Pentagon upgrades valor awards for three Marines five years after Abbey Gate attack
Five years after a suicide bombing at Kabul's Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members, the Pentagon has upgraded the valor awards of three Marines who saved others in the chaos; the anniversary has reignited political debate over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The attack, five years on
On Aug. 26, 2021, in the final days of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, a suicide bomber from ISIS-K detonated an explosive device in the crowd gathered outside Abbey Gate at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, where people were hoping to be evacuated. The blast killed 13 U.S. service members — Marines, a Navy corpsman and an Army staff sergeant. Sources differ slightly on the civilian toll: Military Times and CBS News put it at around 170 Afghan civilians killed, while Fox News, citing Rep. Matt Van Epps, cites "over 100" Afghan deaths. Local outlet WLUK additionally reports that 45 U.S. troops and more than 160 civilians were wounded in the blast.
Awards upgraded
On Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presided over a Pentagon ceremony upgrading the valor awards of three veterans of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. Retired Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Eby and retired Lance Cpl. Jordan Houston each received the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device, upgraded from lower Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals with combat devices. Retired Cpl. Michael Gretzon received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Valor device, upgraded from a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. According to their citations, Eby took command and rallied forces to restore security after his platoon commander and half his platoon were killed or wounded, then worked to evacuate the injured. Houston, though wounded, concussed and surrounded by gunfire and tear gas, pulled several wounded Marines to safety. Gretzon, hit by shrapnel and after applying his own tourniquet, continued crowd control from an exposed position to allow more critically wounded comrades to be evacuated. Gretzon, who is from Pembine, Wisconsin, attended the ceremony with his service dog, Shylah. Hegseth, invoking biblical language, said the men "were as bold as lions" and called their conduct "the pinnacle of combat heroism."
Political backdrop
The bombing remains a focal point of the Trump administration's criticism of former President Joe Biden's handling of the withdrawal. The Pentagon has set up an Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel, led by chief spokesman Sean Parnell, who said the panel has found classified documents that should have been disclosed but were "stashed and hidden away in safes," without detailing their contents. Hegseth said the review would be completed by year's end. That follows a 2024 U.S. Central Command review that concluded the attack was "not preventable" — contradicting accounts from service members who said they had spotted a possible bomber but were not given approval to act; the review found the attacker did not match the "bald man in black" description given by troops. Rep. Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., an Afghanistan War veteran, introduced a resolution marking the anniversary, calling the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the withdrawal an "abject failure" and saying Biden has never been adequately held accountable. Most Democrats have defended Biden, noting he was following through on the Doha agreement the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in February 2020, which called for a U.S. withdrawal within 14 months.
