(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden will attend a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base Friday to honor the three U.S. servicemembers who were killed in an overnight assault earlier this week.
The transfer of fallen troops back to the U.S. after an honorable death is one of the most solemn moments a president can experience. It occurs whenever am American military member dies while serving overseas.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will join Biden for the transfer in Dover. They happen when U.S. servicemembers are killed in action. It is still unknown how the U.S. military will respond to the attack.
The attack was carried out at the hands of an Iranian-backed militant group at a base in Jordan on Sunday, the U.S. says, killing the three troops and injuring dozens more.
The service members killed Sunday were all from Georgia and served in the Army Reserves: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross and Sgt. 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, which for months have been intensifying their attacks on American forces in the region following the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October. Separately, two Navy SEALs died during a January mission to board an unflagged ship that was 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.”
At Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, Biden acknowledged Rivers, Moffett and Sanders by name, again vowing to never forget their sacrifice to the nation.
Moffett turned 23 years old just nine days before she was killed. She had 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 wanted to see different parts of the world, according to her parents.
Rivers, who was 46 years old and went by Jerome, joined the Army Reserve in New Jersey in 2011 and served a nine-month tour in Iraq in 2018.
Their deaths have highlighted the dangers facing the U.S. military in the Middle East.
Since mid-October, the Pentagon has reported over 160 attacks on U.S. forces in both Iraq and Syria.
Following the drone attack on Sunday, Breonna Moffett’s mother detailed the heartbreak of losing her daughter.
“It just takes your soul and your heart. There’s nothing you can do and to know we weren’t there to protect her or talk to or trade places with her. We weren’t there for her,” Francine Moffett said.
The president has spoken with the families of the fallen service members, expressing his condolences.
All of the families supported the president attending the ceremony happening Friday.
Biden will not speak during the dignified transfer, a mournful ritual that, in recent years, has become increasingly uncommon as the U.S. withdrew from conflicts abroad, most notably the war in Afghanistan where U.S. involvement lasted two decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.