WASHINGTON – Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee left a strong impression on her fellow military service members.
They’ve been sharing online tributes to her since she died last week with a dozen other troops in a suicide attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where she had been helping to evacuate refugees and American citizens.
“You always looked out for everyone and put yourself last,” Nick Caltabiano, a friend from the Marines, wrote of Gee in an Instagram post.
Gee, 23, was a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to the Department of Defense. She was promoted to sergeant last month.
Several of Gee’s friends, colleagues and classmates praised Gee for her unending desire to help others, a quality which brought her to the front lines of the United States’ withdrawal efforts after 20 years of having boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
Her unit deployed to Afghanistan as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, compelling the Biden administration to reinforce its evacuation.
“We didn’t know we would be sent here. We didn’t train for this mission. We were sent in with virtually no details of how this was going to work but Nicole was out in front with all of us 03’s unwavering in the face of the unknown,” Marine Rowdy Woods wrote in an Instagram post.
His praise meant he considered Gee as committed to the mission as an infantryman. The number 03 refers to the infantry in Marine career fields.
Gee’s car is still parked in a lot at Camp Lejeune, Gee’s former roommate, Sgt. Mallory Harrison, wrote in a Facebook post.
“I can’t quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how I’m never going to see her again,” Harrison wrote. “How her last breath was taken doing what she loved—helping people—at HKIA in Afghanistan. Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.”
The Islamic State Khorasan, a terrorist group associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — also known as ISIS — took credit for the attack that killed Gee. President Joe Biden retaliated with airstrikes targeting Islamic extremists and he attended a service at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when the fallen troops returned to the U.S.
“You never expect it to happen to someone that you love like family,” Marine Noah Harrington wrote in an Instagram post. “Nicole Gee... Sgt. Gee is one of the most well respected, loving, genuine, and influential people I have ever met in my life. It was one of my greatest honors ever to serve with you and be lucky enough to say I was your friend and mentor.”
One of her last Instagram posts shows Gee cradling a baby amid evacuations.
She captioned it, “I love my job.”
“Nicole is one of the kindest, strongest, most genuine souls anyone has ever had the pleasure of meeting,” Taylor Cooper, another friend from the Marines, wrote in an Instagram post. “She is the epitome of a stellar and perfect Marine, and she was doing what she loved.”
The last U.S. plane left Kabul on Monday, Aug. 30, the Pentagon announced.
“I love you Nicole,” Marine Molly Lewis wrote in an Instagram story.
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