This week is a stark reminder of the bloody Biden/Harris body count in Afghanistan, both American military personnel and Afghan men, women and children. Monday was the third anniversary of the murder of 13 military Patriots at the Kabul airport, and today is the anniversary of the administration’s disastrous military exfil on 30 August 2021.

Notably, the Biden/Harris accelerated exfil timeline was predicated on their desire to take a victory lap to proclaim they ended the war before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation – which was the catalyst to launch Operation Enduring Freedom. The only victory lap was the one taken by the Taliban celebrating 9/11 in our abandoned Kabul embassy and around the city, parading hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of our abandoned first-generation military equipment.

This Profile of Valor is dedicated to the 13 Military Patriots who were killed on 26 August 2021, in a predictable murderous attack. Neither Biden nor Harris have contacted all the families of the dead or uttered their names in order not to remind their constituents of their long record of foreign policy failures.

The deceased are:

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas, who Congressman Henry Cuellar said “is certainly one of those examples of what we have here at the border: a young man that went across the world trying to get Americans and allies of the U.S. to safety.”

• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, California, who’s featured in a viral image that speaks a thousand words, and about whom a dear friend wrote: “I find peace knowing that she left this world doing what she loved. She was a Marine’s Marine. She cared about people. She loved fiercely. She was a light in this dark world.”

• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah, the oldest of the fallen, who, in his dad’s words, “did what he loved doing, serving the United States.”

• Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee, who, when he was in second grade, drew himself in uniform and wrote in his yearbook, “I want to be a Marine.”

• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California, whose mother is a deputy sheriff and whose father is a sheriff’s captain, and who had plans to join them as a sheriff’s deputy after his deployment.

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming, who got married earlier this year on Valentine’s Day, who “signed up the day he turned 18,” said his sister Roice, and who was “cast-iron tough,” said his longtime wrestling coach.

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, whose two great-grandfathers fought in the Korean War and who “wanted to serve his country,” said his grandmother. “It’s all he talked about in high school.”

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California, who a close family friend called “an incredible individual with a great heart,” and whose death leaves his family devastated and calling on their faith to help them persevere.

• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska, who was a Boy Scout, an animal lover, and a Chicago Blackhawks fan, and who his family says “will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart.”

• Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, who friends and fellow Marines described as “a beautiful person inside and out” and “a great mentor to her junior Marines.”

• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana, who a lifelong friend says “was a light that was on 24/7” and “was constantly joking, constantly laughing, constantly trying to make people smile.”

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Missouri, who, according to his father, was on his first deployment and had always wanted to serve his country. “His life meant so much more,” he said. “I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.”

• Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, who, as a corpsman, was a medic for combat Marines, who was an accomplished wrestler and football player, who was a “beautiful, intelligent … annoying, charming baby brother,” and whose parents, perhaps in the spirit of a corpsman, were selfless enough “to offer condolences to the families that also lost a loved one [and] a speedy recovery to those that were injured.”

Let’s mourn these fine young Americans gone. Then let’s collect ourselves and think about them fondly, and thank God that they were our fellow Americans, however too briefly.

To each of these 13 young service personnel: Your examples of valor — humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty, and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.

“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Live your life worthy of their sacrifice.

(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)

(Republican congressional leadership led the effort to further recognize these 13 Patriots by posthumously awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress can bestow on an individual.)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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