While delivering an update to the nation on Operation Epic Fury on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump said the families of the 13 slain U.S. service members have urged him to “please finish the job” to defeat Iran.
Trump emphasized that “every single one of the people, their loved ones, said, ‘Please, sir, please finish the job.’ Every one of them.”
He commended the fallen service members who served in the Army and Air Force.
“We salute them,” he said. “And now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives.”
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Thirteen U.S. service members, ages 20 to 54, have been killed in the Middle East since the Trump administration launched its Iran operation.
Six U.S. Army soldiers were killed in a March 1 Iranian drone strike at a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. Six others, U.S. Air Force airmen, died in a refueling plane crash on March 12 in Iraq. Another, Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, died in an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
During his Wednesday night address, Trump announced that the “core strategic objectives” of the operation “are nearing completion.”
“As we celebrate this progress,” Trump said, “we think especially of the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives in this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”
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Trump has traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware twice since the start of the conflict to honor the fallen service members as their remains were returned to the U.S. in a dignified transfer for burial.
“I wanted to be with those heroes as they returned to American soil,” Trump said. “And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands.”
Trump touted America’s military might. He said the U.S. is “on track” to complete all of its objectives “very shortly.” However, he announced, “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks,” adding, “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”
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Despite their losses, Trump emphasized that “every one” of the fallen service members’ families asked him to keep going.
“Every one of them,” he repeated. “And we are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”