Biden honors US troops killed in Afghanistan
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — In hushed reverence, President Joe Biden stood witness with grieving families, Sunday, under a gray sky as, one by one, the remains of 13 US troops killed in the Kabul suicide bombing were removed with solemnity from a military aircraft that brought them home.
The only sounds that could be heard during the mournful ritual of the “dignified transfer” were the quiet commands of the honor guards in battle dress who carried the flagdraped cases, the hum of the C-17 aircraft that had transported the fallen and the periodic sob of the sorrowful.
Biden and his wife, Jill, met privately with family members of those killed in the suicide attack near the Kabul airport before the president became the fourth commander in chief over two decades of war to stand at attention at Dover Air Force Base as the remains of the fallen from Afghanistan returned home.
The dead ranged in age from 20 to 31, and came from California and Massachusetts and states in between. Five were just 20 — born not long before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that spurred the United States to invade Afghanistan in order to topple al-Qaida and dismantle their Taliban hosts who ruled the country.
They include a 20-year-old Marine from Wyoming who had been expecting his first child in three weeks and a 22-year-old Navy corpsman who in his last FaceTime conversation with his mother assured her that he would stay safe because “my guys got me.”
At their deaths, the 13 young service members were on the ground for the US coda to its longest war, assisting a chaotic evacuation of Americans and of Afghans who helped the US war effort and are now fleeing the Taliban after their return to power.
“The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others,” Biden said in a statement, Saturday. “Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far.”