Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, who was killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, said the Biden administration has shown "zero" empathy for the families of the soldiers who were killed or injured during the operation.
"Over the past couple of weeks, we've had congressmen stepping up to help us try and get some of those answers," Hoover said on Newsmax's "National Report," referring to what went wrong during the withdrawal. "I can't speak for the other families, although they are hurting and mourning as we come up on the two-year anniversary here in a week.
"Something needs to be done and these people need to be held accountable for the absolute travesty of a botched withdrawal that these kids were a part of."
An Islamic State suicide attack at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed 13 U.S. service members, including Hoover's son, and at least 169 Afghans amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in August 2021.
"There's not been any empathy," Hoover said. "There's been nothing. He [President Joe Biden] hasn't even said their names, let alone showing any empathy or anything else towards any of our family members. There's been zero, just like there's been zero accountability.
"They don't care. They seemingly don't care and it's up to us as family and up to us as Americans to hold these guys' feet to the fire and make sure that their names are spoken of with dignity and respect."
Talking about his son, Hoover said, "Taylor was the epitome of a man's man," and described him as "loving," "caring," and "a faithful leader."
"[He] loved his family very immensely and fiercely; loved his Marines even more, if that's possible," Hoover said. "[He] wanted to be a Marine from a young age," he said, adding that his son was a "big anti-bully."
"If he saw somebody getting picked on — and he was a bigger kid all throughout his school years — he'd go over and take care of it," he said. "And that just showed the measure of the man that he became, that he made of himself."
Hoover said the members of the Biden administration "need to resign" and said he would caution young people about entering the military under the current president.
"I would caution them, at this point, with this administration, to be careful and to make sure that this is truly what they want to do at this time," Hoover said. "If they put it off for maybe a year, a year and a half, until something new comes in to take their place, then by all means.
"But if they're dead set on it, I will support them and be grateful for them that they're willing to sign on that dotted line to protect the freedoms that we enjoy in this great United States."
Source: Newsmax