Speaker Mike Johnson awarded the families of the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal with Congressional Gold Medals on Tuesday.
The emotional ceremony took place under the stately U.S. Capitol Dome as a military quartet played solemn and respectful melodies to honor the sacrifice of the many young men and women killed.
The families of the lost soldiers sat quietly as Republican and Democratic leaders eulogized the fallen and paid their respects.
‘The families who have been left to pick up the pieces continue to deserve transparency, appreciation and recognition,’ Johnson said opening the ceremony.
‘Although we can never fully measure your lost, we can and we must memorialize the ultimate sacrifice that was paid.’
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., hands out a Congressional Gold Medal. Senate Leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell were also in attendance at the event
‘Their names are etched into our hears and now into the history of our nation,’ he added.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award presented by the legislative branch.
Past recipients include inventor Thomas Edison, WWII General Douglas MacArthur and British leader Winston Churchill.
After speaking, a series of military processions ensued under the rotunda.
Military musicians sang the Star Spangled Banner and a prayer was offered.
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., spoke about the devotion of the soldiers and the suffering experienced by their grieving families.
Then Democrats honored the fallen service members.
‘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,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during the ceremony.
They held the gate. The gold medal we are presenting today is the highest honor that can be conferred by the United states congress,’ he continued.
‘But no honor can truly repay the sacrifice from our fallen.’
After Jeffries, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer spoke.
He noted early on how many of the fallen were not alive when the World Trade Center was attacked in the 9/11 attacks.
Images of the 13 American service members who died in the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan sit on display ahead of a Gold Medal Ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on September 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. Senate and House leadership will attend the ceremony along with families of the 13 fallen service members
A Gold Medal for the 13 American service members who died in the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan
The medals were awarded posthumously to the family members of the fallen soldiers
The Americans killed in the blast were: (left to right, starting with top row) Cpl. Daegan W. Page – Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo – Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover – Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza – Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum – Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui – Cpl. Hunter Lopez – Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz – Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss – Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez – Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak – Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola – Sgt. Nicole L. Gee
Pictures show the haphazard conditions at the airport before the attack
‘We will never forget the sacrifice of the fallen 13 service members,’ Schumer said.
‘It now falls on us, on all of us gathered here under the dome of lady liberty, to ensure the sacrifices fo our service members were not in vain.’
‘We must care for them and their families and defend the values of freedom and democracy they so nobly fought for.’
He turned to the families of the fallen soldiers, telling them ‘God bless you.’
The tear-filled event came just one day after the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a damning report that revealed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris pushed ahead with the withdrawal despite warnings.
The massive report was released Sunday after years of probing.
The families of some of the fallen troops even attended a Monday press event highlighting the White House’s many missteps.
The report also reveals how Washington’s most senior official in Kabul went on vacation even as the Taliban was closing in on the capital city.
In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, a U.S. Marine Corps carry team transfers the remains of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui of Norco, California, Aug. 29, 2021 at Dover Air Force Base. He was killed in the August 26, 2021 suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the scrambled U.S. evacuation
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the U.S. military’s evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, while flanked by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R), on August 20, 2021 in Washington, DC.
The bodies of the service members who fell defending the airport from which the U.S. military was evacuating American forces and allies
The findings come in a report by Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs committee.
And it accuses Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their officials of prioritizing politics and optics over operational needs, such as planning for an emergency evacuation of civilians.
The resulting chaos, with tens of thousands of foreign nationals and Afghans crowding into Kabul’s airport after the Taliban seized the city in August 2021, triggered the first crisis of the Biden administration.
And it descended into tragedy when a suicide bomber killed 13 American service personnel and about 170 Afghans.
‘Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate U.S. personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies,’ said Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the committee.
‘At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.’
He described the withdrawal as an ‘unconditional surrender’ and said the failure to plan for all eventualities was a ‘dereliction of duty,’ that directly led to the ‘preventable’ loss of American lives.
For its part, the White House National Security Council accused McCaul of producing a ‘partisan’ report based on ‘cherry-picked facts’ and ‘inaccurate characterizations’.
And an official said preparations for withdrawal included ‘planning for all contingencies—including a rapid deterioration of the security situation—even though intelligence at the time deemed this situation unlikely.’
Afghan women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Two top international rights groups on Friday, May 26, slammed the severe restrictions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying they amount to the ‘crime against humanity of gender persecution’
A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman walks past in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 26, 2022
The report calls for Congress to condemn Biden, Harris and 13 officials.
And it says procedures and responsibilities for ‘noncombatant evacuation orders’ or N.E.O.s should be codified so that politics cannot drive the process.
The order to leave Afghanistan after 20 years of bloodshed may have been the most consequential decision of Biden’s time in office.
