Exactly one year ago, 13 families who had brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons in Afghanistan helping evacuate more than 120,000 at-risk Afghan allies became Gold Star families.
The deaths represented the final U.S. service members killed in the military’s 20 years in Afghanistan.
The 13 U.S. service members who were killed on Aug. 26, 2021, along with roughly 170 Afghan civilians when an Islamic State terrorist detonated a suicide vest outside the Kabul airport gates included 11 Marines, one Navy hospital corpsman, and one Army soldier. Dozens of other U.S. troops were also injured in the blast. The attack occurred as the United States led evacuation operations at the Hamid Karzai International Airport as the Taliban, including Haqqani Taliban faction forces, provided security outside the airport.
Their loved ones expressed deep feelings of frustration with Washington and with President Joe Biden in particular, whom they accuse of not caring about their loss. They also highlighted newfound ways to honor and promote the legacies of their loved ones, who died helping desperate Afghans flee the repressive return of Taliban rule.
REPUBLICAN RAISE AFGHANISTAN ANNIVERSARY TO KNOCK DEMOCRATS OFF BALANCE IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS
The Washington Examiner spoke with some of the families ahead of the anniversary of the ISIS-K suicide bombing in Kabul.
The 13 U.S. service members who were killed are: Marine Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23; Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31; Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20; Marine; Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20; Marine Cpl. Daegan Page, 23; Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Marine Cpl. Humberto “Bert” Sanchez, 22; Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20; Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, 23; and Navy Hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 22.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz
The “government itself can’t even say their names,” Mark Schmitz, Jared’s father, told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t believe — I haven’t seen a record of Joe Biden, himself, even mentioning one of the 13 names publicly. That in itself is disgusting. The word ‘Afghanistan’ has allegedly [been] banned from the White House. They don’t even want to talk about that word, that country, none of it.”
The family founded a nonprofit group, Freedom 13, which has plans to operate retreat centers for veterans who need a break from their daily lives, he said. The first one will be in Robertsville, Missouri, and veterans will be able to go there for a week at a time free of charge and will have the ability to kayak or fish on the property.
The name of the foundation honors their son and the other 12 service members who were killed, though he said, “It’s not just our 13 that we lost. It’s for all of them. You know, I’m glad to see that the 13 have gotten as much exposure as they have. I think, unfortunately, many others before them did not.”
“We felt it was important to channel our energy for something good. Jared would want that,” the elder Schmitz explained. “That’s what he stood for. And he’s spent his entire life helping people, and that’s why when he became a Marine. I knew that was his calling because he could do it on a grand scale.”
Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover
“We didn’t hear one single word from the administration — not a single word — and still [haven’t],” Hoover’s father, also named Darin, said. “Not that we would take it because of the way that this happened. Six months into it … the administration sent out letters to the families. And it was a canned letter. Everybody’s was exactly the same. They photocopied it, or it appears as though they photocopied it, and then just stamped Mr. Biden’s name to it. And that was it. Nothing personal.”
Hoover and Kelly Henson, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover’s mother, also spoke about their son’s legacy, including his willingness to stand up for others, as his parents say he was doing by helping evacuate Afghans at risk under a Taliban regime.
“If there was anybody that he saw being bullied — because Taylor was bigger than a lot of his classmates and friends and everybody else growing up, and he had the respect of his teammates, classmates, his friends, that if he said something, he knew that he could back it up,” Darin Hoover said. “So if somebody was getting picked on, he was gonna back it up and make it stop. And ultimately, that’s what he did: getting as many people out as they were able to accomplish, the greatest amount of evacuation of people in the history of the United States. Shoot, what kind of a legacy could somebody want more than that?”
Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover’s family has created a scholarship fund in their son’s honor, and the group will be holding a 5K race on Sept. 3 to raise money for it.
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss
Paula Knauss, the mother of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, said she was still frustrated with Biden, holding him responsible for the untenable situation her son and the other troops had been put in, saying the decision-making was influenced by politics. She relayed that “Ryan said it would be a s*** show before he ever went.”
“The problem is there is still not a word of ‘Sorry, we messed up.’ I don’t hold my breath for that,” Paula Knauss said, adding, “I am just sorry that my son is not here because of very bad leadership. … I’m very angry. I should have Ryan still. These parents should have their kids still.”
Paula Knauss added, “It may be that this president gets out of office unscathed, but I doubt it because we deserve him to look at our nation and apologize.”
She said her problem is that “it should’ve never happened” and that “if we would’ve simply used precautions as we normally do in military strategy, we would’ve had a line pushed back to protect our men and women better than we did. We were sitting ducks in that airport.”
Paula argued the U.S. reliance on the Taliban to provide security was a fatal mistake, saying, “Isn’t that a gut punch for every American soldier to know that we are relying on those who we considered our enemy up until the last week or two of the war?” She pointed out that the Taliban made it “a living hell” by beating and killing Afghans attempting to gain access to the airport.
She said the Taliban’s involvement allowed the bomber to carry out his killing mission.
“It’s an outrage to me,” Paula Knauss said. “This was a personal attack by an individual who was allowed access, through the Taliban — who were supposed to be our friends, according to the president — to get access to the area.” She also critiqued the fact that hundreds of Americans were still in the country when the U.S. withdrew.
“This is us leaving behind Americans,” she said. “This is us saying, ‘Job well done,’ when the job wasn’t well done.”
Paula Knauss said she is working to honor her son’s legacy and pointed to the Afghan 13-SSG Ryan Christian Knauss Memorial Scholarship being set up at the University of Tennessee to honor the legacy of her son and the other 12 service members.
“There is a problem going on that is a lot larger than the loss of Ryan, but I can tell you that my grief is very deep about having it be so personal to me, my own child, my youngest boy,” Paula said. “He was something. … When Ryan died, part of my heart died with him, and it will never be the same.”
She said Knauss’s call number was “TPT 9000” and that 20 or 30 people in his group have gotten it tattooed on them. She was at Arlington Cemetery in May, but she wants to spend the anniversary of the bombing with her son’s fellow soldiers.
“On Memorial Day, I wanted to be with Ryan,” she said. “On August 26th, I want to be with his troops.”
BIDEN ADMIN STILL WON’T PUBLICLY IDENTIFY KABUL BOMBER
Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee
Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee and the mother of Gee’s Marine husband Jarod, felt the Biden administration was not properly honoring the fallen.
“I look at pictures of my daughter-in-law, and I can tell she was tired and greasy, and it breaks my heart because that’s how she died. And I know, of course, she would do it again in a heartbeat,” Shamblin said. “But I really admit it is so painful for us that we have an administration that is not willing to celebrate these heroes because they don’t want to be blamed, and I get that, but sometimes you’ve gotta suck it up and still celebrate the heroes, and sadly nobody in our entire administration is doing that.”
Shamblin added: “This is the very attitude that we received at Dover Air Force Base when we received our heroes home and the president continued to look at his watch. The attitude we have received is that our loved ones were an acceptable loss, and that’s just obviously mind-blowing to us.”
Gee’s mother-in-law emphasized that Gee “was so so so very proud to be helping the women and children there, and she knew that if it wasn’t for her unit, that wouldn’t be happening.”
“Every time she talked about being there she would just tell me, ‘Mom, these people are so desperate. We are their only hope.’ … She was so very proud of what she was doing. And we were proud of her,” Shamblin said. “We know that regardless of whatever our administration is doing, Nicole has made room for females in the military to serve in combat … and while that is very small comfort for us right now, I know that for her, she’s OK with that.”
“She was amazing,” Gee’s mother-in-law said. “Our big thing, obviously, I’m sure like everybody, is just we don’t want them forgotten. And these heroes need to be celebrated more, I think, by our public.”
Shamblin said she is moving from Oregon to Virginia to be closer to Arlington Cemetery, where Gee was laid to rest.
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui:
The family of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, experienced another tragedy about two weeks ago when his older brother, Dakota Halverson, 28, committed suicide at his memorial.
Their mother, Shana Chappell, announced the heartbreaking news on Aug. 9, saying on Facebook, “The month of August has been very hard so far with the one year coming up. I look at my kids as strong and like they can handle anything. That was my mistake. My son Dakota has been talking a lot lately about how he just wants to be with Kareem, how much he misses him, etc. … We all feel that way so I didn’t see the signs. This morning my son Dakota went to be with his brother Kareem.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Biden promised to avenge the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members, but the U.S. military’s first strike after the ISIS-K bombing targeted an innocent Afghan civilian whom they wrongfully believed posed an imminent threat to U.S. service members. The strike killed ten people, all civilians, including seven children.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Examiner that the president hasn’t upheld his promise yet.
“Our military has not targeted or conducted any counterterrorism strikes against ISIS-K in Afghanistan since our withdrawal last August — a complete failure to uphold his promise to avenge the deaths of our service members,” she said. “ISIS-K is not in hiding; they’ve conducted over 26 attacks in and around Kabul since our withdrawal. That’s my expectation; failure to act emboldens all of our adversaries and damages our reputational deterrence, putting the American people at increased risk.”
