Dover Air Force Putrid, Del.
In hushed reverence, President Joe Biden stood stare with grieving households Sunday below a gray sky as, one at a time, the remains of 13 U.S. troops killed within the Kabul suicide bombing had been eliminated with solemnity from a protection power plane that introduced them house.
Primarily the most helpful sounds that would per chance be heard at some level of the mournful ritual of the “dignified transfer” had been the mild commands of the honor guards in battle costume who carried the flag-draped instances, the hum of the C-17 plane that had transported the fallen and the periodic weep of the unhappy.
Biden and his most indispensable other, Jill, met privately with family members of these killed in the suicide attack advance the Kabul airport before the president turned the fourth commander in chief over twenty years of battle to face at attention at Dover Air Force Putrid as the remains of the fallen from Afghanistan returned house.
The ineffective ranged in age from 20 to 31, and got right here from California and Massachusetts and states in between. Five had been gorgeous 20 — born now not long before the assaults of Sept. 11, 2001, that spurred the US to invade Afghanistan in notify to fall al-Qaida and dismantle their Taliban hosts who ruled the nation.
They consist of a 20-yr-extinct Marine from Wyoming who had been attempting ahead to his first baby in three weeks and a 22-yr-extinct Navy corpsman who in his last FaceTime conversation alongside with his mother assured her that he would take care of get because “my guys obtained me.”
At their deaths, the 13 young carrier people had been on the bottom for the U.S. coda to its longest battle, helping a chaotic evacuation of American citizens and of Afghans who helped the U.S. battle effort and are now fleeing the Taliban after their return to energy.
“The 13 carrier people that we lost had been heroes who made the final sacrifice in carrier of our very most practical American ideals and whereas saving the lives of others,” Biden talked about in a commentary Saturday. “Their bravery and selflessness has enabled bigger than 117,000 americans in probability to reach safety up to now.”
Biden held his give up his heart and regarded to shut his eyes in prayer as every transfer case modified into once taken off the protection power plane and positioned in an looking forward to car.
Family people of the fallen frequently lunge to Dover to be most up-to-date for the return of the remains of their cherished ones to American soil. Thursday’s attack left so many casualties that protection power officers talked about the Dover Fisher Condominium, which the Protection Department provides for households of the fallen, modified into once now not gigantic sufficient to accommodate the complete grieving households, so some cherished ones stayed off fallacious.
Biden modified into once joined by a complete lot of high aides, including Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Gen. Designate Milley, and Secretary of Remark Antony Blinken. Eleven of the fallen carrier people’ households selected to enable their transfers to be open to media protection. Two others took station out of watch, however Biden modified into once most up-to-date for these as smartly.
Biden’s three most most up-to-date predecessors as presidents all attended such dignified transfers. It modified into once Biden’s first time taking segment within the ritual as president, however he has been right here before.
Later Sunday, whereas getting a Typhoon Ida briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Company in Washington, the president opened his remarks by telling workers that he had gorgeous reach from Dover. “We met with the households of 13 fallen heroes in Afghanistan who lost their lives of their carrier of our nation and whereas we’re praying for the most bright in Louisiana, let’s desire them in our prayers as smartly.’’
Biden attended a dignified transfer for two U.S. squaddies killed in a suicide blast at Bagram Airfield within the final months of his vice presidency in 2016. In 2008, whereas a senator and at the query of the grieving family, he attended one for a soldier killed in a car bombing in Iraq. Biden suggested CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he had to safe permission from the Pentagon to befriend the transfer.
The 13 troops who died in Kabul had been the major U.S. carrier people killed in Afghanistan since February 2020. That modified into once when the Trump administration reached an settlement with the Taliban that known as for the militant community to reside assaults on American citizens in swap for a U.S. commitment to raise all American troops and contractors by Would possibly per chance well 2021. Biden announced in April that he would maintain all forces out by September.
Eleven of the 13 American citizens killed had been Marines. One modified into once a Navy sailor and one an Military soldier.
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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Robert Burns and Matt Sedensky contributed to this file.
