Celebrating a life of compassion, grit
Roseville lays to rest Marine seen cradling Afghan baby
ROSEVILLE, Placer County — At 23, Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee was honey blond and relentless — the decorated soldier who earned perfect scores on fitness tests and loved to bake, who became immortal when someone snapped a photo of her cradling a baby at the Kabul airport last month.
That’s the image of her that is now frozen in time. Forever. Through their tears as they helped lay Gee to rest on Saturday, those close to her described her as the consummate warrior whose life shone as an example of hope before it was cut short in a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26.
Gee was one of two female Marines killed in the attack, which claimed the lives of 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 civilians. The Islamic State terrorist group ISIS-K later took responsibility.
As family members, friends and fellow Marines gathered to memorialize Gee at Bayside Church in her hometown of Roseville, a suburb northeast of Sacramento, photographs of the fallen Marine decked the stage. Some showed her in a graduation gown, others in battle gear. In one she was a small girl with ringlets and big blue eyes, in another an adult on the beach, grinning as she yanked her two dogs on leashes.
They showed a full life, which
ended abruptly while she was working to save others.
“We know that today words do not adequately express our sadness, our grief, our pain and even our anger,” senior pastor Michael Metcalfe said in his opening remarks.
But pride, rather than grief, emanated most through the speeches that morning, as relatives and friends remembered the flinty suburban girl who found her calling on the front lines of an overseas war.
“Nicole worked extremely hard to be the person that she was,” Gee’s older sister, Misty Fuoco, told the crowd of about 200 gathered in the church auditorium. “She taught herself how to embrace extreme circumstances.”
And that viral photo of the young Marine holding a baby — it came to represent much more than just a tender moment, the mourners said Saturday. It symbolized hope, compassion and resilience amid violence and chaos as the U.S. scrambled to withdraw from Afghanistan by Aug. 31 and the country fell under Taliban rule. The image resonated around the globe.
To Rep. Tom McClintock, a Sacramento Republican who spoke at the funeral, that moment captured with Gee and the infant was among the many scenes of individual heroism and sacrifice that “punctuate” American history. He and others said they were particularly moved by the caption Gee included when she posted the photo on social media: “I love my job.”
Gee the guardian angel seemed to loom over the service as friends remembered other sides of her personality. She was an ambitious straight-A student who played softball, took dance classes, and obsessively worked out in the gym. Gee stuck to her goals even though “she didn’t have an easy path,” her aunt Cheryl Juels remembered.
Gee’s father, Richard Herrera, remembered how his daughter seemed intent on jumping out of the doctor’s arms on the day she was born — a sign of grit that would become her defining trait. Others remembered her love of dogs and a fierce athletic ability that belied her 5foot-2-inch frame.
Her active-duty military service began in 2017, a year after she graduated from Oakmont High School. At some point she eloped with her high school sweetheart, Jarod Gee, who was also a Marine. They were both stationed at a base in North Carolina before their deployment to the Middle East.
Only weeks before her death, on Aug. 2, Gee was promoted to sergeant. At her last stop in Afghanistan she assisted with the evacuation of more than 100,000 civilians.
“Everyone knew the photo of the young woman holding the baby,” Juels said, but she also represented the thousands of young people from small towns across the U.S. who serve in overseas wars. Onlookers and guests who streamed into the church Saturday wore American flag T-shirts and polos with “Gold star mother” logos.
The crowd stood when Gee’s family entered, led by a bagpiper. A few gave salutes, others hung their heads. Between the remembrances, doleful country music wafted from the church speakers, along with “Amazing Grace” and other hymns.
When the photo of Gee with the unidentified infant was snapped on Aug. 21, she was near the end of her shift at the airport, Juels said. Someone handed her and a fellow Marine two babies, and Gee embraced hers with gloved hands. In the picture, Gee appears serene, her hair pulled back, her face caked in dust. She blew gentle breaths to make the baby stop crying, one of her colleagues recalled.
At the end of the service, six Marines carried Gee’s casket out, draped in its American flag. Outside, a contingent fired a volley of shots in her honor.