Former President Donald Trump touched on how emotional it was to be with military families as a fallen service member was returned home to the United States.
“I’d be at Dover, where these magnificent machines would come in, the big cargo planes, and that door would open up, and there’d be a coffin in the back. And the military, the soldiers, would take that coffin and walk it off the plane. And I’d be with the parents an hour before, and we’d be talking, and I’d say to the general in charge, ‘General, the parents seemed to be OK,’ and he’d say, ‘No, they’re not, sir. They’re not OK,'” Trump recalled during a speech during North Carolina’s GOP convention.
Former President Donald Trump recounts attending emotional dignified transfer ceremonies at Dover:
“I’d see the same people that were talking to me so jubilant about their child, how great the child was, would start screaming, screaming. Screams like I’ve never heard before.” pic.twitter.com/A9TQFAKEom
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 6, 2021
“I said, ‘General, I’m having a great conversation.’ And the mothers oftentimes would say, ‘Oh, my son was such a great football player. Sir, he had an arm that was so powerful. He was so strong, and he could throw a ball so far. He was such a good player,’ or other things,” Trump continued. “They’d tell me these stories. They just were so in love with telling the stories about their son or their daughter, in some cases, their daughter.”
The former president said it was “amazing” how the families “handled” the death of their loved ones but recalled how the mood would change when the plane doors opened and the flag-draped coffins were visible to the families.
TRUMP MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO DOVER WITH JON VOIGHT
“And then, the plane would come in, and the general would say, ‘Sir, it’s not going to be good.’ And that door would open up, that big back door, right, would open up from this incredible, powerful machine that can lift up Army tanks like it’s nothing. And it would open up, and there’d be one or two or three or four coffins, and I’d see the same people that were talking to me so jubilant about their child, how great the child was, would start screaming, screaming. Screams like I’ve never heard before,” Trump said.
“It was the most terrible thing to watch. And the general in charge would say, ‘Sir, you’re going to see things that you maybe will not have seen.’ ‘Like what, General?’ He said, ‘Mothers and wives, and even fathers sometimes, breaking through the military ranks and jumping on top of the coffin.’ And I got to see that one time where a mother, she was devastated. She jumped on, and these incredible, extremely fit soldiers are taking that coffin, and would jump onto the coffin, and they wouldn’t do a thing, they would just keep walking,” Trump continued.
Trump’s tale came as the former president called for the removal of U.S. troops from “endless wars,” during which Trump said that “so many mistakes were made.”
“And we’re moving them out,” Trump said. “We’re moving them back. Twenty-one years. You know, you’ve heard 19 years, but it’s not 19. Now, it’s 21 years in Afghanistan. It’s enough. And we haven’t lost a soldier in Afghanistan since January of last year. Not one single soldier’s been lost. Pretty amazing. It’s pretty amazing.”
Trump negotiated a deal with the Taliban that would have seen U.S. forces exit the country by May 1, ending the longest war in American history.
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But that deadline was pushed back by President Joe Biden, who, after reviewing the previous administration’s plan, set a new deadline of Sept. 11 of this year.
