The Norco community on Wednesday night, Aug. 26, solemnly remembered the 13 U.S. armed service members killed in the Afghanistan airport suicide bombing — including one of the city’s own, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui.
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The fifth anniversary candlelight vigil honored the “Fallen 13,” and was held at the memorial flower garden inside the Norco Country Center, 960 Sixth St. It was organized by the Southern California Patriot Guard Riders, a veterans’ motorcycle group, and community members.
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Eleven U.S. Marines — along with a U.S. Navy corpsman and a U.S. Army soldier — were killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack at Abbey Gate fronting the Kabul Airport, during a chaotic evacuation of American military personnel and civilians from Afghanistan. Nearly 100 Afghan civilians were also killed or injured in the blast.
Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s mother, Shana Chappell receives a flag flown over the Fallen 13 Memorial Flower Garden in Norco from Marine Staff Sgt. Collier Zelenka on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. The vigil marks the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kareem Nikoui was one of those killed in the attack. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Marine Staff Sgt. Collier Zelenka reads the names of the 13 fallen service members Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, at the Fallen 13 Memorial Flower Garden in Norco during a vigil marking the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Marine Cpl. Brad Sadler performs taps at the Fallen 13 Memorial Flower Garden in Norco on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, during a vigil to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Norco High School unveiled a memorial, seen Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, for fallen service members who attended the campus. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Kriss Ross leads the Southern California Patriot Guard Riders and others on a walk from the 13 Fallen Memorial Flower Garden in Norco on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. A vigil marked the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Norco High School unveiled a memorial, seen Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, for fallen service members who attended the campus. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Southern California Patriot Guard Riders and others take a 1.3-mile walk from the 13 Fallen Memorial Flower Garden in Norco on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. A vigil marked the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Marine Staff Sgt. Collier Zelenka reads the names of the 13 fallen service members Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, at the Fallen 13 Memorial Flower Garden in Norco during a vigil marking the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s mother Shana Chappell, third from left, enjoys stories about her son from Marine Staff Sgt. Collier Zelenka during a Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, vigil to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of 13 military personnel in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kareem Nikoui was one of those killed in the attack. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Norco High School unveiled a memorial, seen Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, for fallen service members who attended the campus. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Wednesday’s event included the presentation of the American flag, a reading of the names of those killed, the ringing of a bell and the playing of taps.
Staff Sgt. Colier Zelenka spoke to the crowd and a community service award was given to the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 574 junior members for their work beautifying the memorial garden.
The garden memorial features a plaque saluting Nikoui as “Our Hometown Hero.”
Nikoui’s mother, Shana Chappell, was presented with a flag during the vigil.
“We are never going to forget the sacrifices that those 13 made for us,” organizer Kriss Ross, a friend of Chappell’s, said before the event. “It’s honoring all 13; not just one individual person — but the Fallen 13. We honor and say their names. We call this their fifth ‘angel’ anniversary.”
After the event, attendees walked 1.3 miles to salute those who perished in the bombing, as part of a nationwide memorial movement to “honor the heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate,” organizers wrote online.
Chappell, who has criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, lost another son, 28-year-old Dakota Halverson, to suicide in August 2022 at Pikes Peak Park, near his fallen brother’s memorial. She has said that Halverson had been overwhelmed with grief and was sleeping nights next to Nikoui’s grave.
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Nikoui’s family — including his mother — were also honored earlier in the day at the unveiling of a new military memorial at Norco High School, where the fallen Marine went to school.
Freedom Square features a statue of a gun, a helmet and boots, surrounded by U.S. and military flags and a bed of red, white and blue flowers. It’s surrounded by bricks engraved with the names of veterans who were killed, including Nikoui. He was a former Jr. ROTC student who graduated from Norco High in 2019.
Freedom Square honors six alumni who died while serving their country, Corona-Norco Unified School District spokesperson Nick Hamre said.
The memorial was funded through private and community contributions, Hamre said. Partners also coordinated its development and installation.
“Freedom Square will serve as a lasting reminder of the courage, sacrifice, and service of our Norco alumni,” Norco High Principal Catherine Wallace saud at Wednesday’s unveiling for the memorial. “May it always be a place where their names are remembered, their stories are honored, their families are recognized and future generations understand the price of the freedoms we enjoy.”
“Today, we are not simply dedicating a beautiful space,” Wallace said. “We are preserving a legacy. We are honoring sacrifice. And we are inspiring the generations who will carry that legacy forward.”
Memorial events were also planned for two other Inland Empire Marines who were killed that day: Cpl. Hunter Lopez, from Indio, and Dylan Merola, of Rancho Cucamonga.
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Information: Fallen13Memorial.com
City News Service contributed to this report.