Christy Shamblin was on vacation with her family when they saw the news about the explosion at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021. Shamblin's son's wife, Sgt. Nicole Gee, was deployed to Kabul to aid in the chaotic evacuation after the Taliban took over the Afghan capital.
"She just told me that she had never seen such desperation in her life. She said, 'Mom, they're throwing their babies at me.' That was the last time we talked to her," Shamblin told Townhall, holding back tears.
Shamblin said Nicole's husband, Jarod, told her he knew Nicole was among those killed when he saw the news there had been 13 causalities. Similar to the other Gold Star families who spoke with Townhall, they disagreed with the Department of Defense's assessment the ISIS-K attack could not be prevented.
"I didn't know half of this stuff before I showed up to Dover to claim my daughter's body, you know? What I know now is that what's unavoidable in war is something like Extortion 17, when something is shot out of the sky, that's unavoidable. When you send troops into the ground to do your work as a politician and they're killed, it's avoidable," Shamblin explained.
"I don't know how. I'm neither a politician nor a military expert. I'm a mom who sent my daughter who came back in a bodybag, but I can tell you there is a better way and it is avoidable. To say it's unavoidable is a coward's way," she continued.
Shamblin said it was not surprising at all to see Nicole taking care of infants and babies during the evacuation. In one of her last posts on Instagram, Nicole posted a photo of her self depicting that with the capiton, "I love my job."
"We were so proud because it was humbling that the entire world got to see what we always knew of our daughter. She was that person her whole life. She was alway the person who would go above and beyond, especially for children," Shamblin said. "It didn't surprise us a bit to see that picture and see her living her best life in the midst of Hell."
Shamblin added if Nicole had a chance to change the outcome, she would still go head first into the chaos.
"She wouldn't change it. Us as Americans need to be more aware of what our veterans are sacrificing for us. They go to countries, unknown, where they don't want to be, they don't agree with what's happening. They get their freedoms actually taken away from them...for us to have continued uninterrupted freedoms," Shamblin said.
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