Seeking accountability for Afghanistan with the Gold Star families

Escondido, California

“I will fight till my last breath to get the truth,” said Coral Briseño, the mother of Humberto Sanchez, who was killed in Afghanistan during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal. Her son told her that if he didn’t come back, he wanted her to tell his story. 

Briseño and her fellow Gold Star family members had their first opportunity to address the nation in a hearing that was aired live on Fox News — but completely absent from CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS. 

The field hearing marked the first time the group of parents addressed the public as one. The chaotic exit from Kabul, marred by suicide bombings and people falling off of planes, was praised by everyone from the president to his top military brass as historically successful. The families of the thirteen soldiers murdered beg to differ. They addressed the nation far from the halls of Congress, where the parents of the fallen service members killed by a suicide bomber the White House is reluctant to name have been ignored until recently.

The families spoke in the city hall of Escondido, California, at an event organized and hosted by Representative Darrell Issa. Last month, Issa hosted the Gold Star families for a whirlwind tour of Congress, bringing them into meetings with senior GOP leadership including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul and combat veterans-turned-congressmen Brian Mast, Cory Mills and Michael Waltz. 

Following the DC visits, Issa’s team began planning an event in his San Diego-area district, a suitable location given its proximity to Camp Pendleton and heavily veteran population. This would be the nation’s first opportunity to hear the families in their own voice.

Alicia Lopez, the mother of Hunter Lopez, was the final speaker, but her message embodied the tone of what the parents and family members want. “As Americans, we want this truth,” she said. “As Gold Star families, we deserve this truth. We deserved it two years ago — and we deserve it today.” 

Biden and others calling the “operation a success as if there should be a celebration” was “like a knife in the heart,” Christy Shamblin told the audience. Shamblin’s daughter-in-law, “badass Marine” Nicole Gee, famously posted a photo of her cradling an Afghan baby just days before she was killed. 

In one particularly poignant moment, Steve Nikoui, the father of “Marine Kareem” Nikoui, spoke about how he used to jokingly tell his son to “avenge me,” when he’d come home from Camp Pendleton as a way to “pay homage to every father-son movie ever made.” Now, he hears his son’s “soft voice” imploring him: “avenge me.” That’s what the parents are trying to do. 

To date, no officials have been held accountable over any of the mistakes during the withdrawal, which the parents said is unacceptable. 

Darin Hoover, the father of Taylor Hoover, spoke of how his son taught his Marines to be men—and implored the chain of command to learn some lessons: “I’m calling out Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, General Milley, General McKenzie, Lieutenant Colonel Whited — who could not give the order to the snipers to take out the bomber before he detonated his vest — and ultimately, the president. Do what our son did: be a grown-ass man.”

Hoover, who said that “our sons and daughters have more integrity in their little toes than every one of them combined,” had a simple demand: “you all need to resign immediately.” Hoover’s mom, Kelly Barnett, echoed Darin’s sentiments, calling that group “incompetent, cowards, evil. Some are a few of those, some are all of those. I want justice, I want accountability.”

Several of the families spoke with The Spectator about the difficulties they have faced since they lost their loved ones. Under a year after Kareem’s death, his brother Dakota Halverson committed suicide. Halverson spent nights sleeping next to Kareem’s grave, and “just wanted to be with him again,” his mother said. 

Another frequent target of the parents was President Joe Biden, who is often portrayed as America’s mourner-in-chief. However, his attempts at empathizing with the parents whose children gave their lives for his attempt at a photo op fell flat. 

Cheryl Rex, the mother of fallen Marine Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, testified that she “started shaking” when Biden invoked his son Beau Biden’s death from cancer, and not combat, but to say that he “know[s] how she feels,” leaving her “wondering how someone could honestly be so heartless to say he knew how I felt.”

While there was plenty of blame to go around, Shamblin told me that Gee, the “zero shit-taker,” wouldn’t have allowed anyone to take her place on that fateful day. 

“I know if God were to show up that morning and say ‘thirteen of you,’ her hand would have gone up, I know that.” 

Following the hearing, the families headed to Mount Soledad, a privately owned veterans’ memorial, for an unveiling of memorial plaques that commemorated their relatives’ sacrifices. 

The next day, families visited Camp Pendleton to see where many of their loved ones had been stationed during various times of their careers in the Marine Corps. They hiked a treacherous path called The Beast, which boasts a sprawling memorial to the thirteen fallen at its summit, which is overflowing with tributes.

The tributes to the group can be seen throughout the base, including at its bar, where a seat is reserved for the thirteen. 

“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it,” the sign reads. “It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.”