DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, DELAWARE-- -- President Obama flew to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before dawn on Thursday to salute the returning bodies of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan.

They were killed on Monday, the deadliest day of the deadliest month of the deadliest year since the war began eight years ago. The president saluted the fallen, even as he contemplates sending up to 40,000 more troops into the war zone.

Thursday afternoon, Mister Obama said his experience at Dover Air Force Base will impact his decision.

"The burden that both our troops and our families bear in any wartime situation is going to bear on how I see these conflicts," President Obama said.

The President's appearance at Dover is something not witnessed in years.

President Bush said he felt the proper way to honor the fallen was to meet with grieving families in private.

Today in Tracy, Nadia McCaffrey stayed up to watch President Obama arrive in Delaware. McCaffrey's son, Army Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey died in Iraq five years ago.

"It was moving for me to see that the president would actually feel enough to bother to be there in the middle of the night welcome soldiers," said McCaffrey.

McCaffrey said she was frustrated when her son's body was returned to America, when the Pentagon allowed no cameras at Dover.

To help honor her son's memory, McCaffrey invited reporters to witness his homecoming in Sacramento.

"It was very emotional for me," McCaffrey said of President Obama's overnight visit. "I wish it could have been like this for Patrick."

McCaffrey has started a foundation in her son's honor and memory. The goal is to get help for troubled veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The foundation's website is patrickmccaffreyfoundation.org.