Clay and Buck Honor Our 13 Fallen Service Members
(Taps playing)
BUCK: Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, assigned to 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Naval support activity, Bahrain. Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California, assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 24th, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover, 31 of Salt Lake City, Utah. Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California, a rifleman. Cpl. Daegan Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska, rifleman. Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana, rifleman. Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas, rifleman.
CLAY: Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming, a rifleman. Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, a rifleman. Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California. Navy Corpsman, Maxton Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, assigned to the 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California. Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee. Knauss was assigned to the 9th PsyOp Battalion, 8th PsyOp Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
(Taps fades)
These are the names of all of the fallen in Afghanistan. Oftentimes, Buck, as you and I both know, the names of people who do things that are not heroic, echo throughout our media ecosystem and receive a massive amount of attention, and we just wanted on this show to give all of those who gave their lives for our country the attention and the respect and the commendation that they deserve.
And also, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri. All 13 of those individuals deserve our utmost respect, commendation, not just for themselves but for their families — and, Buck, what stands out to me as we ran through all of those names, just how young all of these guys and girls are.
BUCK: Young. Yeah. These are the best of us, these individuals. And they stood at the fence line. They stood outside the wire, and they were protecting our people and they were protecting those the United States had entrusted with their security and those to whom we had a sacred obligation. And they paid the ultimate price. It’s just a reminder for all of us, Clay, we talk about the politics, we talk about the administration, and we criticize them.
But we don’t just do so because we’re trying to score points or because this is Democrat team or Republican team. The decisions that are made by the commander-in-chief really matter. The lack of planning here and the disaster of the Kabul pullout has mattered. The entirety of the Afghan war and the inability of people at senior command level from the military all the way up to White House has cost lives. Lives of heroes like the ones that we just read off on this list. Those are the stakes underway right now and have been for years.
CLAY: And not just for them but for their families. So many of these guys were young. Several of them had, I saw, either young kids themselves or kids on the way. Our heart breaks for you, and we thank you for everything that you have done for us.
