13 service members killed during Afghanistan withdrawal honored at Capitol

Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Congressional leaders posthumously honored 13 U.S. service members who were killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul during the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 in the Capitol Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson , House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined family members of the 13 slain service members to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal for each who died during the Kabul suicide attack.

"Their names are etched into our hearts and now into the history of our nation," Johnson said during the ceremony. "Our nation owes a profound debt of gratitude to those service members."

Jeffries agreed and said : "Risking their own safety for that of our fellow Americans, our allies and our Afghan partners, they defended freedom and democracy until their last breath."

The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest award Congress bestows to individuals, groups or institutions for their respective contributions and achievements.

Many of those who died in the suicide bombing that occurred at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, "were even younger than the war itself," Schumer said.

"It now falls on us, on all of us gathered here under the dome of Lady Liberty, to ensure the sacrifices of all our service members were not in vain," Shumer added. "We must care for them and their families and defend the values of freedom and democracy they so nobly fought for."

The ISIS-K group that formed from Afghanistan's Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

The slain service members are Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui and Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak.

The suicide bombing also killed 170 Afghan civilians.

"A big part of us died with our children," Coral Doolittle, who is Sanchez's mother, said while thanking the Congressional members in attendance for making the event possible.

The 13 Congressional Gold Medal awards were given after the House Foreign Affairs Committee recently blamed President Joe Biden for a poorly planned military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The committee members' report said Biden chose to withdraw all U.S. troops without considering security needs, the Doha Agreement or the advice of senior national security advisers or the nation's allies.

The Biden administration said the committee report omitted important details and did not consider the effect of former President Donald Trump 's administration, which negotiated the Doha Agreement with Taliban officials to enable the military withdrawal.

Biden on Aug. 26 honored the sacrifices of the 13 service members three years earlier.