Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, Gold Star father Billy Vaughn praised the loosened rules of engagement President Donald Trump authorized Defense Secretary James Mattis to operate with.
Vaughn, whose Navy SEAL son, Aaron, was killed in 2011 when his chopper was shot down in Afghanistan, said there was no pre-assault fire the night his son was killed — a result of Obama’s restrictive rules of engagement.
“[T]hat night, the AC-130 overhead asking to engage multiple times enemy combatants on the ground was not allowed to engage those enemy combatants with weapons and it’s very likely that one of those enemy combatants took that chopper down that night,” Billy Vaughn said of the night his son was killed.
Under Trump, U.S. forces are no longer required to be in contact with enemy forces before opening fire and fighters on the ground would also have more authority to make decisions, which Vaughn said will help save the lives of military members.
According to Vaughn, military decisions under Obama were made by people in the White House “who had never seen the theater of war.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent