Remembrance service set next week to honor ‘Fallen 13’
City News Service
NORCO, Calif. (KESQ) – A remembrance service is scheduled a week from today in Norco to honor the 11 U.S. Marines and several other U.S. Armed service members killed in a suicide bombing that occurred during the chaotic evacuation of American military personnel and civilians from Afghanistan four years ago this month.
(Top row left to right) Maxton Soviak, Kareem Nikoui, David Espinoza, Rylee McCollum, Jared Schmitz, Taylor Hoover, Nicole Gee (Bottom row left to right) Ryan Knauss, Hunter Lopez, Johanny Rosario, Humberto Sanchez, Daegan Page, Dylan Merola
The ceremony to mark the fourth anniversary of the attack is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Memorial for the Fallen 13 in the Norco Country Center, 960 Sixth St.
A frequent speaker at the annual remembrances is Shana Chappell of Norco, who lost her son, 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, in the Aug. 26, 2021, bombing by terrorists at the Abbey Gate fronting Kabul Airport.
Along with the Marines, a U.S. Navy corpsman and a U.S. Army soldier perished, while nearly 100 civilians were killed or injured in the blast.
Chappell, who was sharply critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, lost another son, 28-year-old Dakota Halverson, to suicide in August 2022 at Pikes Peak Park, near his fallen brother’s memorial.
Chappell said Halverson had been overwhelmed with grief, to the point he was sleeping nights adjacent to Nikoui’s grave.
Nikoui was one of two Riverside County natives killed in the bombing. The other was 22-year-old Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez of Indio.
The remembrance service will feature a candlelight vigil, with relatives of those lost, their friends, community supporters and members of the Southern California Patriot Guard Riders, a veterans motorcycle group that regularly participates in tributes, on hand.
“Some service members who were present at the Abbey Gate will be in attendance,” according to organizer Kris Ross.
The memorial features a plaque saluting Nikoui as “Our Home Town Hero.”
More information is available at www.Fallen13Memorial.com.