Technically speaking, Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum of the United States Marine Corps is not a casualty of September 11, 2001. On that terrible Tuesday morning two decades ago, he was not even a year old, having only been born that February. Yet the events of that day, and those that followed thereafter, would inexorably shape the direction of his life.
Thursday, Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, 20 years young, who was on his first deployment in Afghanistan - helping safeguard the American evacuation - was one of thirteen American services members killed by a suicide bomber outside the airport in Kabul. He graduated from high school just two years ago, but the young Marine from Bondurant, Wyoming was a husband whose wife Jiennah Crayton is expecting the couple's first child next month.
Rylee McCollum dreamed of becoming a United States Marine since he was three years old. Roughly two and one half years ago, he and his friend Eli Stone enlisted together. According to Rylee's father, Roice McCollum, once his son finished serving his country, he hoped to serve his community as a teacher and a wrestling coach.
Now, he will not have the chance to pursue that dream. He will never meet his baby. He will not watch his child grow up. He and Jiennah will not grow old together. He will not grow old at all.
As we approach the twentieth anniversary of September 11, we are reminded that that day continues to claim victims. Thursday, it claimed thirteen more.
-AK
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