a “clear and direct threat from Iran” and to “prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon that could potentially take the entire world into a nuclear holocaust.”
He said he had directly asked Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the closed-door meeting how the Trump administration would support the families of the soldiers who died.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on the secretary attending the campaign event. A spokesman for the congressman declined to comment on the details of the event on Wednesday but confirmed the secretary still planned to attend.
Several Republicans declined to comment on whether the defense secretary should be fund-raising during an ongoing military conflict in the Middle East that has so far killed six U.S. troops and injured others.
But Democrats said the event was inappropriate.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said it was “disrespectful and unseemly when he and the president acknowledge there’s going to be probably many more victims to come.”
Mr. Hegseth suggested Wednesday that the media had focused too much on the death of service members since Mr. Trump launched the attacks over the weekend and not enough on the outcomes of the mission.
“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground,” he told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “We control their fate. But when a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad; but try, for once, to report the reality.”
Representative Scott Franklin, Republican of Florida, said he had personally met Captain Khork, his constituent, and called his death a “tragic loss.”
He added that he supported the president’s sweeping air campaign on Iran but that he would want Mr. Trump to seek congressional authorization before any potential deployment of ground troops.
“There are costs associated with war,” he said. “That’s why we need to be very careful before we ever getting involved in something like this.”
Megan Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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