Both President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met separately with the families of the six service members who died in the Iran war and claimed that all the families had asked them to continue fighting to ensure that the sacrifices of the soldiers did not go to waste.
Hegseth met the families on March 20, and in a press briefing the next morning, he said, “What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done.’”
However, one of the people he met has said that no such conversation happened, at least from his side. The person in question is Charles Simmons, father of 28-year-old Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons. Tyler was one of the six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week.
BREAKING NBC:
Pete Hegseth says ‘family after family’ of service members killed urged the admin to “not stop until the job is done.”
But the father of one of those service members says he never said that.
“I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not…
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 20, 2026
Talking to NBC News, Charles said, “I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about.” Tyler had spoken to both Trump and Hegseth separately and added that while he was touched by their compassion, he did not discuss continuing the war.
Interestingly, Trump echoed the same sentiment on Wednesday, saying that the families of the 13 U.S. troops had asked him to “finish the job.” Addressing the nation, the president said, “We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives. And every single one of the people, their loved ones said ‘please, sir, please finish the job,’ every one of them. And we are going to finish the job.”
However, Charles’s statement stands in sharp contrast to what Trump and Hegseth have claimed about the grieving families. Both had visited Dover to meet the families, and according to Charles, Trump teared up as “he extended his condolences father to father and conveyed how difficult it is to make decisions to put the children of other parents in peril.”
.@POTUS: “As we celebrate this progress, we think especially of the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives in this fight … We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives.” pic.twitter.com/R8iFhq8GKK
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 2, 2026
Regarding his encounter with Hegseth, Charles said, “When I talked to him, I got the impression that he was torn because he seemed to be a very compassionate man, faced with difficult decisions as it pertains to war.”
He then added, “I also let him know that Tyler was my only son. And you could see the emotion on his face. And I think those kinds of things you can’t fake. 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. I got to see a different side of them up close and personal.”
However, regardless of the kindness with which Trump and Hegseth treated the grieving families, Charles maintained the fact that he at least never asked for the war to get continued.
