Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens.
Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens.
Photo: U.S. Navy
U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an unnanounced trip to Dover Air Force bace in Delaware to pay his respects to Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed during a raid in Yemen. Owens is the first active military service member to die in combat during Trump's presidency. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
less
U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an unnanounced trip to Dover Air
... more
Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 01: U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an unnanounced trip to Dover Air Force bace in Delaware to pay his respects to Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed during a raid in Yemen. Owens is the first active military service member to die in combat during Trump's presidency. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 696365943
less
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 01: U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an
... more
Photo: Mark Wilson
US President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka board Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 1, 2017. Trump flew to Dover Air Force Base for arrival of remains of a US commando killed William "Ryan" Owens early January 29, in Yemen during a raid on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMMNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
less
US President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka board Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 1, 2017. Trump flew to Dover Air Force Base for arrival of remains of a US commando killed
... more
Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM, AFP/Getty Images
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 01: U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an unnanounced trip to Dover Air Force bace in Delaware to pay his respects to Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed during a raid in Yemen. Owens is the first active military service member to die in combat during Trump's presidency. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
less
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 01: U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump walk toward Marine One while departing from the White House, on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump is making an
... more
Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images
Marine One with US President Donald Trump on board, lands at Dover Air Force Base February 1, 2017 in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens who was killed in Yemen on January 29. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan SmialowskiBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
less
Marine One with US President Donald Trump on board, lands at Dover Air Force Base February 1, 2017 in Dover, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of Navy Seal Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens who was
... more
Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, Staff / AFP/Getty Images
Marine One, with President Donald Trump aboard, lands at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Trump traveled to Dover AFB to meet with family members Chief of Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill, the U.S. service member who was killed in a raid in Yemen, and who's remains where returned today. Owens is the first-know combat death of a member of the U.S. military under Trump's administration.
less
Marine One, with President Donald Trump aboard, lands at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Trump traveled to Dover AFB to meet with family members Chief of Special Warfare Operator William
... more
Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP
Father of dead Navy SEAL refused to meet Trump at ceremony
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The father of a Navy SEAL killed during an anti-terrorism raid in Yemen is demanding an investigation into its planning and criticized the Trump administration for its timing.
Bill Owens told The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2lTYhPB ) in a story published Sunday that he refused to meet with President Donald Trump when both came to Dover Air Force Base to receive the casket carrying his son, Chief Special Warfare Officer William "Ryan" Owens.
"I want an investigation," said Owens, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective and veteran. "The government owes my son an investigation."
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday she believes the president would support an investigation.
"I can't imagine what this father is going through," she said. "His son is a true American hero, and we should forever be in his son's debt."
The younger Owens, a 36-year-old married father of three, was the lone U.S. fatality in the Jan. 27 raid on a suspected al-Qaida compound. Approximately 16 civilians and 14 militants died in the raid, which the Pentagon said was aimed at capturing information on potential al-Qaida attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
The elder Owens told the Herald he refused to meet with the president because the family had requested a private ceremony.
"I'm sorry, I don't want to see him," Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. "I told them I don't want to meet the president."
He said he was also troubled by the attack Trump leveled at Khizr and Ghazala Kahn, an American Muslim family whose Army officer son died in Iraq in 2004. The couple had criticized him at the Democratic National Convention last summer. He also questioned why the president approved the raid a week after taking office.
"I told them I didn't want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn't let me talk to him," Owens told the Herald. "Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn't even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?"
Sanders defended the raid in her interview with "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. The White House says the raid was planned during the Obama administration, but the former president's aides have said he hadn't given the go-ahead because it would have been an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war-torn and destitute Arab country.
"The mission has a lot of different critics, but it did yield a substantial amount of very important intel and resources that helped save American lives and other lives," Sanders said.
___
Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com