President Joe Biden participated Friday in the dignified transfer of three U.S. service members who were killed last weekend in Jordan.
During a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the bodies of the Army reserve soldiers, Sgt. William Rivers, Sgt. Breonna Moffett, and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, each in a flag-draped transfer case, were removed in turn by teams of six carriers wearing camouflage uniforms and white gloves. They were carried from the cargo bay of a massive gray C-5 transport plane into a van.
The three soldiers, all from Georgia, were killed last weekend in a drone attack in Jordan by Iran-backed militants.
Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, stood in an overcoat against a cold north wind alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman C.Q. Brown.
They all stood looking straight ahead, hands over their hearts, as each case was carried past them. The ceremony ended just before 2 p.m.
It was the president’s second time participating in a dignified transfer. The first came on Aug. 26, 2021, for the 13 military personnel who were killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdrawal from the country began. That ceremony drew controversy when Biden appeared to check his watch while it was still taking place.
Biden spoke with the families of the service members killed in the Jordan attack earlier this week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During that call, the president reportedly repeated a dubious claim that his son died while serving in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. Beau Biden died from brain cancer six years after returning to the United States.
The president also met the families in person ahead of the dignified transfer, according to the White House, and honored the soldiers at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast.
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“I spoke with each of the families separately, and Jill and I will be there tomorrow at Dover Air Force Base to receive the dignified transfer of their bodies,” he said. “They’ve put their lives in harm’s way. They’ve risked it all, and I will never forget the sacrifice and service to our country of the dozens of service members who were wounded and are recovering now.”
A dignified transfer is the process by which a service member who was killed overseas is returned to the U.S. and transported from the aircraft to an awaiting transfer vehicle, which takes the fallen to a mortuary for identification and preparations for their final resting place.
