First Lady Melania Trump made the last-minute decision to skip a solemn dignified transfer ceremony to honor two U.S. service members killed in action in Syria. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George attended the ceremony for the Iowa soldiers on Wednesday. Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, were killed in the Syrian desert on Saturday.