A military carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, into the transfer vehicle during a casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The American servicemen and women who died in the bombing at Kabul Airport were returned home this weekend. Their flag draped coffins were carefully unloaded and cared for as President Joe Biden and Jill Biden looked on.

The only sounds that could be heard during the mournful ritual of the "dignified transfer" were the quiet commands of the honor guards in battle dress who carried the flag-draped cases, the hum of the C-17 aircraft that had transported the fallen and the periodic sob of the sorrowful.

Biden and his wife, Jill, met privately with family members of those killed in the suicide attack near the Kabul airport before the president became the fourth commander in chief over two decades of war to stand at attention at Dover Air Force Base as the remains of the fallen from Afghanistan returned home.

"The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others," Biden said in a statement Saturday. "Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far."

REMEMBER THEIR NAMES
The Department of Defense announced the names of the 13 U.S. service members who were killed Thursday as a result of deadly suicide attacks during evacuations out of Kabul, Afghanistan.

For the Marine Corps, the deceased are:

• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah.


• Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.


• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California.


• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California.


• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska.


• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana.


• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas.


• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri.


• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming.


• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California.


• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California.