President Trump visits Dover Air Force Base for return of Navy SEAL’s remains

DELAWARE (KUSI) — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Dover Air Force Base for the return of the remains of the Navy SEAL killed Sunday morning.

36-year-old Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens, a Navy SEAL once stationed in Coronado, died Sunday after his aircraft made a hard landing during a raid in Yemen targeting Al Qaeda.

President Trump and his daughter Ivanka boarded Marine One Wednesday to make an unannounced visit to Dover Air Force Base to take part in the ceremony honoring the returning remains of Chief Petty Officer Owens.

The president met with Owens’s family during his two-hour visit to the base. The sailor’s family had requested that the president’s visit and the return of Owens’s body be private.

The president offered his condolences to Officers Owens’s wife, his father and his three children. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, said the debt of gratitude we owe him can never be repaid. He also responded to the question of whether the raid was successful.

The White House said the mission did yield valuable intelligence information, including hard drives, that will help the U.S. gain insight in Al Qaeda’s terror plans.