July 22 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attended a dignified transfer Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for U.S. soldiers recently killed in the Middle East during the war with Iran.

Trump was scheduled to meet privately with the grieving families. Earlier in the day, he called the ritual over the loss of life as “one of the hardest things to do as a president.”

President Trump on Wednesday traveled to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base to observe the dignified transfer of U.S. service members killed in the Middle East