Chick-fil-A In Cheektowaga Honors 13 US Service Members Killed In Afghanistan [PHOTO]

The longest war in American history has come to an end. As the final troops pull out of Afghanistan, our hearts are still heavy as we remember the 13 service members who were killed in a vicious suicide bomb attack.

Like most restaurants and businesses around the country, Chick-fil-A in Cheektowaga has decided to pay tribute to those fallen heroes at the restaurant location on Walden Avenue.

The images coming out of Afghanistan over the last couple of weeks have been nothing short of horrific and almost like a nightmare in real time. My family and I were on vacation in Florida when the news broke about the blast outside of the Kabul airport that killed the 13 Americans and wounded countless others while also killing hundreds of Afghanistan civilians. It was hard to put together in my own head let alone try to explain what our kids were hearing through the speakers in our minivan as we rolled up to start our afternoon on a sunny and quiet beach in South Florida.

I kept thinking about the men and women who were killed, but also about their families and their mothers and fathers who had to hear the words that no parent should ever hear; their son or daughter will not be returning home. And for what? After fighting for 20+ years, it seems that this war cost so many lives and cost so much money for nearly any positive result.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is grieving after hearing the news that their family members will not be coming home from Afghanistan. It is also hard to swallow that there are Americans that are still are in Afghanistan and have lost hope to get out after the final plane has left the region this week.

My brother was on active duty in the Marine Corps for eight years and I remember my mother worrying each and every day about him and his brothers and sisters in the Marine Corps. To this day he is still a proud Marine and hearing him choke up over the news about what happened in Afghanistan last week was difficult. Even at my age of 43 years I find it all hard to understand and trying to explain it to a 5 year, a 3 year and an 18 month old was nearly impossible. Hopefully we can get to a time in our lives, or our children’s lives, that war will be nothing we have to explain or try to comprehend.