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Emotional memorial for bomb victims
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| The flag-draped coffins of 10 of the 12 Americans killed in the bombings are carried out of the plane | |
- Private meeting, public tears
- African victims honored, too
- Arlington burial considered
- Related stories
Web posted at: 1:22 p.m. EDT (1722 GMT)
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (CNN) -- The 12 U.S. citizens killed in last week's terrorist bomb attack in Kenya were honored Thursday as "the best America has to offer" during a tearful memorial service attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Clinton, shortly after their flag-draped coffins arrived in the United States.
"Nothing can bring them back," Clinton said in a somber ceremony held in a hangar at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. "But nothing can erase the lives they led. The difference they made. The joy they brought... They were what America is all about."
"We must honor the memory of those we mourn today by pressing the cause of freedom and justice for which they lived," Clinton said.
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"Above all, they were builders, doers, good people," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. They "acted out of hope and with the conviction that what will be can be made better than what has been." 280 K/21 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
Albright accompanied the bodies on the Air Force C-17 transport plane that brought 10 of them to U.S. soil from Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
"America will not be intimidated," she said. Albright condemned the bombers as cowards and vowed that they would be brought to justice.
Secretary of Defense William Cohen called the dead "the best America has to offer. They were the better angels of our nature," he said.196 K/18 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
Private meeting, public tears
Dressed in black, the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton met privately with families of the bombing victims as the Air Force plane touched down at Andrews. The meeting was closed to the news media at the request of the families.
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| The Clintons at the ceremony | |
Later, tears streamed down the president's face as he watched military honor guards unload the 10 caskets from the rear of the C-17, one by one, as he stood in silence beside his wife.
Inside the high-ceilinged hangar, 10 black hearses were lined up to take the coffins to a military transport aircraft for the journey to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, where autopsies will be performed before the remains are returned to their families.
As a military band played "Nearer My God To Thee," the names of the dead were solemnly announced to the mourners, who included diplomats, senior administration officials and hundreds of State Department employees.
The family of Julian Bartley, consul general at the Nairobi embassy, and his 20-year-old son, Jay, sat in the front, just a few feet from the Clintons. Father and son were killed in the bombing.
During the ceremony, several of the family members held their heads in their hands and wiped away tears. One young girl sitting next to her father sobbed quietly as military pallbearers carried the caskets to the hearses. One held a picture of one of the women who died.
African victims honored, too
The United States has offered a $2 million reward for information on those involved in the bomb attacks Friday in the Kenyan and Tanzanian capitals that killed at least 247 people in Nairobi and 10 people in Dar es Salaam.
More than 5,000 other people were injured, mostly in the Kenyan capital.
The flags of all three countries were held aloft by a military honor guard at Thursday's memorial service as an Air Force band played the U.S. national anthem.
"We also remember today the Kenyans and Tanzanians who have suffered great loss," Clinton said. "We are grateful for your loved ones who worked alongside us in our embassies."
"America," the president said, "will not shrink from our responsibility to stand against terror and with the friends of freedom everywhere."
Arlington burial considered
Army Secretary Louis Caldera is set to decide Thursday whether three of the Nairobi bombing victims will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The request was made by the State Department on behalf of Bartley, his son and embassy employee Prabhi Kavaler.
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| Hundreds attended the ceremony | |
Because the three were not members of the military, a waiver is required for acceptance in Arlington, the nation's most honored burial ground.
Each of the three active duty military personnel killed in Africa is automatically entitled to burial at Arlington because they were killed in the line of duty. However, no request for burial at Arlington has come from any of their families.
The remains of 10 of the 12 Americans killed in Nairobi were brought to the United States on Thursday. The body of an 11th victim, Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds, 40, was flown to Florida on Wednesday at her family's request. Another American, Jean Dalizu, 60, who was married to a Kenyan, will be buried in Kenya.
