Five years ago, 13 American service members were killed at Abbey Gate during the final, chaotic days of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Eleven Marines, one soldier, and one sailor reported for duty that day, surrounded by thousands of desperate people trying to escape a country falling back into Taliban control. At 5:36 p.m. on Aug. 26, 2021, an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide bomb in the crowd, killing those 13 Americans and countless Afghan civilians.
For me, the anniversary of Abbey Gate is deeply personal. I served over 20 years in the United States Marine Corps and Navy, deploying to combat zones in Africa, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. In Kandahar, I led the emergency medicine department and felt the cost of war: lost limbs, traumatic brain injuries, and catastrophic wounds that changed young Americans’ lives forever.
For two decades, Americans answered the call to protect freedom in Afghanistan. Some never came home. Others returned with wounds, both visible and invisible, that they will carry for the rest of their lives, and their families will carry those burdens with them.
That is why the collapse of Afghanistan was so painful for so many veterans. As the Taliban swept across the country and reclaimed Kabul, we saw images of desperate Afghans clinging to an American aircraft as it fled the chaos. For those of us who served there, these were not distant images on a television screen. They brought back the faces of those we treated, the friends we lost, and the sacrifices we made.
Then came Abbey Gate.
The 13 Americans killed that day were carrying out an extraordinarily dangerous mission. They were helping American citizens and vulnerable Afghans escape an impossible situation created by incompetent leadership. Despite credible threats, they remained at their posts because people were depending on them. That is American courage in its purest form.
Their courage must never be diminished by the failures of leadership that placed them in such a dangerous position. The withdrawal was not a failure of the men and women wearing the uniform; it was a failure of decision-making in Washington.
This is the lesson. America’s leaders must show the same devotion to duty as our men and women in uniform. When we send our sons and daughters into harm’s way, we assume a sacred obligation to them and their families. Their lives can never become figures on a spreadsheet, and their names cannot be invoked once a year before a crowd at a rally. America must never take the sacrifice of its warriors for granted. We must be deliberate when sending them into danger, provide clear missions and sound planning, and demand answers when their leaders fail.
We owe them more. We owe the Gold Star families of Abbey Gate the full truth. We owe Afghanistan veterans an honest accounting of the Biden administration’s decisions that preceded Kabul’s collapse. And we owe the next generation of American warriors and leaders better.
Accountability will not bring back the 13 Americans killed at Abbey Gate or remove the pain their families carry. It matters because memory without action is not enough. If we refuse to learn from our failure, we risk asking another generation to pay the same terrible price.
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The story of Afghanistan must not be reduced to the way the war ended. For 20 years, American service members fought bravely, treated the wounded, hunted terrorists, protected one another, and answered the call of freedom. Nothing that happened in August 2021 can erase the honor of their service.
On August 26, we remember the 13 heroes killed at Abbey Gate. We remember their families and every American who served in Afghanistan. We also remember the burden carried at home, and we cherish their sacrifice by learning from the failures that led to those devastating final days. We will remember their courage. We will insist on accountability. We will learn from this failure. And we will never forget Abbey Gate, because their sacrifice and our responsibility do not end there.
Dr. Rich McCormick is a decorated veteran and Emergency Room physician who proudly serves Georgia’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Congressman McCormick serves on the House Armed Service Committee, Oversight & Government Reform Committee, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.