U.S. Air Force Colonel Robert Edmondson, U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Dailey, Maj. Gen. David Perkins and Lt. Gen. David Huntoon salute as soldiers carry the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Sergeant Vernon W. Martin of Savannah, Georgia, out of a C-17 during a dignified transfer on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base October 6, 2009 in Dover, Delaware. A member of the 4th Brigade Combat Team stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, Sergeant Martin is one of eight U.S. soldiers killed on Saturday when about 300 insurgents mounted a bold daylight attack on a pair of remote American military bases in the Kamdesh District of Nuristan Province, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since July 2008.
