The father of a slain service member denied Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s account of their private conversation.
The Pentagon chief said Thursday that he had met the day before with the families of six military service members killed in the Iran war, and he said they told him to “honor their sacrifice” and “finish the job.” But the father of an Air Force crew member killed in a crash characterized their exchange differently, reported NBC News.
“I can’t speak for the other families,” said Charles Simmons. “When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about.”
Simmons’ 28-year-old son Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week. He told NBC News his comments to the defense secretary at Dover Air Force Base were a bit more ambivalent than Hegseth claimed.
“I understand there’s a lot of peril that goes into making decisions like this, and I just certainly hope the decisions being made are necessary,” Simmons said he told Hegseth.
Simmons, a 60-year-old music teacher from Columbus, Ohio, flatly denied telling Hegseth or President Donald Trump that he wanted them to continue fighting the war.
“No, I didn’t say anything along those lines,” he said.
A public official who was within earshot of the president’s meetings with family members told NBC News they did not hear anyone tell him to “finish the job.”
Simmons conceded that he didn’t “have all the data” the president and top military leaders had access to, but he said he had “questions” about the war.
“Who wants war?” he added. “Sometimes it’s a necessity, and I just don’t know what’s going on.”
Simmons did say that his son had expressed support for the operation before volunteering for the ultimately fatal mission.
“He said, ‘Dad, I can’t give you any details, but if civilians knew what we knew, a lot of the criticism [of the war] would cease,” Simmons said.
Simmons did credit both Trump and Hegseth for greeting him with warmth and compassion, which he said contrasted with the president’s public persona, and he said their sympathy seemed sincere.
“I was pleasantly surprised because the perception is they [Trump and Hegseth] don’t care, they’re going to do what they want to do,” he said. “I got to see a different side of them up close and personal.”
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