Obama goes to Dover to receive U.S. dead

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By Jon Ward

UPDATED:

As the nation slept, President Obama received home the bodies of 18 U.S. military and law enforcement personnel killed Monday in Afghanistan, participating in a solemn and ceremonial process in which he prayed over each flag-draped "transfer case" and saluted as they were removed from the plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Mr. Obama, who met privately with some relatives of the fallen, joined the official party to greet the 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement agents and took part in process known as dignified transfer, where six-person teams of Army soldiers in black berets, white gloves and camouflage carried the bodies into the bases morgue.

As part of that process, Mr. Obama boarded the cargo plane, and with a chaplain, prayed for the fallen, the family, the country and the war effort.

"I think you get a real sense of gravity when you see the faces of those who are there to meet their loved ones," said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "You see the anguish in their faces. It was hard not to be overwhelmed."

In adherence to family wishes, a small group of reporters was permitted to watch just one of the transfers, that of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., who died Monday along with seven other U.S. soldiers and an Afghan interpreter when their armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the Arghandab River Valley in southeast Afghanistan.

The president's trip to Dover is his first since he lifted the 18-year-old ban on press coverage of the arrival of dead U.S. service men and women at Dover, where all U.S. casualties are processed before being returned to their families.

The final decision to make the trip was made Wednesday, after the president had expressed a desire to "pay the country's respect for the sacrifice these men and women are making all over the globe," Mr. Gibbs said.

The president and his aides flew by helicopter to Dover Air Force Base, landing at 12:34 a.m. about 50 yards behind the cargo plane holding the fallen personnel. Still wearing his topcoat, Mr. Obama was greeted by Col. Manson Morris, the 436th Airlift Wing commander. The president then walked to a SUV that joined a motorcade that took him to an on-base chapel where he was to meet with family members of the fallen.