August 30, 2021 |
A cold beer was waiting for 20-year-old Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum at a New York City brewery Friday night. It sat untouched at Front Line Brewery on a table reserved for Wyoming Marine and 12 other American warriors killed Thursday in the attack on the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan.
In Horse Cave, Kentucky, a small church reserved 13 seats for Sunday service, each draped with an American flag. The tributes were among many across the country for the 13 killed as they tried to help with the chaos at the airport as Americans try to meet tomorrow’s deadline to withdraw troops, civilians and Afghan allies from the city. Another spontaneous tribute rang out Saturday night during opening ceremonies Saratoga Bullfest commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
On the day before the bombing, the Pentagon nearly 10,000 people were waiting outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in a desperate 11th hour bid to escape the new Taliban rulers. Eleven of the 13 were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base to honor the fallen soldiers during the solemn military ritual of receiving their remains in flag draped coffins.
Along with mournful tributes has come outrage, none more raw than from the McCollum’s mother. Kathy McCollum lives in Montrose, Colorado. The dead Marine’s mom called Sirius XM Channel 125 talk Show, the Wilkow Majority Show, Friday, and expressed unbridled outrage at how the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan cost her son his life.
The Gold Star mom said she chose to call the talk show to vent her rage because she needed to process her grief through anger rather than tears.
McCollum described her son’s death was “in vain,” the result of an “unnecessary debacle.” She was not the only parent of one the 13 killed who expressed that opinion. A carpenter from Norco, California, Steve Nikoui, blamed military leaders and President Biden. Nikoui said “Biden turned his back” on his son, Lance Coroporal Kareem Nikoui, who was killed at his post outside the airport.
Flags fly at half-staff today across Wyoming. Gov. Gordon on Thursday ordered both the U.S. and the state flags lowered to half-staff through today to honor the 13 U.S. service members killed at Kabul. An additional flag notification will be issued once funeral arrangements for Lance Corporal McCollum are announced.
Related: Marine from Wyoming killed in Kabul terrorist attacks
