Marine Nicole Gee identified as one of the US service members killed in Kabul
The Marine captured in a photo cooing over a rescued Afghan infant last week was identified Saturday as one of the 13 US service members slaughtered in Thursday’s terror attack in Kabul.
“I love my job,” Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, captioned the Aug. 20 snap on Instagram, showing her peering down at the baby in her arms.
The photo was later picked up by the Pentagon and shared on its Twitter account.
“U.S. military service members comfort infants at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan,” the Department of Defense wrote to accompany a series of candid photos showing camo-clad warriors on babysitting duty.
Gee, a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was from Roseville, Calif., Stars & Stripes reported. She had been assigned to assist women and girls at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport as they fled Taliban repression.
She last posted on Instagram on Aug. 22 — a photo showing her armed and watching over a long line of evacuees as they boarded an airplane to flee Kabul at night.
“Escorting evacuees onto the bird,” Gee wrote with a heart emoji.
On her Instagram bio, the resident of Sacramento, Calif. described herself as a “positive mental health attitude advocate.”
Gee was a “model Marine,” according to Capt. Karen Holliday, who mourned her pal’s loss on Facebook.
“She was doing God’s work…..a warrior,” Holliday wrote, adding that Gee had recently earned a meritorious promotion to sergeant and boasted perfect fitness scores.
Gee proudly documented her promotion with a series of photos on social media, writing “Never would have imagined having my Sergeant promotion meritoriously in Kuwait.”
She was seen in another recent photo chatting kindly with a pair of young Afghan girls as she guided them across the tarmac toward new lives of freedom.
“Our family will never be the same now that you’re no longer with us,” Gee’s cousin, Steffani Moody, posted on Facebook. “You were a hero to the people you helped in Kabul, and we could not be more proud of your memory.”
Misty Fuoco, Gee’s sister, called her “such a bright light to everyone she touched” on a GoFundMe site she organized so that family and friends can attend funeral services.
Fuoco added a touching tribute to Gee’s husband Jarod Gee, a fellow Marine.
“They had a bond like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Fuoco wrote. “I’m so devastated that he has lost the love of his life.”
Sgt. Mallory Harrison, Gees’ roommate in a house they shared at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, posted a heartbreaking Facebook tribute to her friend late Friday.
“I find peace knowing that she left this world doing what she loved,” Harrison wrote.
“She was a Marine’s Marine. She cared about people. She loved fiercely. She was a light in this dark world.”
Harrison shared a collection of snapshots showing the two blonde sergeants sharing beach days, shopping trips and evenings out.
But she was fixated on the reminder of Gee’s car, which Harrison had been maintaining in her buddy’s absence.
“Her car is still there, & she’s gone forever,” Harrison wrote.
