The Pentagon upgraded the valor awards for the Marines who stood at Abbey Gate in Kabul during the airport attack in 2021.
“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,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. “The Marines at Abbey Gate were positioned in the direct blast zone with minimal cover, fully aware of an imminent suicide attack, yet they held their ground to keep evacuation operations running. Their actions that day were heroic. The original awards did not reflect that reality. Today’s upgrades correct that injustice.”
Parnell added that the upgraded awards “also demonstrates what the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel was created to do: examine the full record, identify where the system failed our warfighters, and ensure accountability and fairness.”
“The Department of War, under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, is committed to getting this right. We will not allow valor performed at the point of friction to be diminished by bureaucratic or administrative shortcomings,” he said, noting that the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel will continue its work and continue to honor the courage of warfighters.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth opened an investigation into the Biden-era Afghanistan withdrawal, an operation that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, in May 2025. “President Trump promised accountability for what transpired during that military withdrawal, and I am committed to delivering on that promise,” he said at the time. “We have an obligation to the American people and to the warfighters who fought in Afghanistan to get the truth – and we will.”
Last year, President Trump announced that August 26 would be set apart to honor the service members involved in the Abbey Gate attack.
“On one of the darkest days in our Nation’s history, 4 years ago, the gates of hell sprung open when an evil Jihadi terrorist carried out a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan — killing 13 heroes of our United States Armed Forces and shattering the hearts of Americans and our allies,” Trump’s proclamation reads. “As our Nation remembers this atrocious attack, we honor the memory of every brave warrior who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We join in grief with the families who senselessly lost a loved one, and we renew our solemn pledge to our 13 fallen patriots — we will never forget you; we will never forsake you; and your memory will live on forever.”
