Congress on Tuesday posthumously bestowed its highest honor on 13 U.S. soldiers killed in a bomb attack at Kabul's airport during America's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Lawmakers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda alongside tearful relatives of fallen heroes for the awards ceremony, which came on the heels of a scathing House report on the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“I know many of you have not heard these words yet, so I will say it: I am sorry. The United States government should have done everything in its power to protect its soldiers,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).
“The dead and wounded at Abbey Gate deserve our best efforts,” he said, referring to the fateful site where Americans were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021.
“The families left behind continue to deserve transparency and gratitude,” Johnson said.
Three other congressional leaders, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), also attended the solemn ceremony, as did Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Representative Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), who helped introduce the bill to award the gold medal.
Some politicians embraced members of Gold Star families as they presented the moving honor.
The 13 service members who died were Sergeant Johany Rosario Pichardo, Sergeant Nicole L. Gee, Staff Sergeant Darrin T. Huber, Corporal Hunter Lopez, Corporal Daegan W. Page, Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez, Corporal David L. Espinoza, Corporal Jared M. Schmitz, Corporal Riley J. McCollum, Corporal Dylan R. Merola, Corporal Kareem M. Nikoui, Navy corpsman Maxton W. Sobiak and Staff Sergeant Ryan C. Knauss.
ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the horrific bombing, which also killed an estimated 169 Afghan civilians.
“On August 26, 2021, so many of us lost our children,” Sanchez's mother, Coral Doolittle, said, overcome with emotion. “We are so grateful for the work of Congress and the Speaker of the House who made this moment possible.”
“Thank you to all 13 families.”
Family members sat in front of photographs of their loved ones, and many shed tears during the ceremony.
The ceremony came two days after the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a roughly 350-page report detailing its findings on the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban returning to power.
The scathing report harshly criticized President Biden and his administration for handling the withdrawal, concluding that the president was so determined to pull out that he ignored warnings from military leaders, NATO allies and senior Afghan officials. The report accused the administration of prioritizing appearances and failing to prepare for fundamental aspects of the withdrawal.
“You are not the only ones who bear the burden of that day,” Johnson told Gold Star families at Tuesday's ceremony, emphasizing that “your sense of loss can never be fully measured.”
“The 13 heroes we honor here today represent the best of America,” Jeffries said.
He praised the 13 men who were killed for fighting with “great bravery”.
“No honor can truly repay the incredible sacrifice of those who died,” the House Minority Leader said.
“It was their duty to serve. It's our duty to remember,” Daines said.
McConnell listed the names of those who died and spoke of the people they were and the service they gave to their country.
“Some of them were younger than the Afghanistan war itself,” Schumer noted.
“All of us gathered under the Dome of the Statue of Liberty today have a responsibility to ensure that the sacrifice of all our military personnel is not in vain,” Schumer said.
“We must care for them and their families and protect the values of freedom and democracy that they so nobly fought for and won.”
In the nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan, about 2,500 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 20,000 wounded.
The Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in the Rotunda took place just one day before the 23rd anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
