Dignified Transfer held for 6 fallen airmen in Delaware
NEW CASTLE, Del. (WPVI) -- A fallen serviceman made his final journey home Wednesday night, what the Air Force calls the Dignified Transfer from the battlefields of Afghanistan to the Air National Guard base in New Castle, Delaware.
On hand for the solemn event were Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, Air Force Secretary Deborah James, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and others.
Hours earlier, the five men and one woman were remembered in a moving tribute at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan - their boots, helmets and pictures on display.
PHOTOS: Service members honor 6 fallen airmen at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan
Among the servicemen from our area was 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Peter Taub of Wyncote, Pennsylvania, a 2004 graduate of Cheltenham High School.
Colleagues hugged in pain, their raw emotion painfully on display as they kneelt down looking at the pictures of their fallen servicemen.
There was grief and pride in equal measure.
Dignitaries stood in solemn salute in the soft falling rain as the bodies of the fallen warriors were carried into waiting vans that would transport them to funeral homes.
As of Wednesday night, funeral services for Staff Sgt. Taub were pending, and his family had not decided if he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
