‘It was not necessary for that to happen’: Pinellas County mother loses son in Afghanistan bombing

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The last message Paula Knauss ever got from her son came last Tuesday.

"He sent me a picture of himself with the message that everything is fine. ‘I love you Mom,’" Paula recalled.

By Thursday, 23-year-old Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was dead.

"What are the chances that out of 6,000 troops that it'll be your own son?" she shared.

Ryan Knauss was one of 13 American troops killed while guarding the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul as thousands were airlifted during the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

Less than a week into his second tour in Afghanistan, he was living the life he dreamed about as a 7-year-old.

"(He) really wanted to defend the helpless," Paula said.

He enlisted even before he was 18.

"Someone sat him down and said tell me why you want to do the armed forces," Paula explained. "He said 'I don't want to live a normal life,’"

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Paula says the way he died was unacceptable. She understands that war is inherently dangerous, but wonders why there wasn't enough security for those trying to get out, and for those trying to help them do so. How did the U.S. wind up in a place where it was relying on the Taliban?

"For 20 years, we fought and now, at the end, we are going to exit so fast we will cause casualties," she said. "It was not necessary for that to happen."

Now, Paula Knauss is a mother living a nightmare and planning a funeral, for a boy who lived his dream.

"There are so few 23-year-olds in this world who can truly say they would give everything for our country the way he did. And yet 13 surely showed that."

Paula hopes to bury her son at Arlington National Cemetery.

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