05:45

It was a moment that stood out during Donald Trump’s first joint address to Congress: a standing ovation for Carryn Owens, the widow of Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, as she cried and looked skyward for her husband.

Owens, a navy Seal, died in Yemen on 28 January, in the first military operation Trump authorized as president. His legacy is “etched into eternity”, Trump said on Tuesday night.

Carryn Owens, the wife of Navy Seal William Ryan Owens, with Ivanka Trump during the president’s address to Congress. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

While the president paid tribute to Owens, questions persist about the fateful mission in which the serviceman lost his life. In the hours before the speech, Fox News broadcast an interview with Trump in which he appeared to distance himself from the operation.

“This is a mission that was started before I got here, this is something that was, they wanted to do”, Trump said, referring to “my generals”, before adding, “and they lost Ryan.”

Carryn Owens attended Trump’s speech but her father-in-law, William, told the Miami Herald he had declined to meet with the president. William Owens said the government “owes my son an investigation” and questioned the need for the raid.

“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display.”