Denver Gazette Wire Services

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an air force base in Delaware.

The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the service members’ remains were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. It was the third that Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.

Speaking at an event in Georgia hours later, Trump described the ritual as “the toughest thing I do.”

“I’ve been there many times before,” he said of Dover. “This was, in particular, something very sad.”

Earlier in the day, Trump said his message to families was simple: “We love you. We love your child,” Trump told reporters.

Trump was accompanied at the dignified transfer by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

Trump on Wednesday repeated that he would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon and promised to release the results of an investigation into the Iranian strike on the Jordanian air base that killed three U.S. service members last week.

Those service members, who were stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, have been identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii; Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas; and Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of New York.

Another U.S. service member died last week in Iraq.

“They’re going to pay a big price,” Trump said of Iran. “They’re being decimated.”

Specifically regarding the dignified transfers, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to honor them,” adding that attending the process is “one of the hardest things to do” for him as a president.

“All I’m going to say is, we love you,” he said. “We love your child, and that’s what they are to (their parents). They’re their children. There’s no games, no nothing. That’s their child, and all you can do is throw out your heart.”

Afterward, Trump is scheduled to travel on Air Force One to Atlanta to campaign ahead of November’s midterm elections.