Last week marked the one-year anniversary when 13 Americans were killed in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the Biden administration had assured would be conducted in a “safe, orderly and effective way.”

Most of the victims were from the 2nd Battalion First Marines, a unit that arrived in Afghanistan 11 days earlier. They were guarding an entrance to the airport as thousands of Afghans pressed their way to a gated entrance hoping to get on the last U.S. flights out of Kabul.

One year later, Gold Star parents of those killed are still angry and frustrated by the lack of transparency and respect shown the victims by the administration. To say that the Afghanistan withdrawal has been a public-relations nightmare for Biden would be an understatement.

Darin Hoover, whose son died in the attack, said that the administration sent canned, impersonal letters to the families six months later with Biden’s name stamped to it.

Mark Schmitz, whose son Jared died in the attack, said that he’s never heard President Biden mention any of the 13 names publicly and feels that the word “Afghanistan” has even been banned at the White House. The elder Schmitz said his son spent his entire life helping people, and that’s why he became a Marine. He knew that was his calling because he could do it on a grand scale.”

As a legacy to Jared, his family founded Freedom 13, a nonprofit group which plans to operate retreat centers for veterans who need a break from their daily lives. The first one will be in Robertsville, Missouri, and veterans will be able to go there for a week at a time free of charge and will have the ability to kayak or fish on the property.

Mark Schmitz feels it’s important to channel their energy for something good since that’s what Jared stood for and what he would want.

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee and the mother of Gee’s Marine husband Jarod, says it’s painful to have an administration that is not willing to celebrate these heroes who sacrificed for their country because they don’t want to be blamed. She and a number of other Gold Star parents were upset with Biden’s reaction when the flag-draped caskets came back to American soil. Video shows the President impatiently checking his watch at Dover Air Force Base during the solemn return home ceremony.

The disgust mounted when Biden failed to acknowledge the 13 deaths in his State of the Union address but then later referred to the withdrawal as an “extraordinary success.”

The family of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui experienced a secondary tragedy last month when the slain soldier’s older brother, Dakota Halverson, committed suicide at a public memorial site for his brother. Their mother, Shana Chappell, announced the tragic event on Facebook.

A 121-page report by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that investigated the U.S. withdrawal, blames the Biden administration for failing to plan accordingly for what would happen once all U.S. troops left the country, saying that Biden “was warned repeatedly that the return of the Taliban was a question of when, not if.”

It also stated that the decision to withdraw U.S. military forces was made by Biden, despite advice from his military commanders that such a move could lead to Taliban battlefield gains. To avenge the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members, Biden compounded the withdrawal debacle when he authorized a military strike that killed ten Afghan civilians, including seven children.

Last week, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy marked the anniversary of the Kabul disaster with a statement, maintaining that legislators have a responsibility to ensure there is accountability for the terrible decisions that led to their deaths and that we achieve full transparency in the fatal flaws that were carried out by the president and his national security team.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.