A Carson City, Nevada, boy pulled on heartstrings when he honored the 13 service members who died in Afghanistan on Thursday by playing Taps before a U.S. flag at half-staff outside his family's home.
Devin Linehan, 14, is a cadet senior airman with the Nevada Civil Air Patrol, which offers support to the U.S. Air Force. His father, Sean Linehan, served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 10 and a half years.
"He was pretty upset about the whole situation and didn't know what to do and [his mother] kind of guided him," Linehan told Fox News, calling it a "spur of the moment" performance.
Linehan allowed Devin to play at 9 p.m. MT.
"When we heard the news of the Marines in [Kabul] who got killed… it hit a little close to home," Sean Linehan told Fox News of his son.
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The Marine veteran, who was trained to on casualty reporting during his service, said he felt "a flood of emotions," including "anger that it even happened in the first place" and "sadness" because he knows "the process" of how casualty notifications are given to those military families who have lost someone.
"You get close to those people," Linehan said, "even if you're not active duty, you still feel like they're your brother, and you'd do anything for them."
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Military service and a love of country run in the family. Linehan's grandfather was a Marine who served in the Pacific theater of World War II, his brother served in the European theater, his uncle served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and his cousin also served in the Navy.
Officials confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that 11 Marines, an Army soldier and a Navy corpsman were killed in explosions near Kabul's airport Thursday. Another 169 Afghans were killed, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Fox News' Brie Stimson contributed to this report.