{"id":2012722,"date":"2023-08-26T03:11:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T07:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbey-gate-gold-star-families-continue-to-grieve-while-anger-at-biden-remains\/"},"modified":"2023-08-26T03:13:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T07:13:36","slug":"abbey-gate-gold-star-families-continue-to-grieve-while-anger-at-biden-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbey-gate-gold-star-families-continue-to-grieve-while-anger-at-biden-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Star families at Abbey Gate still mourn as anger towards Biden persists."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fabbey-gate-gold-star-families-continue-to-grieve-while-anger-at-biden-remains%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2012722&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Thirteen Families Still Seek Answers and Accountability Two Years After Tragic Kabul \u200bBombing<\/h2>\n<p>Exactly two years ago, \u200b13 United \u2063States troops were killed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-issa-called-on-biden-to-meet-with-gold-star-families-from-kabul-bombing-so-far-no-comment\/\" title=\"Rep. Issa urges Biden to meet Kabul bombing's Gold Star families. Silence persists.\">tragic suicide bombing<\/a> in Kabul during the chaotic\u200c withdrawal of Afghanistan, and while families \u2063continue to grieve, some\u2063 are &#8220;pissed off&#8221; and are dismayed\u200b they still \u2063haven&#8217;t \u2063had answers from the Biden\u200d administration.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Thirteen\u2064 families, all with different backgrounds living in cities across the country,\u200c have a trauma bond that connects them: they lost a son, brother, daughter, or sister on August 26, 2021, when a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-blame-pentagon-planner-colin-kahl-for-bungled-afghanistan-strategy\/\" title=\"Republicans Blame Pentagon Planner Colin Kahl for Bungled Afghanistan Strategy\">suicide bomber killed<\/a> them, and nearly 200 \u200cpeople total in Afghanistan. \u200dThe bombing occurred at Abbey Gate, one of the\u200c perimeter entrances to Hamid Karzai International\u200d Airport in Kabul, while U.S. troops were sifting \u200dthrough thousands of Afghans swarming the\u200c gates, hoping to get evacuated instead of living under\u2064 a new Taliban regime\u2064 that quickly overthrew the U.S.-backed government and its military.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Heartbreaking Loss and Frustration<\/h3>\n<p>The U.S. service members, ranging\u200b in age from 20-31, were \u200bthe last of the roughly 2,448 military casualties of a war that spanned nearly the entirety of their lifetimes.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hoover, 31<\/li>\n<li>Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, \u200b25<\/li>\n<li>Sgt.\u200c Nicole Gee, 23<\/li>\n<li>Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22<\/li>\n<li>Cpl. Daegan Page, 23<\/li>\n<li>Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22<\/li>\n<li>Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20<\/li>\n<li>Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20<\/li>\n<li>Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20<\/li>\n<li>Lance Cpl. Dylan \u200bMerola, 20<\/li>\n<li>Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20<\/li>\n<li>Navy hospital-man Maxton Soviak, 22<\/li>\n<li>Army Staff\u200d Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, 23<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Multiple parents of\u200c the\u2062 service members described the profound loss of having to bury a child while also portraying a dueling frustration toward the people whom they believe are responsible for their\u200c loss \u2014 military leaders and ultimately President Joe Biden \u2014 and their perceived lack of accountability \u2062for the decisions that led \u200bup to the bombing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It never gets \u200deasier,&#8221; Cheryl\u2063 Rex, the mother of Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola told the Washington\u2063 Examiner. &#8220;Every day is a struggle. But every birthday, every holiday, it \u200bjust feels like it hits all \u2063over again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rex wanted Merola to attend college, but \u200dhis mind \u2063was already made up \u200c\u2014 he \u2062wanted to join the Marines and did so\u200c at 17 years old,\u200d which required \u2063her to sign the paperwork for \u2063his enlistment. Similarly, Paula Knauss Selph, the \u200cmother of Knauss, said her son wanted to enlist at 17 and warned that if she didn&#8217;t sign \u2063the paperwork, he could seek emancipation from them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, listen, this recruiter told me you don&#8217;t sign these papers for me to go in early that I can divorce you,&#8221; Selph told the Washington Examiner, relaying the conversation with\u2062 her son. \u200b&#8221;He said, \u2064&#8217;I don&#8217;t want to do that, Mom,\u2064 but this\u200d recruiter divorced \u200chis mom to get\u200c in early. I don&#8217;t \u200bwant to \u2064do that unless it \u2014,&#8217;\u2062 and I started laughing, and I looked at Ryan and said, &#8216;You would divorce me as your mother?&#8217; And He was \u2062like, &#8216;Well,\u200c Mom, I don&#8217;t want to do that. But this recruiter told me that&#8217;s what I got to do. I&#8217;m gonna sign on early like he \u200ddid.&#8217; So, we sat back down at the table. We signed \u200dthe papers. I was like, Ryan, you were born to do this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Seeking Answers and Accountability<\/h3>\n<p>The State Department released a 21-page After Action Review focusing on the Biden administration&#8217;s final months in Afghanistan in July, which \u200bpraised \u200dboth embassy officials and U.S. \u2064troops for their \u200crole in what ultimately became the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbey-gate-gold-star-families-continue-to-grieve-while-anger-at-biden-remains\/\" title=\"Gold Star families at Abbey Gate still mourn as anger towards Biden persists.\">largest \u2062noncombatant evacuation operation<\/a> in history but also acknowledged the department&#8217;s shortcomings, including not being ready for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nyc-could-lose-thirty-percent-of-its-police-force-fire-department-over-vaccine-mandate\/\" title=\"NYC Could Lose Thirty Percent Of Its Police Force, Fire Department Over Vaccine Mandate\">worst-case scenarios<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;With this being the second [anniversary], I\u2062 think the first one, we were \u200bstill in\u200b a state of mourning, I guess, would be a good \u200cway to put it. And we still are, don&#8217;t get me wrong,&#8221; Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, told the Washington \u2062Examiner. &#8220;This one now, that has come up, and we&#8217;ve not gotten anything from the administration or anything from the Department of Defense, or from the Marine Corps or the State Department. It&#8217;s to \u2062the\u200b point now where we&#8217;re pissed off. \u2063And we\u200d want the answers. You know, he gave his life for \u200dthis country.\u2064 And he loved his country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Details from the declassified after<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/officials-calling-for-investigation-into-capitol-protest\/\" title=\"Officials calling for investigation into Capitol protest\">-action review<\/a> of the Afghanistan \u200cNEO\u200c from U.S. Central Command revealed \u2062that the Taliban, which was aiding U.S. troops at the airport by providing the outer layer of security, did not conduct an assault on a building the U.S. suspected \u200cwas where ISIS-K members were staging the bombing. Additionally, Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews emotionally recounted the bombing, in which he lost an arm and a leg, stating that he had identified a suspect he still \u200cbelieves to be the \u200dbomber beforehand but was not given the green light by his superiors to take out the threat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this point today,\u200d I am so mad because they have not one chance but two chances to put the ISIS-K bomber, the guy that had the bomb, twice, and they didn&#8217;t do anything,&#8221; Coral Briseno, the mother of Humberto Sanchez, told the\u2063 Washington Examiner. &#8220;They have better options to\u2064 get\u200b the troops out of the country, and they chose the worst, so I just feel that the military or government never cared [about] our kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul asked\u200d Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this \u2062month to make Lieutenant Colonel Brad Whited, \u200bVargas-Andrews&#8217; commanding officer who did not provide his underling with the green light to engage with the suspected\u200c would-be bomber, available for a transcribed\u200d interview.<\/p>\n<p>The ISIS-K terrorist who conducted the bombing,\u2062 Abdul \u200cRahman al \u200bLogari, had been arrested \u2062in India before being able to carry \u2063out an attack\u200d there, and he subsequently was brought to the Parwan prison at Bagram air base to serve\u2064 his sentence. \u200bThe Taliban freed him and thousands of other terrorists in the Parwan and Pul-e Charki prisons when they overpowered the Afghan military and overthrew the Afghan government \u2062in\u200b mid-August.<\/p>\n<p>There are somewhat competing narratives, one from the families who feel the \u200badministration has \u200chidden information and evaded \u2063accountability, and one\u200c from the administration.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The President and the first lady continue to grieve with all the Gold Star families, and \u200despecially those who were killed in that terrible day at Abbey Gate,&#8221; National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said earlier this\u200c month. &#8220;There\u2019s not a day that goes by that he and \u2064the first\u2064 lady aren\u2019t thinking about them, mourning with them, and understanding the loss and the sacrifice and the anguish that they\u2019re still feeling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/afghanistan-gold-star-families-biden-administration-answers\">here<\/a> to read more from the Washington Examiner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exactly 2 years ago, 13 US troops died in a Kabul suicide bombing during Afghanistan&#8217;s chaotic withdrawal. Families still mourn, feeling frustrated and disappointed by the lack of answers from the Biden administration. These 13 families, residing in various cities, come from diverse backgrounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2012723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}