South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Trump honors 4 Americans killed in Syria bomb attack
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — A solemn procession. A long salute. A chaplain’s prayer.
President Donald Trump traveled to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to pay his respects to the returning remains of four Americans who were killed last week in a suicide bomb attack in Syria.
The bombing, which was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces moved into the country in 2015, came as Trump prepares to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
The president stood solemnly and saluted the remains of civilian Scott Wirtz, a former Navy SEAL from Louis, as his body was carried from a C-17 military aircraft into a waiting van.
Wirtz and the three other Americans — Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; Shannon Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, N.Y.; and interpreter Ghadir Taher, 27, of East Point, Ga. — were killed in the attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. Wirtz had been assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as an operations support specialist.
The three other transfers were to be conducted privately, with the president observing. He also spent time with the families of those killed.
In a Dec. 19 tweet announcing the withdrawal from Syria, Trump said, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”
He said the troops would begin coming home “now.”
Trump’s plan triggered immediate pushback from military leaders and led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He left office Jan. 1.