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.
