This from the Pharos Tribune: LOGANSPORT, IN- A Logansport High School graduate was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the deadly suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on Thursday.
Corporal Humberto Sanchez was stationed in Afghanistan and aiding the withdrawal at the airport when a suicide bomber carried a heavier-than-usual load of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel, into the departure zone. At least 169 Afghans were also killed in the blast.
The Pentagon said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber — at the airport gate — not two, as U.S. officials initially said.
Sanchez graduated from Logansport High School in 2017. He also attended Columbia Elementary.
“Like many, I have been heartbroken over the recent loss of the 13 U.S. service members who were murdered in the terrorist attacks against our evacuation efforts in Kabul, Afghanistan,” Logansport Mayor Chris Martin said in a statement on Facebook. “Even more heartbreaking is learning the news today that one of those killed was from right here at home in Logansport, Indiana.
“This young man had not yet even turned 30 and still had his entire life ahead of him. Any plans he may have had for his post-military life were given in sacrifice due to the heart he exhibited in putting himself into harm’s way to safeguard the lives of others.”
Thursday’s bombing — blamed on Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State group, an enemy of both the Taliban and the West — marked one of the most lethal attacks the country has seen. The U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.
Details on the American dead — 11 Marines, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier — began to emerge Friday ahead of the Pentagon’s release of their names. They included a young Marine and expectant father from Wyoming who was on his first tour of duty in Afghanistan. Sanchez’s death was confirmed by two family members.
