By AMY BETH HANSON, TERRY WALLACE and AMY FORLITI, Asso­ci­at­ed Press

A young hus­band with a child on the way. Anoth­er man who always want­ed to be in the mil­i­tary. A man who planned to become a sheriff’s deputy when his deploy­ment end­ed. Heartwrench­ing details began emerg­ing Fri­day about some of the 13 U.S. troops killed in a hor­rif­ic sui­cide bomb­ing at Afghanistan’s Kab­ul air­port, which also claimed the lives of more than 100 Afghans.

Eleven Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army sol­dier were among the dead, while 18 oth­er U.S. ser­vice mem­bers were wound­ed in Thursday’s bomb­ing, which was blamed on Afghanistan’s off­shoot of the Islam­ic State group. The U.S. said it was the most lethal day for Amer­i­can forces in Afghanistan since 2011. The White House said Pres­i­dent Joe Biden will look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to hon­or the ser­vice­mem­bers who lost their lives, many of whom were men in their ear­ly 20s.

Here are details about some of the victims:

RYLEE McCOLLUM, 20

Rylee McCol­lum, a Marine and native of Bon­durant, Wyoming, was mar­ried and his wife is expect­ing a baby in three weeks, his sis­ter, Cheyenne McCol­lum, said.

“He was so excit­ed to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad,” McCol­l­lum said. She said her broth­er “was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine … He’d car­ry around his toy rifle and wear his sister’s pink princess snow boots and he’d either be hunt­ing or he was a Marine. Some­times it would be with noth­ing on under­neath, just a T‑shirt.”

McCol­l­lum said her broth­er want­ed to be a his­to­ry teacher and a wrestling coach once he com­plet­ed his ser­vice. Anoth­er sis­ter, Roice McCol­l­lum, told the Casper Star Tri­bune that her broth­er was on his first deploy­ment when the evac­u­a­tion in Afghanistan began.

“We want to make sure that peo­ple know that these are the kids that are sac­ri­fic­ing them­selves, and he’s got a fam­i­ly who loves him and a wife who loves him and a baby that he’ll nev­er get to meet,” Cheyenne McCol­lum said.

Regi Stone, the father of one of Rylee McCollum’s friends, described McCol­lum as “a good kid,” who was resilient, smart and coura­geous. Stone shared a note that his wife, Kim, sent to their son Eli Stone, who is also in the mil­i­tary and deployed else­where. In the note, Kim wrote that she remem­bered telling the friends to run the oth­er way if they had to go in first and that both of them said, “If we die doing this, we die doing what we love.”

JARED SCHMITZ, 20

Marine Lance Cor­po­ral Jared Schmitz grew up in the St. Louis area and was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evac­u­a­tion efforts, his father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX Radio.

Mark Schmitz said his son always want­ed to be a Marine. He said he learned of his son’s death when the Marines came to his home in Wentzville, Mis­souri, at 2:40 a.m. Friday.

“This was some­thing he always want­ed to do, and I nev­er seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best sol­dier he could be,” Schmitz said of his son. “His life meant so much more. I’m so incred­i­bly dev­as­tat­ed that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quick­ly grow­ing into becoming.”

TAYLOR HOOVER, 31

Staff Sgt. Tay­lor Hoover, of Utah, had been in the Marines for 11 years and was remem­bered as a hero who died serv­ing oth­ers, his father Darin Hoover said.

Darin Hoover found out his son had died in the blast on Thurs­day night when Marine staff sergeants who came to his house in a sub­urb of Salt Lake City.

“He is a hero. He gave his life pro­tect­ing those that can’t pro­tect them­selves, doing what he loved serv­ing his coun­try,” Darin Hoover said.

He said he heard from Marines through­out the day Fri­day who served with his son who said they are grate­ful they had him as their sergeant.

“They look back on him and say that they’ve learned so much from him,” Darin Hoover said. “One heck of a leader.”

His father said his son was also a best friend to his two sis­ters and loved all his extend­ed fam­i­ly. He had a girl­friend in California.

A high school foot­ball play­er who grad­u­at­ed from Hill­crest High School in Mid­vale, Utah, in 2008, Tay­lor Hoover was the kind of guy who “lit up a room” when he came in.

“He was the most-lov­ing, giv­ing, under­stand­ing per­son you could ever meet,” Darin Hoover said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was among offi­cials who offered their sym­pa­thies to Hoover’s fam­i­ly. He said flags will be flown at half-staff at all state facil­i­ties and pub­lic grounds until Aug. 30 to hon­or all those killed in Afghanistan. “We hon­or his tremen­dous brav­ery and com­mit­ment to his coun­try, even as we con­demn the sense­less vio­lence that result­ed in his death,” Cox said.

DEAGAN WILLIAM-TYELER PAGE, 23

Cor­po­ral Dae­gan William-Tyel­er Page served in the 2nd Bat­tal­ion, 1st Marine Reg­i­ment based at Camp Pendle­ton, Cal­i­for­nia, and planned to go to trade school and pos­si­bly become a line­man after his enlist­ment end­ed, his fam­i­ly said in a statement.

Page was raised in Red Oak, Iowa, and in the Oma­ha metro area and joined the Marines after grad­u­at­ing from Mil­lard South High School. He is mourned by his girl­friend, par­ents, step­mom and step­dad, four sib­lings and grand­par­ents, the fam­i­ly said in a state­ment released by a fam­i­ly friend. The state­ment said the fam­i­ly did not wish to speak to the media at this time.

“Dae­gan will always be remem­bered for his tough out­er shell and giant heart,” the state­ment said. “Our hearts are bro­ken, but we are thank­ful for the friends and fam­i­ly who are sur­round­ing us dur­ing this time. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the oth­er Marine and Navy fam­i­lies whose loved ones died along­side Daegan.”

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Repub­li­can from Nebras­ka, said in a state­ment that he was heart­bro­ken to learn of Page’s death. “Cor­po­ral Page is an Amer­i­can hero who gave the last full mea­sure of devo­tion. He served his coun­try hon­or­ably, and his ser­vice will nev­er be in vain.”

RYAN KNAUSS, 23

Ryan Knauss was remem­bered as a moti­vat­ed man who loved his coun­try and was look­ing for­ward to com­ing back to the U.S. and even­tu­al­ly mov­ing to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., fam­i­ly mem­bers told WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Knauss’ grand­fa­ther, Wayne Knauss, told the tele­vi­sion sta­tion that the fam­i­ly received word of Knauss’s death on Fri­day, and funer­al ser­vices were being planned. Knauss said his grand­son attend­ed Gibbs High School and grew up in a Chris­t­ian home.

“A moti­vat­ed young man who loved his coun­try,” Wayne Knauss said. “He was a believ­er, so we will see him again in God’s heaven.”

Step­moth­er Lin­nae Knauss said Ryan planned to move to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., after he returned to the U.S.

“He was a super-smart hilar­i­ous young man,” she said.

HERMAN LOPEZ, 22

Her­man Lopez, whose par­ents work at the River­side Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, was a sheriff’s Explor­er for three years before join­ing the Marine Corps in Sep­tem­ber 2017, said Sher­iff Chad Bianco.

Bian­co said Lopez planned to fol­low in his par­ents’ foot­steps and become a River­side Coun­ty Sheriff’s Deputy after his deployment.

KAREEM MAE’LEE GRANT NIKOUI

The South­ern Cal­i­for­nia city of Nor­co con­firmed the death of Lance Cor­po­ral Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui. The city said Fri­day in a post on social media that Nikoui is sur­vived by his par­ents and sib­lings, and his name will be enshrined on a memo­r­i­al wall in the city.

Nor­co May­or Kevin Bash said he learned of Nikoui’s death Fri­day morn­ing from a fam­i­ly member.

“He was a good kid, very qui­et,” said Bash, adding that “his goal in life was to be in the service.”

The Nor­co High School Air Force JROTC post­ed on Face­book that Nikoui was “one of our best Air Force JROTC cadets” and that “Kareem was set on being a Marine & always want­ed to serve his country.”

DAVID LEE ESPINOZA, 20

The death of Lance Cor­po­ral David Lee Espinoza, a Marine from Lare­do, Texas, was con­firmed by U.S. Rep. Hen­ry Cuellar.

The congressman’s press sec­re­tary, Dana Youn­gen­tob, said Pen­ta­gon rep­re­sen­ta­tives vis­it­ed Cuellar’s Wash­ing­ton office to inform him of Espinoza’s death. Cuellar’s office also received an offi­cial death notice from the Pentagon.

In a state­ment, Cuel­lar said Espinoza “embod­ied the val­ues of Amer­i­ca: grit, ded­i­ca­tion, ser­vice, and val­or. When he joined the mil­i­tary after high school, he did so with the inten­tion of pro­tect­ing our nation and demon­strat­ing his self­less acts of service.”

Cuel­lar con­clud­ed, “The brave nev­er die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.”