The wife of a Marine killed in the Kabul airport bombing gave birth to a baby girl named for her father
Regi Stone via AP
- The wife of a Marine killed in the Kabul airport bombing last month gave birth to the couple's baby daughter.
- Jiennah Crayton announced the September 13 birth in a Monday Facebook post.
- Crayton was married to 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, who was one of 13 US service members killed in the explosion.
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The wife of a US Marine who was killed in the Kabul airport bombing last month, gave birth to a baby girl, who bears her father's name.
Jiennah Crayton announced the September 13 birth of her daughter in a Monday Facebook post.
"Welcome to the world my sweet baby," she wrote. "I love you with my whole heart."
Crayton was married to 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum.
The Wyoming native was one of 13 US service members killed at the Kabul Airport in a deadly ISIS-K suicide bombing as American troops oversaw hundreds of thousands of evacuations out of the country following the Taliban takeover in early August. At least 170 Afghans were also killed in the explosion.
The couple's daughter, born less than a month after her father's death, is named for him.
Crayton named the baby girl Levi Rylee Rose, according to her Facebook announcement. The girl weighed eight pounds and 10 ounces.
The couple met after McCollum graduated from boot camp in 2019, the young marine's father, Jim McCollum told The Daily Beast.
On Monday, Jim McCollum, shared a poem on Facebook in honor of his granddaughter's birth.
"Levi Rylee Rose, I love you little girl," he wrote. "Hold on to your mama. She's needing you right now."
"You brought the world together somehow," he added. "Your daddy, he's watching over you. He loves you both so much."
Last month, Jim McCollum told The Beast that his son, who kept his baby's gender a surprise, would have been a terrific father.
"It changed him," he told the outlet. "It put a fire and a spark in him that was really, really nice to see."
AP Photo/Amber Baesler
Facebook posts from both Crayton and Jim McCollum show the family mourning Rylee during his official homecoming earlier this month.
Crayton did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.