"She was almost home," her husband, Joey Amor, said from their home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on Tuesday.
"You don't go to Kuwait thinking something's going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts."
Amor was one of four US soldiers killed in the Iran war on Sunday and identified on Tuesday by the Pentagon; two soldiers haven't yet been publicly identified.
The members of the Army Reserve worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.
They died just one day after the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran. Iran responded by launching missiles and drones against Israel and several Gulf Arab states that host US armed forces.
Those killed also included Captain Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sergeant 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sergeant Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist. No other names were released.
"These men and women all bravely volunteered to defend our country, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten," Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said.
All were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, which provides food, fuel, water and ammunition, transport equipment and supplies.
"Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That's the way it is," President Donald Trump said of deaths.
Coady had just told his father last week that he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he received posthumously.
He was one of the youngest people in his class but seemed to impress his instructors, his father Andrew Coady said.
"He was very good at what he did," he said.
Coady trained as an information technology specialist with the Army Reserves and was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines. He was taking online classes while in Kuwait and wanted to become an officer.
Amor, 39, was an avid gardener who enjoyed making salsa from the peppers and tomatoes in her garden with her son, a senior in high school. She also enjoyed rollerblading and bicycling with her fourth-grade daughter.
A week before the drone attack, Amor was moved off-base to a shipping container-style building that had no defences, Joey Amor said.
"They were dispersing because they were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separate places," he said.
He last spoke to her about two hours before she was killed. He said she was working long shifts and they had been messaging about her tripping and falling the night before.
One of Khork's friends, Abbas Jaffer, posted on Facebook on Monday that he had lost the best person he had ever known.
"My best friend, best man, and brother gave his life defending our country overseas," Jaffer said.
Tietjens lived with his family in the Washington Terrace mobile home park in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue with around a hundred homes. Several members of his wife's family also live in the same community.
Tietjens was married with a son, according to a Facebook page. A photo online shows a couple with their son wearing a martial arts uniform.
