![]() ![]() Raddatz recalled a prominent moment during Biden’s exit, where someone in the crowd screamed, “Burn in hell.” “It was just total disrespect,” Barnett said. The family ultimately decided to go onto the tarmac, where Biden checked his watch multiple times. “We had decided as a family that we would not meet with the president, so we were actually in a room on the side,” Barnett emphasized. We received our kids in a casket.”īriseno added that she felt the president made the encounter “all about him.” “And he just talk about his son and said how much he knows or he understand how we feel because he lost his kid and he didn’t feel - he didn’t know how we feel because he was there with his son when he passed. But when it came to the people in suits, it felt disingenuous and hollow.” And that was expressed to us in a way that felt very genuine and loving. People from the military certainly knew our story, Nicole’s name, our names. “They didn’t seem to know Nicole’s name, our names. “The administration didn’t seem to know our story,” Shamblin said. Instead of feeling comforted, all three mothers described feeling disrespected. Three days after the bombing, the remains of all 13 service members arrived at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer ceremony, where President Joe Biden was there to greet the families. “When I look at the window, I just saw my husband and I said, ‘Please tell me that they are not in full dress.’ Then he’d just shake his head.” “I gave them my address and they said, ‘We’re gonna be there in a few minutes.’ So as soon as I went downstairs, I still hope that they were going to ‘Your son’s got wounded and we have to take you somewhere,'” Briseno said. The Marines had information about Bert but were at the wrong address. I don’t want to answer.”Īfter a second call, Briseno’s husband told her to pick up the phone. “At 1:42, I hear my phone vibrating under my pillow. “What do you remember, Coral?” Raddatz asked. And I looked at my son-in-law, and we both just dropped before we even looked at the door. “I got home around 7 p.m., doorbell rang. I was, I think, in shock or denial.”īarnett recalls being gripped by fear herself. As time wore on and we didn’t hear from her, my son knew. “And we stayed up that whole night waiting for our phone call that we knew was coming. “As soon as we saw the news that 13 service members had been killed, he said to me, ‘Mom, I have a very bad feeling,'” she shared. Shamblin was on vacation with her son Jarod, Gee’s husband and a fellow Marine. These Gold Star family members remember exactly where they were when they found out their loved ones were among the fallen. “And I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because I want to be the best of the best and I want to make you proud.'” “One day he just show up and said, I want you to go and sign up because I enlist in the Marines,” Briseno said. Known as “Bert” by friends and family, Sanchez wanted to join to make his mother proud. “He wanted to stay out there and continue to bring people in.”Ĭoral Briseno gave her son, Humberto Sanchez, permission to join the Marine Corps at 17. “I have heard from many of his friends, his men, that had said that when it was time for them to take a break, he didn’t want to,” said Barnett. “And I think once she saw that, she was just going to give 100% to help them be rescued.”Ī similar mindset motivated 31-year-old Hoover, who was on his third deployment to Afghanistan. “She shared with me that she had never seen people so desperate,” said Christy Shamblin, Gee’s mother-in-law, with whom she shared a close relationship. Nicole Gee posted a photo of herself holding an infant at the Kabul airport with the caption, “I love my job.” At 23 years old, Gee volunteered to join the mission. Less than a week before the bombing, Marine Sgt. It was there that the suicide bomber would detonate his device, ending the lives of the 13 service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians. Abbey Gate was the only remaining public entrance for civilians who swarmed the gate despite the chaos and danger. troops were dispatched to the Kabul airport to aid the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians desperate to flee. Raddatz sat down with his mother and the Gold Star family members of two other Marines killed that day.Īs the Taliban swept through Afghanistan in 2021, 6,000 U.S. service members who died in the attack on Aug. “I had a three, three-hour drive back to my house. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, told ABC This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz in a segment that aired Sunday. “I kept texting him, ‘Are you OK? Are you good?'” Barnett, mother of Marine Staff Sgt. (WASHINGTON) - Kelly Barnett had a “horrible feeling” about her son after learning of the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s airport amid the hectic U.S.
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