(CBS/ AP) President Barack Obama made a midnight dash to this air base Wednesday to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign.
On a clear fall night, Mr. Obama flew by Marine One helicopter to Dover Air Force Base to greet the flag-draped cases of 18 Americans killed in action this week.
After landing, the president, wearing a dark topcoat, got into a motorcade to a base chapel, where he met privately with families of the fallen Americans. He had arrived on the base at 12:34 a.m. Thursday and returned to the White House before dawn.
Mr. Obama was taking part in a solemn process, to unfold in four movements: the transfer of the fallen 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents from the back of the C-17 to a transport vehicle to a base mortuary.
As part of the official party, Mr. Obama was to go on the plane, each time witnessing silently as a chaplain said a prayer for the fallen, the family, the country and the war effort.
A president of two inherited wars, Mr. Obama is winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq, but the troubled war in Afghanistan is only widening. His dramatic visit to witness remains of the fallen comes as he weighs whether to send more troops into the Afghan war zone.
Mr. Obama meets tomorrow with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military leaders as he weighs whether to send more troops into the war zone, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.
The White House kept Mr. Obama's plans off his schedule, informing a small group of traveling reporters in advance on condition of secrecy.
The Pentagon this year lifted its 18-year ban on media covering the return of U.S. service members killed in action if family permission is provided. With Mr. Obama in attendance, the media were to witness the transfer of one fallen soldier: Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind.
The flag-draped remains of Griffin were to be carried off the plane by six Army soldiers in fatigues and black berets. The transfer case then was being placed in a vehicle to be taken to the mortuary facility on the base.
The rest of the solemn morning was kept out of sight of the press on family wishes.
The Dover base, about 100 miles from the White House, is the entry point for service personnel killed overseas.
Mr. Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, visited the families of hundreds of fallen soldiers but did not attend any military funerals or go to Dover to receive the coffins.
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President Obama shows Class and Respect for the fallen where Chickenhawk Bush could not !!
