NJ Man ID'd As 1 Of 3 Soldiers Killed In Middle East Drone Strike

WILLINGBORO, NJ — A 46-year-old South Jersey man has been identified as one of three Army Reserve soldiers killed Sunday in a drone strike on a U.S. base in Jordan, according to the Department of Defense and media reports.

Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46 — described by NJ.com as a Willingboro man who also lived in Carrollton, Georgia — was killed along with Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia "when a one-way unmanned aerial system impacted their container housing units," the Department of Defense said in a news release Monday.

The drone strike, which occurred near the Syrian border, also wounded more than 40 others.

The three soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, in Fort Moore, Georgia and were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, officials said.

The Defense Department said Rivers joined the Army Reserve in New Jersey in 2011 and served a nine-month tour in Iraq in 2018. He joined the 718th Engineering Company at Fort Moore last year and lived in Carrollton, about 45 miles west of Atlanta.

Described by their parents as bubbly and constantly laughing, Sanders and Moffett became close friends soon after enlisting in the Army Reserve five years ago, according to their families.

"Every time I’d call Breonna, I’d see Sanders just stick her head in and say, 'Hey! How you doing?'" Breonna's mother Francine Moffett said.

Sanders had volunteered for the Middle East deployment, eager to see a new part of the world, her parents said.

While she occasionally mentioned drones being shot down nearby, there was no sense of imminent danger, said Oneida Oliver-Sanders, Kennedy's mother.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued a statement mourning the "inexcusable loss of life" of the three soldiers, saying they "gave the last full measure of devotion in service to this country."

"They represent the best of America," Army Brigade General Todd Lazaroski, commander of the Army Reserve's 412th Theater Engineer Command, said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.