Obama Greets Coffins Returning to Dover Where Media Once Barred

By: Standing in the pre-dawn darkness, President Barack Obama saw the real cost of the war in Afghanistan: The Americans who return in flag-covered cases while much of the nation sleeps in peace.

In a midnight dash to this Delaware base, where U.S. forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday.

All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for U.S. troops since the war began.