A dignified transfer is made to every US service member who dies in military action overseas.
During the event, a transport team from the military branch of fallen members takes the servicemen’s flagged transfer cases off the plane returning them to the United States. facility to be prepared for final resting places.
A senior army officer will lead the military in carrying out the transfer of soldiers.
This will be the second dignified transfer that Biden has been involved in since taking office. He participated Handing over the remains of 13 soldiers killed in a terrorist attack in front of the Kabul airport in 2021 during the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is also expected to attend Friday’s event at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
White House officials said this week that retaliation against Iran-backed groups responsible for Sunday’s attack would take place “at a time and place” of the United States’ choosing and could last “for weeks.”
In addition to the three soldiers killed, more than 30 service members were injured when an explosives-laden drone struck a base near a shelter where some soldiers were sleeping, two US officials said.
When announcing the deaths of the soldiers, Biden called them “patriots in the highest sense” and said that “their ultimate sacrifice will never be forgotten by our nation.”
Biden called Sanders’ parents to break the news of his posthumous promotion.
“This is the best news I’ve heard today,” Sanders’ mother said video from the call Shared by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to us.”
During the call with Sanders’ parents, Biden wistfully discussed his personal relationships after losing his first wife and daughter in a car accident and later losing his veteran son Beau to brain cancer.
She told Sanders’ parents that “the day will come” and “you’ll smile before you cry” when they think of their daughter.
“It’s taking a long time to get there,” Biden said. “But I promise you, you’ll get there.”
The media has not always been allowed to witness dignified transfers. In 2009, the Department of Defense changed its policy to allow media access if the family of a slain serviceman agreed.
In an interview this week, Shannon Slutman recalled how she decided to mediate her husband’s dignified transfer in 2019 after an explosive device detonated his convoy in Afghanistan. Navy Reserve Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman He died on April 8, 2019, and was flown to Dover Air Force Base a few days later.
She said media coverage allowed her husband’s former colleagues at the New York Fire Department to witness her return, along with other Marines she served with during her 14 years in the service.
Slutman recalled that she thought until her husband did the transfer work: “Maybe they gave wrong information. Maybe he was coming home.”
“You sit there and you see the back of the plane. You see there’s a coffin sitting there and I’ve lost my stuff,” he said.
Slutman said she remembers waiting longer after her husband’s transfer. She said days before the body was turned over to her and her three young daughters, who are now a Gold Star family.
Slutman also described the impeccable care her husband’s body received from the mortuary team at Dover.
“When he was brought back to me and I saw the level of care that was given to him – it’s incredible.”
Gary Grumbach and Aaron Gilchrist reported from Dover and Megan Lebowitz in Washington.