DOVER, Del. _ President Donald Trump headed Wednesday to partake for the first time in one of the most solemn rituals of the office, witnessing the return of the body of a Navy SEAL killed this week in the first known counterterrorism operation of Trump's presidency.
Trump made an unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to join the family of Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, 36, who died during a raid on a compound used by al-Qaida's Yemen-based offshoot in the country's Bayda province.
The operation began as a mission to gather computers and electronic devices believed to contain information about the organization, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and possibly about terrorist plots in the works. But it devolved unexpectedly into a firefight that also killed more than a dozen women and children.
Among those reportedly killed was the 8-year old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al-Qaida leader who was based in Yemen and killed in a 2011 drone strike. Al-Awlaki has been cited as the inspiration for several major attacks in the West, including the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings.
The special operations raid had been planned for more than two months and was awaiting approval, said U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the clandestine operation.
President Barack Obama opted not to sign off on it because plans called for the raid to take place on the next moonless night in Yemen, which was not until Jan. 28, after he left office. Trump then approved the operation after he took office.
The remains of service members killed in action are brought to the Delaware base in flag-draped coffins, then carried by a six-person team to a vehicle to be taken to the Port Mortuary. According to the Air Force, the so-called dignified transfer is conducted for every service member who dies in a theater of operation.
Obama traveled to Dover several times to witness such transfers, first in October 2009. He returned in 2011 to witness the remains of 30 service members killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan being brought back to the U.S.
In a speech in December, Obama said the visits to Dover made real the potential costs of decisions he made to send troops into conflict.
