# Maj. Geoffrey Ball, USMC, Afghanistan, Abbey Gate Terrorist Attack Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack.md Podcast: [Veterans Chronicles](https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161) Published: 2026-03-18T11:00:03+00:00 Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack--70703555 Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70703555/20260318_geoff_ball_final.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/veterans-chronicles-608161/episodes/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack Duration seconds: 2183 ## Resource On August 26, 2021, an ISIS-K terrorist attack killed 13 American service members and wounded many others at Abbey Gate outside Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. Scores of Afghan civilians were also killed and wounded. Nine of the American service members killed that day were U.S. Marines from G Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. Their company commander was then-Captain Geoffrey Ball. In this edition of Veterans Chronicles , Major Ball takes us through the chaos the company found when it arrived in Afghanistan on August 19. He tells about the heroic efforts of his unit and many others to establish as much order as possible among the many thousands of people desperate to reach the airport and leave Afghanistan before U.S. forces withdrew. Major Ball then walks us through the terrorist attack and the horrific toll it inflicted upon his company. He also shares what impact the explosion had on him and the details the amazing work of his company's Navy corpsman and other medics to save and stabilize those who were badly hurt. Finally, Ball tells us, in detail, about the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate, who they were, and what he appreciated about each one of them. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/veterans-chronicles-608161/episodes/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/maj-geoffrey-ball-usmc-afghanistan-abbey-gate-terrorist-attack.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.