Too often on Wildfire Today I have to write about line of duty deaths (LODD) of firefighters. My heart goes out to the families, friends and co-workers of the 13 troops who were killed and the 18 other troops who were wounded in the bombing that killed at least 170 people Thursday near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
To firefighters, that disaster would be equivalent to the South Canyon Fire that killed 14 in 1994. It is likely that at least one of those 10 men or 4 women told someone that they loved their job also.
Each of these individual deaths and injuries Thursday is tragic. One of them on the list of names released today by the Pentagon is being noted in particular because of an Instagram post before the attack. Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, California posted a photo of herself holding an infant six days before she was killed, writing, “I love my job ?”
The Department of Defense picked up the photo and used it in their Twitter account on the same day with two other photos.
U.S. military service members comfort infants at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. #HKIA pic.twitter.com/8utbOwtcsF
— Department of Defense ?? (@DeptofDefense) August 20, 2021
Two days later she posted another photo of her escorting a long line of evacuees as they boarded an airplane to flee Kabul.
Sgt. Gee, a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was from Roseville, Calif., Stars & Stripes reported. She was promoted to Sergeant a few weeks before being killed.
At the airport she had been assigned to assist women and girls at the airport as they fled Taliban repression.
May she rest in peace.
Highly relevant. The 20-person crew ordered to Thirty -Mile a little over 20 years ago was told it was a mop up show, hours before it blew up and killed four firefighters. Just because you want it to be over and hope it’s over doesn’t mean it’s over. War and wildland fire have many similar tragic arcs. We’ve been doing this since….
Bill Gabbert – you remain a “class act”.
Thank you for posting this story.
Young Americans still impress me very much. Sgt Gee had “all the right stuff.”
Rest In Peace Marine.
Ken Kerr
Thank you for the story about Nicole.
The following link lists all the Coalition Fatal Casualties of the Afghan War, Operation Enduring Freedom, since 2001.
“http://icasualties.org/App/AfghanFatalities?page=1&rows=100&sort=d-date&order=asc”
I would guess there are even more stories to tell, from a number of Countries in the list.
I would also like to express a sincere thank you for this article. Did not expect to come across this piece, and appreciate the author’s commentary as this has been a troubling week for me as I watch the events unfold for our service men, women and other people in Kabul. As already pointed out – the women and men in our military are certainly extraordinary.
Extraordinary women and men in our military. Amen?
Bill, thanks for eloquently sharing what so many of us have been thinking.
Thanks for posting this.
Remember this when we start chirping about the military and its costs
Being a former soldier/helicopter mechanic…Mission before Me was usually the motto