The Marine Corps has upgraded valor awards received by 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, the Pentagon 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.
Parnell’s statement did not specify how many Marines have received upgraded awards or what their new awards are — it is also unclear at this time if the statement’s reference to “valor awards” was about awards specifically bestowed for valor, such as the Silver Star, or those awards with a “V” device, which apply to certain individual awards and denote heroism in combat, such as a Bronze Star Medal with “V.”
When reached for comment, a Marine Corps official said they expected to provide specifics on the awards later on Wednesday.
The award upgrades will be for an unspecified number of Marines in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and it comes 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.
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“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Because U.S. troops had withdrawn from Bagram Airfield in July 2021, the only location to conduct the evacuation was Kabul’s international airport.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.
