The two Iowa National Guard soldiers who were killed in Syria earlier this month are back in Iowa, where their families are preparing for funeral services scheduled for the coming days.
The remains of Staff Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard and Staff Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar arrived at the Iowa Air National Guard base in Des Moines in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve.
Torres-Tovar, 25, from Des Moines and Howard, 29, from Marshalltown were shot and killed by a lone ISIS gunman while deployed in Palmyra, Syria. The soldiers were posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.
They are the first Iowa National Guard soldiers to be killed in action since 2011…