The father of U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover told Fox & Friends on Monday his son was supposed to come home on September 15 of this year after he was done with the deployment while assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.
His father, who is also named Darin, said the family is working through the loss of Ssgt. Hoover.
"You know, no parent should have to bury their sons or daughters, it’s not supposed to work that way. And here I am, here his mom is and here his sisters are and their husbands as well, as well as grandparents and aunts, uncles, cousins, he’s got two nieces as well and they’re only going to grow up knowing him by what we tell them and what they will be able to see just from the pictures and stuff that we have," Hoover said.
Hoover explained Ssgt. Hoover's fiancee and his sisters tried for awhile to get him to leave the Marine Corps and "he was going to stay a little while longer, and unfortunately, we won’t have that opportunity," adding his son wanted to enlist into the military after the terrorist attacks on September 11.
"He knew then that he wanted to serve. It wasn’t until he was in high school and the recruiters came by the high school that he wanted to be a Marine, so he loved service...You know, I was proud and scared at the same time knowing one of the models of the Marine Corps, first in, last out, knowing that he would be going into harm’s way, and ultimately, died with his brothers and sisters by his side."
The other Marines who were killed when terrorists attacked the gate they were manning at Hamid Karzai International Airport are: Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, and Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, and Sgt. Nicole L. Gee.
Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss were also killed in the attacks.