The bodies of two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed in Syria were returned to the US on Wednesday, with President Trump leading the dignified transfer at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base.
The solemn ceremony saw the bodies of Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, unloaded from a plane as Trump and other high-ranking officials saluted the fallen men.
Tovar, Howard, and interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Michigan, were killed by an ISIS gunman who ambushed security forces supporting counter-terrorism operations in Syria on Saturday.
Trump, who was dressed in all black, maintained a serious face throughout the traditional ceremony, which he previously described during his first term as one of the “toughest” jobs of the presidency.
US Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who attended the ceremony at Dover with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gov. Kim Reynolds, hailed Tovar and Howard as heroes who served their country.
“Sergeant William N. Howard and Sergeant Edgar B. Torres-Tovar, both part of the Second Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Grassley said on the Senate floor Monday.
“We’re forever indebted to them for their dedication and service to Iowa and to the United States,” he added.
Following Saturday’s attack, Trump paid respect to the three slain Americans as “great patriots,” vowing retaliation against the terrorists in Syria that killed them.
Unlike other ceremonies attended by American presidents, dignified transfers are treated as a solemn process to maintain the honor of the fallen service members.
The slain men were carried out of the military aircraft by members of their branch, with their coffins draped in American flags.
The bodies were carried past Trump and the other military and local officials, who saluted the fallen as they were loaded onto military vans for transfer to the mortuary facility at the Dover base.
Once at the site, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner will provide positive identification of the bodies, which will be prepped for their funerals.
