President Joe Biden is embarking on a solemn journey on Sunday to honour and mourn the 13 US troops killed in the suicide attack near Kabul airport as their remains return to US soil from Afghanistan.
Biden was travelling to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a “dignified transfer” movement, a military ritual of receiving the remains of fallen troops killed in foreign combat.
The dead ranged in age from 20 to 31, and came from California and Massachusetts and states in between. They include a 20-year-old Marine from Wyoming who had been expecting his first child in three weeks and a 22-year-old Navy corpsman who in his last FaceTime conversation with his mother assured her that he would stay safe because “my guys got me.”