Chaos, a blast, then bloodshed: U.S. Marine recounts deadly Kabul airport attack

Donald Trump and Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart, who was injured at the Abbey Gate bombing, during a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In the moments she last saw her friend alive, Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart was helping an Afghan woman and her two toddler sons leave the Kabul airport.

It was Aug. 26, 2021, and thousands of desperate locals were trying to flee Afghanistan amid the Taliban's seizure of Kabul, prompted by the White House's decision to withdraw from the United States' longest war. Lainhart and Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, bunkmates and confidantes, were tasked with searching women and children at the airport -- and occasionally carrying out the difficult task of turning away those without proper paperwork.