Tri-County News

Granddaughter was a shining ‘light in a dark world’


Rose Bjerke of Watkins holds a framed photo that made her granddaughter famous, although that was after her death in the Aug. 26 explosion at the Kabul airport. Sgt. Nicole Gee was one of the final 13 casualties of the U.S. war in Afghanistan On the table is the New York Times story about Gee with the same photo. At left is Gee’s graduation from boot camp photo, and next to it her high school graduation photo. The small photo is of Gee and her mother, sister and brother. All are beloved treasures of grandmother Rose Bjerke. Staff photo by Jean Doran Matua.

Sgt. Nicole Gee escorting evacuees onto an airplane Aug. 24 to leave Afghanistan last month. “I am so glad I have this opportunity to serve these people,” she told her family by text. “I love my job!” she posted on social media with another photo taken of her at work. Photo credit Marine Sgt. Samuel Ruiz.

One of the photos taken of Sgt. Nicole Gee just days before the Aug. 26 suicide explosion that killed her and 12 other U.S. service members. She shared one of the photos on social media, adding the caption, “I love my job!” Photo credit Marine Sgt. Isaiah Campbell.

The remains of each of the 13 service members killed by the Aug. 26 suicide bomb arrived at Dover Air Force Base on Aug. 29. Sgt. Gee’s family now awaits the release of her body for a funeral and burial in California.

By Jean Doran Matua, Editor

With the huge exception of the 9/11/2001 attacks in the United States by Saudi terrorists, wars and the devastation of wars have been somewhere “over there.” We glance at the photos and names of our fallen, when presented on the evening news or in newspapers, and we may think for a moment about their families and friends. But it’s usually a fleeting thought, a brief concern, before we return to our safe and ordinary lives.

Rarely do we see the personal side of the casualty lists: the life lived and lost, and the loved ones left to mourn and remember.

In the midst of mass evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan, all funneled through the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up on Aug. 26, near one of the main entrances to the airport compound being protected by U.S. armed forces. The explosion killed 13 service men and women, most of them Marines, and wounded dozens of others. It also killed at least 170 civilians and wounded hundreds more.

One of the 11 Marines killed that day – and one of the two women – was Sgt. Nicole Gee. Twenty-three years old, a proud Marine who had just made Sargeant about three weeks earlier, and yet there was so much more to her than that. For one thing, she has a grandmother in Watkins who loves and misses her dearly.

Rosemary “Rose” (Heinen) Bjerke grew up in St. Nicholas and Watkins before leaving the area in 1976. She lived in Colorado, Wyoming, Kentucky, and Wisconsin before returning to Watkins nearly a year ago. She had retired from the Walmart Distribution Center in Wisconsin in 2019. A happy coincidence led her to meet and instantly befriend another Watkins resident at a California campground which at least partly led Bjerke back to Minnesota. She believes it was God’s way of bringing her home to be among friends and family in preparation for this unfathomable event.

Sgt. Nicole Gee was from Roseville, Calif., where she grew up with a sister and a brother. “She was a very driven, determined young lady,” said Bjerke. “She excelled in school, in everything she did.” It was well known that Nicole was the “golden child” in the family.

After high school, Nicole married her high school sweetheart Jarod Gee. He joined the Marines first, and she joined less than a year later. She graduated top of her platoon, even though she is a diminutive 5’2”; another example of how she excelled at everything she did. They were stationed together at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and at Twentynine Palms, Calif. Jarod’s time in the Marines is nearly over, and Nicole was due to get out later this year. They looked forward to returning to college – Nicole wanted to become a psychologist – and to starting a family. Nicole loved kids, and couldn’t wait to have some of her own.

Gee was deployed in the Mediterranean, a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Her specialty, Bjerke explained, was “ground electronics transmission systems maintenance,” repairing radio and other communications equipment; something else she was very good at. She had been in Kuwait in early August when she was deployed to Afghanistan; there she escorted refugees and other evacuees onto airplanes to leave the country.

About a week before the explosion, Marine Sgt. Isaiah Campbell took photos of the Marines – including Sgt. Gee – doing their jobs. The Department of Defense posted some of them online on Aug. 21, and they quickly went viral, especially the two taken of Sgt. Gee comforting an Afghan baby. Gee shared one of those photos on her Instagram account, adding “I love my job!” to her post. This would be one of her last social media posts.

There are other photos online that show Sgt. Gee and her colleagues at work in the airport. She texted to family through her sister, “I am so glad I have this opportunity to serve these people.”

When news of the Aug. 26 explosion hit the airwaves, Bjerke was concerned but she knew the military procedure: all communications would be cut off for some time. Gee’s sister Misty Fuoco texted Bjerke to say, “Don’t believe everything you hear on the news.” And so they all waited.

Gee’s husband Jarod was on leave in California, traveling with family, when the military escorts found him and came to his door. He called Bjerke with the news, “She’s gone.”

Since late July, about 122,300 people were airlifted out of Afghanistan, including about 5,500 U.S. citizens and their families. The last U.S. plane with evacuees took off on Aug. 30, with the last of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan on board. This marked the end of a 20-year U.S. presence in the country.

The bodies of the 11 Marines, 1 Navy corpsman, and 1 Army soldier were returned to U.S. soil on Aug. 29. They arrived at Dover, Del., and Jarod and his mother were there to meet them. Bjerke explained that they will be kept for 15 days of inspection before being released for a funeral and burial. She now waits for the call that a burial has been scheduled in California, and she plans to be there for it.

Gee’s sister Misty set up a GoFundMe account for Nicole and her family. The site raised more than $140,000 in its first day.

The City of Roseville (California) held a vigil for Sgt. Gee on Tuesday, Aug. 30. where more than a thousand people turned out to pay tribute to their “hometown hero.”

Her father Richard Herrera praised her hard work and dedication throughout her whole life, and he spoke of the passion she had for her job. “I can’t believe that little girl has got all these people together. Unbelievable,” he said.

Her sister Misty Fuoco spoke at the vigil; she called her little sister Nicole a “bad-ass Marine” which got cheers from those gathered there. Misty has a 2-year-old son Lorenzo, and her youngest, 3-month-old Hayden Cole,  is named after Nicole, and she hadn’t yet met him in-person.

Nicole’s husband Jarod attended the vigil but did not speak at it.

Nicole’s mother, Bjerke’s daughter, had died exactly two years and two months before the explosion that killed her.

Beyond her family, Sgt. Gee was much loved by everyone, it seems.

Sgt. Mallory Harrison is perhaps her closest friend. They went through boot camp together, became Corporals and then -Sergeants together. And they were roommates for more than three years at Camp Lejeune. Harrison posted on her social media a tribute to Sgt. Gee, calling her “my very best friend, my person, my sister forever. My other half.”

Harrison continued, “I find peace knowing that she left this world doing what she loved. … She was a Marine’s Marine. She cared about people. She loved fiercely. She was a light in this dark world.”

Another Marine friend, Noah Harrington, posted on social media, “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.” He added, “They don’t teach us how to deal with this. You never expect it to happen to someone that you love like family.”

Even amid her grief, Bjerke believes there is a message to us all in her family’s tragedy, a message that she sees in her granddaughter’s eyes.

“In light of the unrest our country has experienced in recent years, I think [Nicole] would want us to bring the children that have been put in our care to love God, family and country more, and to teach them compassion for the things that make us a better person.

“So hug your children and hold them a little tighter. You never know what will make a difference … just as the pictures of her holding that Afghan baby with so much love and compassion with [her added] caption, “I love my job,” has made such an impact around the world.”

There is a quote attributed to Lao Tzu: “The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.” Sgt. Gee’s brief light certainly burned bright, and we can all be warmed by it. May her friends and family continue to be comforted by the profound impact Nicole’s brief life and light has had on so many around the world.

Lest we forget, the other 12 military members killed in that Aug. 26 explosion were:

Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25.

Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31.

Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22.

Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23.

Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22.

Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20.

Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20.

Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20.

Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20.

Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20.

Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak, 22.

Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23.

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