On this episode of Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec, our special guest today is the mother of SAS Sergeant Nicole Gee, who lost her life in Afghanistan three years ago. She joins us to talk about the media s response to the news of her son's death, and why it's important to honor our fallen.
00:07:53.620Once again, I wanted to say that we are very honored.
00:07:57.820And she's here joining us now, Christy Shamblin.
00:08:00.760She's the mother-in-law of Staff Sergeant Nicole G, who lost her life in the attack on Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the withdrawal, during the humanitarian evacuation.
00:08:14.280She was standing watch, and there was this viral picture of her that came out a few days prior to this, of her cradling one of the children of Afghanistan, one of the infants that they were getting out.
00:08:30.800It is one of the most moving images and also one of the most heartbreaking images.
00:08:34.820Someone who put others before self, someone who went where her country asked her to go.
00:08:42.420And it's also become the subject of a controversy and a firestorm that, quite frankly, has completely overshadowed the story of the sacrifice of Nicole G and what she did there at Abbey Gate and the families that are involved.
00:08:57.640And so we've got Christy Shamblin joining us now.
00:09:08.300Well, I have to ask you, you know, did you ever expect that when you were putting together the memorial for all of this and for Nicole, that it would turn into such a media firestorm?
00:09:26.440You know, our families invited President Trump to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with each of our three families from the three that are buried there at Arlington from the Abbey Gate evacuation.
00:09:40.900And he graciously accepted our invitation and then visited Graveside with us and spent time talking to all of our family members and we shared experiences and stories about our loved ones with him.
00:09:56.200Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: And it was beautiful and respectful and on the third year anniversary, it was very healing for our families.
00:10:04.200Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: And so this aftermath is unexpected for sure.
00:10:11.540Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: Oh, I can certainly imagine that.
00:10:14.420Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: So so when when all of this came down, just tell me your side of the story from that day when you were there that day, when you took the photos, you went over to the grave site.
00:10:27.080Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: What was it like being there with the former president and the other family members?
00:10:31.660And I believe also some of the members of the unit were also there.
00:10:34.300Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: Absolutely, yeah, it was beautiful, um, Arlington is just a sacred, beautiful place it's always really very peaceful for us and, um, we just enjoy the time that we are able to spend with our loved one there.
00:10:51.460Um, the event we we did it a little early we had a lot of coordination with Arlington and with, you know, President Trump's team to try to, um, not have distractions from any other funerals.
00:11:04.260Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: Or any, you know, school groups or anything that might be going through. We're very respectful towards Arlington, of course, that's where Nicole will rest for the rest of her life.
00:11:14.380Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: And, um, you know, when President Trump came graveside to pay his respects and lay flowers, um, at our at our loved ones graves, it was beautiful, um, so respectful.
00:11:29.260Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: He, I don't even think he said more than a handful of words. He listened. He listened to everybody's stories. He spoke to our wounded warriors. Um, it was a beautiful time. Um, I didn't see any altercations anywhere. And it was a very small number of people that were that were at the graves with us. Um, very respectful.
00:11:51.260Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: And once he paid his respects to each of our families, you know, he, he departed quietly and, and we went about our day of, of visiting with Nicole and our family. And, um, I'm just not sure why this has kind of, well, I, you know, why this has gone this way. It's, it's sad because it is distracting. We should be celebrating the fact that the commander in chief was visiting fallen.
00:12:09.260Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: Heroes and instead we're, you know, kind of focusing on what I think is a little bit of a made up story about a disrespectful, um, you know, appearances section 60.
00:12:21.260Christy Shamblin, Ph.D.: So you mentioned made up story and and and and and by the way, that, that's absolutely right and your daughter in law was and is a hero and I say that as a Navy veteran myself and.
00:12:39.260And and and and by the way, that that's absolutely right and your daughter in law was and is a hero and I say that as a, um I'm Navy veteran myself.
00:12:48.260say that as a um i'm navy veteran myself and serve with lots of marines and um you know we have our
00:12:54.900our inter you know inter-service rivalry you know they say oh you guys are the the sister department
00:13:01.140of the uh of the marine corps and we always joke about eating crayons and and all sorts of stuff
00:13:06.760with the uh with the marines but you know when it comes down to it you know we're all brothers and
00:13:11.300sisters in arms and you know in any situation like this where someone doesn't come home
00:13:16.800it's it's always horrific but when you hear the stories of what nicole was doing while she was
00:13:23.480there helping people helping children to get onto that plane to get out when we know that both the
00:13:29.920taliban and isis were targeting that and it and it seems to me by the way and i don't know if you've
00:13:36.700talked to anyone who was in communication with her this time what was she when she went off to this
00:13:41.460mission did she give any indication that she was that she was in fear for her life was she scared
00:13:46.540was she was she emotional about the threat that she faced was there any talk of that
00:13:51.400she looking back you know she didn't express any fear she told us over and over again that her
00:14:00.780brothers and sisters in arms had her back that she was protected that she felt she was there
00:14:06.820doing god's work um she described to me seeing a level of desperation that she could not understand
00:14:15.720and i think that they all saw that i know they all saw that and that's what drove them
00:14:21.960to continue to do what they were doing for 10 days um you know while our state department clocked off at
00:14:28.920five o'clock and they're uh owed a gratitude you know a debt of gratitude that i don't know that any of
00:14:38.600us can ever repay but it can certainly be respected and um the fact is that we invited you know the
00:14:46.120current administration to arlington and we never hear back from them every time we've had interaction
00:14:52.400with president trump it's at the invitation of both parties and we don't get a response from one party
00:14:59.360um so we just want our loved ones honored and respected and we want this not to happen again
00:15:06.600and to ignore these heroes that died just cements that it's going to happen again you have to problem
00:15:15.200solve and find out what went wrong and how to fix it and president trump is going to help us do that
00:15:20.600do you think that it would have been potentially a moment for america to put down sort of the
00:15:31.280partisanship and the bickering and the divisiveness if president biden and or vice president harris had
00:15:38.200shown up i think that would have been an opportunity absolutely it would have been an opportunity for
00:15:46.380the harris and biden administration to show that they do respect our loved ones that were killed in
00:15:52.900action but we haven't had those responses from them at all and then there was and there was no response
00:16:00.880no follow-up that's that's so strange to me because you would think that there are certainly some things
00:16:05.720in arlington memorial cemetery and the national cemetery there this is the whole point of it because
00:16:12.420it is supposed to be beyond politics and i certainly believe it's beyond politics but we also have a
00:16:18.120situation where uh this came up in between administrations this entire plan came down to
00:16:26.120uh one administration put it in play the other one actually led to oversaw the operations there
00:16:33.600and it has become a contentious issue but you would think you would think that it could be a moment where
00:16:39.280we could all stand together not as you know reds and blues but just americans and say we respect the fact
00:16:46.900that these were the final 13 americans in uniform to lose their lives in the afghanistan war and of that
00:16:56.660they are owed our respect very simply we can have all the arguments later and the investigations and
00:17:03.340those are also owed by the way but you would think that at a memorial service like a uh a memorial to 9-11 or pearl harbor
00:17:11.220or some other incident in our our country's long history that that's something where you could put partisanship aside
00:17:18.460you would hope so uh and i i continue to hope so i have faith in the american dream you know and that for me is that
00:17:30.340everybody can come together and know that we do have a same goal we do have a solid american value system
00:17:37.920to stand on and it doesn't include forgetting our veterans and um really discarding those people that
00:17:45.080have given their life for our freedoms well i couldn't agree more christy we've got a quick break
00:17:51.000coming up but i'd love to keep the conversation going because i think it's important by the way
00:17:55.640that the entire media is talking about it that we ought to hear your side of the story as being a
00:18:01.720member of the gold star family that was directly affected here and it's strange to me why the
00:18:06.560mainstream media hasn't been interviewing you and putting you on but we're happy to do so here at
00:18:11.320human events daily quick break folks we'll be right back with christy shannon
00:18:14.620good i rolled with bloods and them boys had a saying you can't be listening to all that slappy
00:18:23.860whack trimatozala it's a bam ship nippy bam bam like human events with jack posobik
00:18:29.500jack posobik back live here human events daily we're sitting down with the mother-in-law of
00:18:38.320sergeant nicole g her name is christy shamblin she spoke at the rnc she was there at the arlington
00:18:45.620memorial on monday with president trump for the three-year anniversary this and and i have to say
00:18:51.060christy by the way that was a beautiful ceremony i thought it was it was beautiful i thought that it was
00:18:56.140an incredible remembrance i think that just as a country as a country we should all be able to come
00:19:03.040together to put partisanship aside and to say these things happened in our country and we can debate
00:19:09.680about whether or not they should have happened but they did happen and and these are things like 9 11
00:19:15.780these are things like pearl harbor uh so many other incidents and attacks and and world war ii world war
00:19:23.040one all the great battles that throughout history where our heroes fought and lost their lives
00:19:27.840and yet it seems to me like the media is trying to politicize this and first they were attacking
00:19:35.240president trump for going at all when they didn't seem interested in all or curious as to why nobody
00:19:42.780from the biden administration was directly there the president biden wasn't there he was on vacation
00:19:47.840vice president kamala harris wasn't there you say that they were invited and i predicted by the way
00:19:52.840that the media would spend all day complaining about this complaining about this cnn msnbc and then
00:19:59.420finally dana bash gets the first interview with kamala harris last night and she wasn't even asked
00:20:05.280a single question about why she wasn't there on monday why they completely skipped it and you say
00:20:11.560that they've been invited but here's this and and we had heard that as well but here's this the question
00:20:17.820that i have that they're focusing on the story of this altercation uh something about that that they
00:20:23.480didn't want photos there so a staff member was trying to prevent photos from being there and and
00:20:29.860well let's let's just put that to rest from your perspective did you want photos taken there
00:20:35.220which included president trump who was your invited guest
00:20:38.140absolutely we um you know have a lot of family that was able to attend as we always do on the
00:20:46.600anniversary of um our loved one's death and they were happy you know to have a picture with the
00:20:53.020president and um to receive the respect and the honor from him that we just haven't received from the
00:20:59.280uh current administration um these were respectful pictures a lot of them were taken on our own personal
00:21:06.060phones you know we didn't have uh press corps or anything like that it was just a private you know
00:21:13.520um moment with a former commander in chief and um somebody we respect very much and we were happy
00:21:22.080to share that moment with him um i think that you know it it may have upset some people and um that
00:21:30.320they're just trying to make it into something that it just wasn't there was not an altercation i think
00:21:35.580that um you know it it has just been turned into something it wasn't
00:21:42.300and you know i i i said you know the other day on the show here i said you know people were saying
00:21:50.580well this was political i said where's political i'm not seeing you know bumper stickers and yard signs
00:21:55.440and all of those things that sure yes that would be political or you know wearing some political even
00:22:00.820shirts or something like this wasn't political at all this wasn't political this was an honored
00:22:06.440memorial event now obviously you didn't sign up to be a member of a gold star family no one does
00:22:14.820but you have found yourself in that position now um not to say what it's what has it been like but
00:22:22.920just in in general from the very start your interactions with the biden administration all the
00:22:28.860way back to this the actual by the way incident that we all know about him looking at his watch
00:22:35.600as the coffins were received i believe that was dover air force base in in his home state of delaware
00:22:42.020um what's been the level of communication and response from the biden administration over the past
00:22:48.000three years zero we've had zero communication zero response zero um you know we've asked please sit
00:22:57.800down and meet with us and explain to us how this was a success because you know i'm i don't understand
00:23:04.820everybody's perspective i only understand my own and we lost something we will never be able to replace
00:23:11.980but if they could explain to me how they can call this a success i i'm always open to listen but we
00:23:19.840don't get a response no response whatsoever um and it's mind-blowing to me i don't know why
00:23:27.260they would do that other than you know they they are ashamed and they know that this was preventable