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Denver • The bodies of two young Americans who died fighting the Islamic State group in Syria were returned to their sobbing families early Friday in simple, gray caskets that were pulled from an Amtrak train in Denver as throngs of sleepy passengers watched.

Relatives of Levi Shirley, 24, and Jordan MacTaggart, 22, huddled together against the morning chill as U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter presented them with folded flags — a sign of respect for the men who never joined the U.S. military but felt a need to serve.

The unceremonious homecoming at Union Station marked the end of a long and complicated journey for the men, who died separately in combat this summer after joining the People's Protection Units, the main Kurdish guerrilla group battling the Islamic State in Syria.

"We waited for this day for nine weeks," Shirley's father, Russell Shirley, told reporters gathered on the station platform. "But the last thing I wanted to see was my son carried off that train."

The body of William Savage, 27, another American fighter slain in Syria, was returned to the U.S. and was being transported to Raleigh, N.C., where his father, Reginald Savage, lives.

The elder Savage said he expected his son's remains would be cremated in time for a Saturday memorial in St. Mary's City, Md., his hometown. He planned to drive there overnight.

The State Department said it worked to help return the remains of the men to their families. But Turkey's tense relationship with the Kurds and the U.S. since July's failed coup stalled the efforts.

The remains of Keith Broomfield of Massachusetts, believed to be the first American to die alongside Kurds fighting Islamic State, were returned to the U.S. through Turkey last year.

But officials determined it would be too dangerous to repatriate the bodies of Shirley, MacTaggart and Savage through Turkey and instead shipped them hundreds of miles east to Iraq. The bodies were then flown to Amman, Jordan, and on to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in a process that took weeks.