Obama observes fallen soldiers' return

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By Joseph Curl and Jon Ward

After he stood on a windswept tarmac at Dover Air Force Base in the middle of the night to watch 18 soldiers and U.S. drug enforcement agents killed in Afghanistan arrive home in flag-draped cases, President Obama, known for his soaring rhetorical skills, was speechless.

Though he politely thanked a couple of military aides for setting up the visit, after he boarded his Marine One helicopter, Mr. Obama rode back to the White House in subdued silence; neither the president nor anyone in the small group of officials who accompanied him said a word for the entire 40-minute flight home, the White House said.

On Thursday, few at the White House would recount details of the surprise pre-dawn trip to Delaware, where the president stood at attention, saluting as camouflage-clad soldiers in berets and white gloves carried their dead comrades off a giant Air Force C-17 transport plane. But Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs offered an insight into just what they saw while many Americans lay in bed, asleep.

"I don't think you can go out there and not understand what you're seeing and understand that -- the sacrifice that our men and women are making," the spokesman said.

"I've never seen anything like this," Mr. Gibbs said, who was also on the trip. "I think you get a real sense of gravity when you see the faces of those that are there to greet their loved ones. And these were recent, very recent deaths. You can see the genuine anguish on their faces. It's hard not to be overwhelmed by what you see."

The visit to Dover, a massive air base where more than 5,000 soldiers killed in action in America's more recent wars have passed through on their way to their final resting places across the country, delivered a stark reminder to the commander in chief about the human costs of war as he weighs the best way forward in Afghanistan.

For his part, Mr. Obama was circumspect when asked on Thursday afternoon about the visit.

"Well, obviously it was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day -- not only our troops, but their families as well," he told reporters.

"And obviously the burden that both our troops and our families bear in any wartime situation is going to bear on how I see these conflicts. And it is something that I think about each and every day. All right?" Mr. Obama said, abruptly ending the session with reporters.

The White House said the president had wanted to visit the Dover Air Force Base ever since his administration in January asked the Pentagon to end an 18-year blanket ban on press coverage of the events, known as "dignified transfers."