Afghanistan collapse 'feels like another funeral' for Gold Star wife

close

Video

Gold Star wife: Taliban takeover of Afghanistan 'feels like another funeral'

Jane Horton, who has visited Afghanistan six times following her Army husband’s death in 2011, tells ‘America Reports’ she’s ‘completely defeated’ by the collapse of Afghanistan.

A Gold Star wife who has visited Afghanistan six times following her husband’s death in the country told Fox News Wednesday the Taliban takeover has left her feeling "completely defeated" and struggling to process her emotions.

"It feels like another funeral," Jane Horton said on "America Reports." "I realized today this is more emotions than I've ever dealt with in my life. And that's saying something for someone whose loved one was killed in war."

Horton’s husband, Army Spc. Christopher Horton, was killed in Afghanistan's Paktia Province on Sept. 9, 2011 when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. The 26-year-old was serving with the Oklahoma National Guard.

Horton made her first trip to Afghanistan in 2016. She is using her experience to advise people currently in the country trying to get out.

"What I'm worried about is our troops on the ground," she said. "We need to say a prayer for them because many of them have deployed multiple times, and this is breaking their heart in more pieces than we can imagine."

Video

U.S. officials are privately warning it will be "challenging" to meet President Biden's Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, as thousands continue pouring into the country to protect the airport and assist in the mission to evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies, Fox News has learned.

Horton hopes Americans will not forget the "horrific situation" after the troops come home.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"We have a responsibility as Americans to come forward and to demand that we fix this in any way that we can," she said.

"People a lot smarter than me really need to come into a room. And Americans need to demand that people are held accountable for this, that we look into what happened, but also that we make the right decisions going forward and we help the people on the ground."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.