Trump Honors Slain Army Officer Tyler Feehan, Offers Grieving Family Air Force One Flight

President Donald Trump delivered an emotional eulogy Wednesday for Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, a 25-year-old service member killed in Jordan, during an event at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia. Trump revealed that he had invited Feehan’s family to join him aboard Air Force One after they attended the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware earlier that day.

Trump met with Feehan’s parents, Shari and Stephen, as well as his uncle David, at Dover before the flight to Georgia. The president described the encounter as deeply affecting and said the family was astonished by his offer of transportation on the presidential aircraft. “They couldn’t believe it,” Trump said to the gathered crowd, noting the family lived minutes away from the school event.

Feehan, a native of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was among four U.S. service members killed while supporting operations in Jordan; the deaths were announced Saturday by U.S. Central Command. Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, was also among those killed.

Trump characterized Feehan as an exceptional officer with exceptional promise. “He was going all the way. He was going to be a general. He would have been a general very quickly,” the president told attendees. Trump noted he reviews biographies of fallen service members before each dignified transfer ceremony.

Trump called dignified transfers the most difficult responsibility of his presidency and expressed his commitment to honoring Feehan’s memory. He thanked Feehan’s family members by name, saying he had gotten to know them during the Air Force One flight. “We will carry Tyler’s memory in our hearts forever,” Trump said, drawing sustained applause from the audience before addressing Feehan’s mother directly and assuring her that her son would be proud.