Families of 13 service members killed in Kabul receive Congressional Gold Medals in emotional ceremony

Congressional leaders posthumously gave their highest honor Tuesday to the 13 U.S. service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

The Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in the Capitol Rotunda, was attended by the sometimes emotional family members of those killed in the suicide bombing, which took place at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“To the families who are here, I know many of you have yet to hear these words, so I will say them: We are sorry. The United States government should have done everything to protect our troops. Those fallen and wounded at Abbey Gate deserved our best efforts,” Johnson said in opening remarks, referring to the location where the Americans were killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack.

“The families who have been left to pick up the pieces continue to deserve transparency and appreciation and recognition,” he added.

Johnson was accompanied by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as well as Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.). Daines and McClain helped introduce legislation to honor the fallen service members, which President Biden signed into law in December 2021. 

“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,” Jeffries said of the fallen. “They held the gate.”

And Schumer pointed out that many of those killed “were even younger than the war in Afghanistan itself.”

“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,” Schumer said. “We must care for them and their families and defend the values of freedom and democracy they so nobly fought for.”

Also at the ceremony was Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, among other Biden administration officials. 

ISIS-K, Afghanistan’s Islamic State offshoot, has claimed credit for the suicide bombing that killed Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak and Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss. In addition, about 170 Afghan civilians were killed in the attack.

Coral Doolittle, the mother of Sanchez, spoke on behalf of the families, telling attendees that “a big part of us died with our children on August 26, 2021,” while thanking Congress and Johnson "for making this moment possible.”

The ceremony to award the Congressional Gold Medal, given for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals, institutions, or groups, comes in the wake of a damning House GOP report on the deadly U.S. pullout.

President Biden has faced intense criticism for the evacuation, with the House Foreign Affairs Committee report heaping more blame on the commander in chief.

“The evidence proves President Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha Agreement, or the advice of his senior national security advisors or our allies. Rather, it was premised on his longstanding and unyielding opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan,” the report states, referring to the Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban to leave the country.

Ahead of the first debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump, Republicans have attempted to highlight Harris’s role in the withdrawal.

The Biden administration has pushed back on any such attacks, accusing the House Foreign Affairs Committee of omitting key details in their report as well as failing to account for the role of the Trump administration in the withdrawal.