WILMINGTON, Delaware – US
With U.S. President Joe Biden bearing witness, the remains of three American soldiers killed in an attack by an Iranian-made drone in Jordan will arrive back in the United States on Friday.
The three
Army Reserve soldiers killed last Sunday were Sergeant William Jerome
Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of
Waycross, Georgia, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah,
Georgia.
Biden will join the families
of those killed at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for what the U.S. Air Force
calls a "dignified transfer" of remains.
First lady Jill Biden will
join the president along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Air Force
General Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The White House said the
Bidens will meet at the base with family members of the fallen before the
transfer. He offered his condolences to the families in a phone call on
Tuesday.
The remains are typically
flown to Dover aboard a C-17 cargo plane. Working with solemn precision, a team
of soldiers will carry the caskets from the open bay of the plane to gray
mortuary vans, as the families and the presidential entourage watch.
The parents of Specialist
Sanders, 23, shared a video of Biden's call with local media outlets. "I
know there is nothing anybody can say or do to ease the pain, I've been
there," Biden said, recounting the death of his first wife, infant daughter
and grown son, Beau.
The drone attack by
Iran-backed militants against the American outpost in Jordan, known as Tower
22, also injured more than 40.
Biden said on Tuesday he
has made
up his mind on how to respond. The expectation has been that there
will be retaliatory strikes, but the timing of the response has been unclear.
A strike into Iranian
territory itself did not appear likely after the White House said Biden does
not want a war with Iran.
The United States has assessed
that Iran
manufactured the drone used in the attack, four U.S. officials told
Reuters.
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