Raindrops blown sideways pelted the faces of the seven soldiers who marched to the Boeing 747 freighter yesterday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

On a loader next to the plane sat an American flag-draped transfer case. Inside was the body of 23-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier Spc. Michael J. Anaya.

It was the first time in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that a service member with Hawai'i ties killed in combat was photographed by the media during the honor-bound ceremony.

When war dead arrive on U.S. soil, the transfer off the plane is simple. Seven members of the deceased's military branch marched single-file to the flag-draped aluminum transfer case, moving slowly and in unison.

Wearing white gloves, they lifted the case and carried it from a cargo plane to a waiting truck. Aside from a prayer and a few barked commands, not a word was spoken. The military calls it a "dignified transfer," and it's an apt phrase.

Yesterday afternoon, Anaya's remains returned to Dover, the site of a mortuary where all U.S. military war dead arrive from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Crestview, Fla., man died three days earlier when a bomb exploded near his vehicle in Bayji, Iraq.

A total of 253 military members with Hawai'i ties have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait, or in training accidents, since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. According to the Pentagon, 4,881 members of the U.S. military have died in and around Iraq and Afghanistan.

But reporters and photographers have witnessed just five transfers at Dover, involving the bodies of nine service members, all of them since April 6. That's when an 18-year ban on media coverage of the arrival of fallen service members ended. A sixth transfer involving one serviceman since then wasn't open.

Families must consent to media coverage of the transfers. Like all families who grant such consent, Anaya's relatives were shielded from the media's view by the bus that drove them to the tarmac. Families meet with the media only if they specifically request it, and only one family has since the ban was lifted.

The soldiers, wearing fatigues and black berets, marched onto the plane, stepped onto the loader and paused for a prayer. They lifted the case to the edge of the loader, then marched through the plane back to the tarmac and waited as the loader was lowered to ground level.

The soldiers slid the transfer case off the loader and carried it about 30 feet to the truck. After the truck's doors closed, they made a slow salute before the vehicle drove away.

Anaya was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. He enlisted in the Army in April 2006 and was on his second deployment to Iraq.

Anaya's family told the Northwest Florida Daily News that he loved fishing, cooking on the grill and fighting for his country.

The soldier posted on his MySpace account that he was single but wanted to have children "some day."

Anaya, who said he was at Forward Operating Base Sumerall, also posted a couple of dozen photos from Iraq showing everyday patrols, a sandstorm, and he and his buddies cutting up by duct taping the mouth, hands and legs of a fellow soldier named "Rocko."

The 3rd Brigade has suffered three combat and two noncombat related deaths in northern Iraq since the unit deployed in October and November.