Congress to honor 13 fallen service members

Bill notes the explosion at Karzai Airport killed 200, injured hundreds of others

A bill U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-windsor, and three other Colorado House members co-sponsored to posthumously honor the 13 service members killed during the August fall of Afghanistan passed the House Monday by a unanimous voice vote.

The service members – David Espinoza, Nicole Gee, Taylor Hoover, Ryan Knauss, Hunter Lopez, Rylee Mccollum, Dylan Merola, Kareem Nikoui, Daegan William-tyeler Page, Johanny

Rosario Pichardo, Humberto Sanchez, Jared Schmitz and Maxton Soviak – will be presented a Congressional Gold Medal struck by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Authored by Rep. Lisa Mcclain, R-romeo, Mich., House Resolution 5142 received broad bipartisan support with 323 co-sponsors, including the Colorado Republican delegation of Buck, Rep. Doug Lamborn and Rep. Lauren Boebert, and Democrat Rep. Joe Neguse.

“I was proud to co-sponsor this bill honoring the 13 heroic service members who died in Afghanistan,” Buck wrote on Twitter. “I am glad to see it just passed the House.”

As many as 200 are believed to have perished in an explosion Aug. 26 at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, a confirmed suicide bombing by the ISIS-K terrorist group. Hundreds more are believed to have been wounded in the explosion. The loss of 13 U.S. service members in the explosion made it the deadliest single day of the war for the United States in more than a decade, the bill reads.

“The American service members went above and beyond the call of duty to protect citizens of the United States and our allies to ensure they were brought to safety in an extremely dangerous situation as the Taliban regained control over Afghanistan,” Mcclain wrote in the bill. “The American service members exemplified extreme bravery and valor against armed enemy combatants.”

Their heroism merits “great honor,” she wrote in the bill.