{"id":17097,"date":"2021-08-29T14:48:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T14:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/08\/29\/biden-paying-respects-to-13-us-troops-killed-in-afghanistan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:39:25","slug":"biden-paying-respects-to-13-us-troops-killed-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/08\/29\/biden-paying-respects-to-13-us-troops-killed-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden paying respects to 13 US troops killed in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) \u2014 President Joe Biden embarked on a solemn journey Sunday to honor and mourn the 13 U.S. troops killed in the suicide attack near the Kabul airport<\/a> as their remains return to U.S. soil from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden and his wife Jill traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware<\/a> to meet privately with the families of those killed and then attend the \u201cdignified transfer\u201d of the fallen troops, a military ritual of receiving the remains of those killed in foreign combat. They left the White House for Dover on a misty, overcast morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dead ranged in age from 20 to 31, and came from California and Massachusetts and states in between. 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 \u201cmy guys got me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At their deaths, the 13 young service members were on the ground for the U.S. coda to its longest war, assisting a chaotic evacuation of Americans and of Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort and are now fleeing the Taliban after their return to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US President Joe Biden(C) attends the dignified transfer of the remains of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, August, 29, 2021, after 13 members of the US military were killed in Afghanistan last week. – President Joe Biden prepared Sunday at a US military base to receive the remains of the 13 American service members killed in an attack in Kabul, a solemn ritual that comes amid fierce criticism of his handling of the Afghanistan crisis. Biden and his wife, Jill, both wearing black and with black face masks, first met far from the cameras with relatives of the dead in a special family center at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.The base, on the US East Coast about two hours from Washington, is synonymous with the painful return of service members who have fallen in combat. (Photo by SAUL LOEB \/ AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Biden said in a statement Saturday. \u201cTheir bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family members of the fallen often travel to Dover to be present as flag-draped transfer cases are taken off the transport plane that returns them to American soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the quiet commands of honor guards who carry the transfer cases, the short prayers of the chaplain typically are the only words spoken during the ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like his three most recent predecessors as presidents, who all attended dignified transfers for troops killed in the nearly 20-year-old Afghanistan war, Biden is expected to meet with the families of the fallen before returning to Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be the first time that Biden has traveled to Dover as president for such a movement. But he is not unfamiliar with the ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\t