Obama, military leaders pay respects at Dover Air Force Base

  • Published
  • By Jim Garamone
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFNS) --  President Barack Obama and military leaders paid their respects at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Aug. 9 during the dignified transfer of remains of service members killed in an Aug. 6 helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Two Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft carried the remains to Dover.

An investigation is under way to determine the facts surrounding the deaths of 30 U.S. service members and eight Afghans when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter went down in Afghanistan's Wardak province. Five of the U.S. casualties were aircrew members, and 25 were members of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta was in attendance at Dover today, along with Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his wife, Deborah; and Michael G. Vickers, undersecretary of defense for intelligence.

Representing the services were Navy Secretary Ray E. Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick D. West; Army Secretary John M. McHugh and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli; and Air Force Undersecretary Erin C. Conaton, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Philip M. Breedlove and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Roy.