DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — US President Donald Trump on Saturday is joining grieving families at the country’s Dover Air Force Base at the dignified transfer for the six American soldiers killed in the war in the Middle East.

The dignified transfer, a ritual that returns the remains of US service members killed in action, is considered one of the most somber duties of any commander in chief. During his first term, Trump said bearing witness to the transfer was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.

Trump, speaking at a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami before his trip to Delaware, said the fallen service members were heroes “coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home.”

He said it was “a very sad situation” and he pledged to keep American war deaths “to a minimum.” Accompanying him for the ceremony was US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who wrote in a social media post Friday of “an unbreakable spirit to honor their memory and the resolve they embodied.”

Those killed in action were Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California; Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.

The six members of the Army Reserve, who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait, were all from the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa, which provides food, fuel, water and ammunition, transport equipment and supplies. They died just one day after the US and Israel launched........

© The Times of Israel