Donations are pouring in for the widow and unborn child of a U.S. Marine from Wyoming killed in a bombing in Afghanistan.
Rylee McCollum, 20, was among 13 service members killed by a suicide bomb attack Thursday at the Kabul airport.
They were providing security as the airport was overwhelmed with people trying to leave the country amid the U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover.
McCollum was from Bondurant and expecting his first child in three weeks, according to his family.
As of Monday afternoon more than $613,000 had been raised through two online fundraising campaigns: one for the child’s future education costs and one for McCollum’s widow, Gigi.
The education fund—which had an initial goal of raising $5,000—has been a particular success, generating more than $433,000 with around 9,300 donors.
McCollum was on his first deployment and manning a checkpoint at the airport when the attack happened, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
McCollum attended Jackson Hole High School and competed as a wrestler. He graduated in 2019 from Summit Innovations School in Jackson.
His grieving mother also made news over the weekend for denouncing “feckless and dementia-ridden” President Joe Biden and the Democrat voters who had supported him.
“I just want all you Democrats who cheated in the election, or who voted for him legitimately—you just killed my son,” she said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
