McHenry Times

Senate Republican leader and former Army National Guardsman Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) was among GOP members who recently gathered in the Capitol to mark the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and to dedicate a memorial to all the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines who gave their lives in the quest to create a better world and country.

The ceremony hosted by the Senate Republican caucus on Aug. 31 was also designed to call further attention to all individuals left behind in the war-torn region.

“I'm here today with members of our caucus as well, including my colleagues who have served in the military, Senators Jason Barickman and Jason Plummer,” said McConchie, who was also joined by Reps. Mark Luft, Dan Caulkins, David Freese, Mike Murphy, Paul Jacobs, Blaine Wilhour and Dan Swanson. “In the 20 years since the 9/11 attacks America worked with its allies to establish peace and freedom in the Afghanistan region.”

McConchie recognized the 13 soldiers killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives as troops were in the midst of completing their exit from the region.

“Most of the soldiers were in their early twenties; their adult lives taken away just when they were beginning,” he said. “They grew up in a world where the United States of America had liberated a nation from tyranny, restored the rights of women and girls to attend school and pursued their own happiness. We protected unknown people in a faraway land from those who wish to terrorize them. Their service to their country and the world was so trusted that total strangers were willing to press their children into the hands of U.S. service members desperate to ensure that their children had a chance to grow up free.”

The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30, formally ending the country’s longest war.

More than 2,400 Americans perished in the two-decades-long war and Brown University’s Cost of War project reports well over 100,000 lives lost.

At the Capitol, McConchie chose to focus on giving thanks to all those selfless enough to put country over everything.   

“May the spirit of their service and the power of their bravery live with all of us especially those who were left behind,” he said. “Today is the last official day of the war in Afghanistan and we give thanks for the servicemen and women who came home to family and for those who went home to God, thank you. Thank you for defending us, thank you for uplifting us, thank you for making the world a better place.”