On Saturday, the US Department of Defense named the 13 military personnel killed in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport on Thursday. Many were not even a year old when the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.
US forces are withdrawing after nearly 20 years. The bombing, claimed by a local Islamic State group, happened as a mass evacuation continued. As many as 170 Afghans were killed. Two British nationals and the child of a British national also died.
Eleven US marines, one solder and one sailor were lost in the country’s deadliest day in Afghanistan in a decade.
The marines were: S Sgt Darin T Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah; Sgt Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts; Sgt Nicole L Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California; Cpl Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California; Cpl Daegan W Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska; Cpl Humberto A Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana; L/Cpl David L Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; L/Cpl Jared M Schmitz, 20, of St Charles, Missouri; L/Cpl Rylee J McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming; L/Cpl Dylan R Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California; and L/Cpl Kareem M Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California.
The sailor who was killed was Navy Hospitalman Maxton W Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio.
The soldier was SSgt Ryan C Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.
Details of some of the victims’ lives began to emerge. Some had not long graduated from high school, were recently married or were about to become fathers.
L/Cpl McCollum was a marine from Wyoming whose wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister told reporters. Rylee always knew he wanted to join the marines, Cheyenne McCollum added, recalling when he was a toddler and the war in Afghanistan was just beginning.
“[He] was a marine before he knew he was allowed to be a marine,” McCollum said. “He’d carry around his toy rifle and wear his sister’s pink princess snow boots and he’d either be hunting or he was a marine. Sometimes it would be with nothing on underneath, just a T-shirt.
“He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad.”
A week before she was killed, Sgt Gee cradled a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport, posted the photo on Instagram and wrote: “I love my job.”
Gee was a maintenance technician from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Sgt Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a “sister forever”, wrote on Facebook: “Her last breath was taken doing what she loved helping people … then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.”
L/Cpl Nikoui, from California, was an air force cadet at high school. Hours before his death, he sent home videos of interactions with children. One of the clips, family friend Paul Arreola said, showed Nikoui talking with a small Afghan boy.
“Want to take a video together, buddy?” Nikoui says. “All right, we’re heroes now, man.”
Arreola said Nikoui “loved this country and everything we stand for. It’s just so hard to know that we’ve lost him.”
Another marine, L/Cpl Schmitz, had only been in Afghanistan a few days to assist with the evacuation effort.
“This was something he always wanted to do and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be,” his father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX radio.
L/Cpl Espinoza joined the marines from high school in Laredo, Texas.
“He was brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. He was just perfect,” his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, told the Laredo Morning Times.
US congressman Henry Cuellar said Espinoza “embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valour. Mr Espinoza is a hero. The brave never die.”
Cpl Lopez joined the marines four years ago and planned to follow his parents, both sheriff’s deputies, into law enforcement when discharged.
Navy medic Soviak was a state champion wrestler at high school and one of 13 siblings, his family said.
“He just enjoyed life,” said Thomas Roth, superintendent of the Edison local school district. “He was full of life. He was a good kid, a good student and people just enjoyed being around him.”
SSgt Knauss planned to move to Washington DC after his deployment, family members told WATE TV.
Knauss was “a motivated young man who loved his country”, said his grandfather, Wayne Knauss. “He was a believer, so we will see him again in God’s heaven.”
Cpl Page would be remembered for “his tough outer shell and giant heart”, his family said. Page had plans to go to trade school and leaves a girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents, a statement said.
“Our hearts are broken,” it said, “but we are thankful for the friends and family who are surrounding us during this time.”
One of the older victims was SSgt Hoover, who had been in the marines for 11 years. His father, Darin Hoover, said: “He is a hero. He gave his life protecting those that can’t protect themselves, doing what he loved serving his country.” He said his son, who had a girlfriend in California, was a best friend to his two sisters and was the kind of person who “lit up a room”.
In her Facebook post about Sgt Gee, Malory Harrison said her generation of marines heard war stories from veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan which seemed distant until “the peaceful float you were on turns into your friends never coming home”.
Gee’s car was still parked at Camp Lejeune, Harrison said.
“The war stories, the losses, the flag-draped coffins, the KIA bracelets & the heartbreak. It’s not so distant anymore.”