Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Via AP news wire

Grief comes home to US towns week after Afghanistan war ends

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Waiting for the hearse carrying one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan two weeks ago, Faye Hillis thought about all the military veterans she had mourned at her hometown's lone funeral home.

Her father who came home from World War II. Her cousin who died in Vietnam Too many friends and neighbors to count.

“I’m having all these flashbacks,” she said Wednesday as school children, families and veterans lined the village's two main streets to honor Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak.

While the war in Afghanistan is over, its harsh reality is still coming home as Americans now are beginning to honor and bury the last casualties to come back from a 20-year war that claimed more than 2,400 American lives.

Stars and Stripes of all sizes and homemade signs saying “thank you for your service” decorated the procession route through northern Ohio where Soviak, 22, grew up before joining the Navy.

In St Louis, thousands lined Interstate 70 to pay respects Wednesday to Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz whose body was escorted from the airport to a funeral home in St. Charles, Missouri.

These are scenes that will repeat in the coming days in places including Omaha, Nebraska; Laredo, Texas; Logansport, Indiana; and Sacramento, California; for the 13 who died in the bomb attack Aug. 26 at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport during the frantic airlift in the conflict's final days.

On a clear morning in rural Ohio, military veterans on motorcycles escorted Soviak’s remains the final 8 miles (13 kilometers) to his hometown, first passing through the neighboring village where inventor Thomas Edison was born and then by the stadium where just five years ago, Soviak was a football captain for the Edison High Chargers.

One final turn took the procession by the Soviak family’s home and onto a road dedicated to Army Sgt. David Sexton,, who was killed in the Vietnam, which up until now had been America’s longest war.

Right across the street from the funeral home, some of Soviak’s relatives watched from their front porch as a military honor guard carried his casket inside — just a week after the United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The community will come together in a few days to honor Soviak at a public visitation Sunday at the high school. The funeral will be Monday morning at the school’s football stadium.

“We’re all struggling a bit,” said Kami Neuberger, a neighbor who thought of “Max” like another brother. “I just never thought it would happen."

Just one year younger than Soviak, her older brother, who's now a Marine, graduated from high school with him in 2017.

“He was always right alongside my brother, making fun of me, teasing, being goofy,” she said. “He tried to make everyone smile.”

A few houses down, Elyse Colwell sat on a blanket with her two toddlers. She thought about when she was in middle school and her father left for Afghanistan with his Ohio National Guard unit.

And she thought about how Soviak and many of the others killed in the bombing would have been right around the age of her own two children when the war in Afghanistan began shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“These kids were toddlers when this began. It's almost like they grew up with it,” said Colwell, adding that she's worried about what will come next. “Just because we left doesn't mean it's over”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.