Biden meets families of three U.S. troops killed in Jordan who he says ‘risked it all’

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden joined grieving families at Dover Air Force Base on a gray, chilly Friday to honor the three American service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan.

The Bidens met privately with the families before the solemn, roughly 15-minute ritual known as a dignified transfer, something that has become relatively uncommon in recent years as the U.S. has withdrawn from conflicts abroad.

Biden held his hand over his heart as he watched members of the Army transfer the cases holding the remains of the fallen soldiers from a military transport aircraft to a waiting vehicle.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown Jr. were among the Pentagon and other administration officials who joined the Bidens for the proceedings.

The service members killed Sunday, all from Georgia, were Sgts. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Kennedy Sanders of Waycross and Breonna Moffett of Savannah. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant rank.

The deaths were the first U.S. fatalities blamed on Iran-backed militia groups, who for months have been intensifying their attacks on American forces in the region following the October onset of the Israel-Hamas war.

Two Navy SEALs also died during a January mission to board an unflagged ship accused of carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen.

“These service members embodied the very best of our nation: Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country — risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism,” Biden said earlier this week. “It is a fight we will not cease.”

Sanders’ father, Shawn, said in a posting on Facebook on Friday morning that “kindness and outpouring of love” was “the only thing” keeping him going since his daughter’s death.

“This is not the homecoming for Kennedy I dreamed about,” he wrote. “Now, I can’t stop reliving this nightmare.”

At Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, Biden spoke of Rivers, Moffett and Sanders by name, again vowing to never forget their sacrifice.

“They risked it all,” the president said.

The three soldiers hailed from different corners of Georgia but were brought together in the same company of Army engineers based at Ft. Moore.

Sanders and Moffett were close friends who regularly popped in on each other’s phone calls with their families back home.

Moffett had turned 23 just nine days before she was killed. She joined the Army Reserves in 2019, but also worked for a home care provider to cook, clean and run errands for people with disabilities.

Sanders, 24, worked at a pharmacy while studying to become an X-ray technician, and coached children’s soccer and basketball. She had volunteered for the deployment because she wantedto see different parts of the world, according to her parents.

Rivers, who was 46 and went by Jerome, joined the Army Reserve in New Jersey in 2011 and served a nine-month tour in Iraq in 2018.

According to the most recent statistics available from the Defense Department, no other service members have been killed as a result of hostile action since 2021.

Thirteen service members were killed during the fall of Kabul in Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber at the airport’s Abbey Gate killed 11 Marines, one sailor and one soldier. And nine service members were killed as a result of hostile action in 2020.

Friday’s was the second dignified transfer ceremony Biden attended as president. In August 2021, he took part in the ritual for the 13 killed during the suicide bombing in Kabul.

As vice president, Biden in 2016 attended a dignified transfer for two U.S. soldiers killed in a suicide blast at Bagram Airfield. He also attended one as a senator in 2008 after the family requested his presence and the Pentagon gave him permission to do so.

The U.S. government said this week that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the group Kataib Hezbollah, had planned, resourced and facilitated the overnight drone attack.

Biden and White House officials have stressed that they don’t want a broader war with Iran, but theadministration has also warned that it will respond to the assault.

More than 40 troops were also injured in Sunday’s drone attack at Tower 22, a secretive U.S. military desert outpost whose location allows U.S. forces to infiltrate and quietly leave Syria.