 Ladies and gentlemen, I beg you to be a shield to all who gather to pay tribute to fallen soldiers of the MFO Task Force and to express our grief for and with the families who have pitched communities into ones of caring as well as crying, of support as well as suffering, of crying in spite of tear reunion yet to come, when we too shall mount up with wings as eagles and all sorrow and sighing shall pass away. Amen. Dear and our families that serve and live here, we thank you for coming to the home of the spirit of us can feel the deep and abiding human warmth that you have for the armed forces of this great country. With us today and sitting with you from peacekeeping duties in the Sinai. Also with us are those brave soldiers of the Task Force. There are also many families who lost loved ones that could not be physically present with us. And the same is true for a soldier with considerable years of service. The only solace that I can personally take from this tragedy is that if a soldier has to die, it should be in the service of his country. Us this morning, you honor us with your presence. In the name of the American people, passing of American soldiers killed as they returned from difficult duty abroad is marked by our presence here. Most of the young men and women we mourn were returning to spend the holidays with their families. They were full of happiness and laughter as they pushed off from Cairo. Those who saw them at their last stop, we wonder how this could be. How could it have happened and why? We wonder at this dark tragedy of it all, the enormity of the lost. For lost were not only the 248, but all of the talent, the wisdom, and the idea of way for the rest of us. Who but an idealist would go to hard duty in one of the most troubled places of the world and go not as a matter of conquest, but as a marginal expertise. But the men and women we mourn today were peacemakers. They were there to protect life and preserve a peace, to act as a force for stability and hope and trust. They were the ones of whom Christ spoke when he said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Their son or daughter, their friend, their father are shaken nonetheless. And we all mourn with you. The joy it was to witness the things they said and the jokes they played, the kindnesses they did, and how they laughed. You were part of that. You who mourned were a part of that. Just as you think today of the joy they gave you, think for a moment of the joy you gave them and be glad. For love, love is never wasted. Life, they were our heroes. In death, our loved ones, our darlings. They were happy and singing. They were right and mere man can fly as flights of angels take them to their rest. I know that there are no words, and we know one thing. Every bit of our thinking, they are now in the arms of God. Look right down through the sky in blue. Keep your eye on the job to be known. It remains standing as we join in our final hymn to our country, America the Beautiful.