Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel traveled to Dover Air Force Base, Del., this morning for the arrival of the remains of four U.S. soldiers killed Sunday in Afghanistan.
Among the dead are Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25, from Carlisle, Pa. Hawkins died trying to help a fellow soldier while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
"Hawkins was a brave and incredibly talented Ranger," said Lt. Col. Patrick J. Ellis, Commander of 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. "He was moving to the aid of a wounded Ranger when he was killed. His actions that night were in keeping with the epitome of the Ranger Creed: 'I will never leave a fallen comrade.'
The bodies of Hawkins and three more servicemen arrived at Dover. They were 1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, of San Diego, Calif.; Sgt. Joseph M. Peters, 24, of Springfield, Mo., and Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24, of Philomath, Ore.
Hagel put his hand over his heart as white-gloved soldiers carried the flag-draped case carrying Patterson's remains from a C-17 cargo plane to a white-panel truck for transfer to the Dover mortuary.
The remains of every U.S. military member killed overseas are flown to Dover for processing.
Family members attend the arrival but not usually the secretary of defense.
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Meanwhile, the Obama administration, scrambling to tamp down a controversy over suspended death benefits for the families of fallen military soldiers, announced Wednesday that a charity would pick up the costs of the payments during the government shutdown.
"The Fisher House Foundation will provide the families of the fallen with the benefits they so richly deserve,'' Hagel said in a statement, adding that the Pentagon would reimburse the foundation after the shutdown ended.
Hagel said Fisher House, which works with veterans and their families, had approached the Pentagon about making the payments. The Defense Department typically pays families about $100,000 within three days of a soldier's death, but officials say the shutdown was preventing those benefits from being paid.
A senior defense official said the government could not actively solicit funds from private organizations, but could accept an offer. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the offer by name and insisted on anonymity.
The failure to make the payments has stirred outrage both on Capitol Hill and at the White House. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that the president was "disturbed'' when he found out the death benefits had been suspended and demanded an immediate solution.
"The commander in chief, when he found out that this was not addressed, he directed that a solution be found, and we expect one today,'' Carney said before the Pentagon announced the agreement with Fisher House.
The House unanimously passed legislation Wednesday to restore the death benefits. But it's unclear whether the Democratic-led Senate will take up the measure or whether Obama would sign it. Obama has threatened to veto other legislation passed by the House in recent days that would reopen individual funding steams, arguing that a piecemeal approach was unacceptable and the entire government must be reopened.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Obama administration was yet to issue a formal veto threat
Before the government shutdown last week, the Congress passed and Obama signed a bill allowing the military to be paid during the federal closure. However, the death benefit payments were not covered by that legislation.
Carney said the Pentagon told lawmakers before the shutdown that the death benefit payments were not covered by the bill and would be cut off during a shutdown. However, he repeatedly refused to say when the president was first told that death benefits would not be paid.
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