KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A headstone for U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, a Gibbs High School graduate who died in a suicide bombing alongside 12 other servicemembers outside Kabul's airport in Afghanistan, is now up at Arlington National Cemetery.
Friends and family of Knauss said that it took time for a headstone to be made for him, and one wasn't immediately available at the time he was buried.
He was killed on Aug. 26 and the East Tennessee community mourned his death as one of the last U.S. servicemembers to die in Afghanistan. He was laid to rest in September and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, along with the 12 other troops.
Since then, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan measure to posthumously award him the Congressional Gold Medal, along with the other servicemembers as well. The University of Tennessee also said they planned to honor him with a scholarship in his name.
Gibbs High School, his alma mater, also honored him with a public memorial on Sept. 11 at the school's football stadium.