The Marine Corps has issued award upgrades to seven Marines who guarded Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul when a suicide bomber struck on Aug. 26, 2021, killing 13 service members and about 170 Afghans, defense officials announced on Wednesday.
“After reviewing the original awards and determining that several had been inappropriately downgraded, these awards have now been upgraded to levels that more accurately reflect the extreme risk these Marines knowingly accepted and the lives they saved under direct enemy fire,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Stuart Scheller, the senior advisor to the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and was referenced in Parnell’s announcement, posted on social media later on Wednesday that several of the Marines now have awards with a “V” device, which denotes heroism in combat. A Marine Corps official confirmed the awards to Task & Purpose.
Scheller’s post on X did not include any of the Marines’ names. He wrote that:
- A lance corporal’s Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “C” Combat Distinguishing Device is now a Bronze Star with “V” device for valor.
- A lance corporal, sergeant, and staff sergeant who had each been awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “C” device now have a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V” device.
- A lance corporal’s Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with “C” device is now a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with “V” device.
- A sergeant who had been awarded a Certificate of Commendation now has a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “C” device.
- A sergeant who had received no award now has a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.
“The Marines we upgraded are very deserving of the awards,” Scheller wrote on X. “They fought with valor in a terrible situation.”
The awards are for Marines with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and came at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and following a recommendation of an ongoing Pentagon review of the Afghanistan withdrawal, said Parnell, who is also chairman of the review’s panel.
“To the Marines of Company G and to every service member who stood at Abbey Gate: your actions were seen, your sacrifice was measured correctly, and your valor is now properly recognized,” Parnell said in the statement.
When the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, U.S. troops were thrust into a chaotic evacuation of American citizens and Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government, rescuing more than 124,000 people over two weeks.
Because U.S. troops had withdrawn from Bagram Airfield in July 2021, the only location to conduct the evacuation was Kabul’s international airport. Investigators later determined that Marines guarding the airport’s Abbey Gate were in an incredibly vulnerable position. In fact, a Marine general officer wanted to close the gate on the day before the suicide bomber struck, the investigation found.
Past awards for Kabul evacuation
Marine Sgt. Wyatt Wilson, who was serving as a team leader with Golf Company, was later awarded the Bronze Star with “V” device for valor for saving a Marine’s life after the bombing attack at Abbey Gate.
“Upon seeing a critically injured casualty next to him, he disregarded his own grievous wounds, the tear gas engulfing him, and reports of gunfire and began dragging this Marine to safety,” according to his award citation, which was posted on Instagram in 2022. “Unable to continue forward due to a significant loss of blood, he passed the casualty to an uninjured Marine, and refused medical treatment for his own life-threatening wounds.”
Based on news releases and other publicly available sources, Task & Purpose has compiled a partial list of other service members who have received military awards for their actions during the Afghanistan evacuation.
Top Stories This Week
Two rescue Airmen assigned to the 48th Rescue Squadron were awarded Bronze Stars for a series of actions in Kabul, including saving the lives of more than 62 U.S. troops and Afghans and recovering the bodies of the fallen 13 American service members after the suicide bomber attack, according to a 2024 Air Force news release, which did not include the names of the airmen, only their ranks: a captain and a staff sergeant.
Air Force Capt. Carlos Mendoza and Staff Sgt. Morgan Reed both received the Bronze Star for saving 78 people, including 38 patients in critical condition, following the Abbey Gate attack.
The Air Force has also awarded numerous Distinguished Flying Crosses to C-17 crews who flew Americans and Afghans out of Kabul, including one crew that medically evacuated U.S. troops and civilians who had been wounded in the attack on Abbey Gate. The crew of another C-17 received the award for taking off with more than 800 people aboard — twice the weight the aircraft is supposed to carry at any one time.
Marine Master Sgt. Kevin W. Haunschild was awarded the Bronze Star after he helped tow a disabled civilian plane that was blocking a runway and later came under small arms fire while recovering radio equipment from outside the airport.
Fifty-five soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade received Air Medals for their role in the evacuation — 12 of the awards were with “V” devices, a division spokesman told Task & Purpose for a December 2022 story. The brigade picked up about 10,000 American citizens and brought them to the airport in Kabul.
But several soldiers with the unit told Task & Purpose in 2022 that helicopter crew members were initially nominated for higher awards that were ultimately downgraded.
In August 2023, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that Army and Marine units that carried out the evacuation would receive the Presidential Unit Citation. The award was presented to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command, and Joint Task Force 82 of the 82nd Airborne Division and its supporting units.
UPDATE: 4.22.2026; This article was updated after publication with information on the types of awards upgrades.
