UVA to Honor Iraq War Casualty Capt. Khan from Silver Spring

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Muslim Army captain from Silver Spring who was killed in Iraq will be honored this spring by his alma mater, the University of Virginia, with a plaque at the Rotunda. The site honors hundreds of the college's alumni who died in conflicts from the Civil War through the Vietnam War; U.S. Army Capt. Humayun S. Khan is the university’s only graduate killed in the Iraq War.

Khan, 27, died June 8, 2004, in Baquabah, Iraq, after suicide bombers drove into the gate of his compound. The American hero is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Born to Pakistani immigrants in the United Arab Emirates, Khan grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Kennedy High School and the University of Virginia in 2000.

A dedication ceremony for the plaque in Khan's memory is scheduled for May 2.

Lt. Col. Mark Houston, commander of UVA’s Army ROTC program, described the plaque as “further recognition of the sacrifices that UVA graduates have made for their country. This is something to honor the fallen.”

Khizr Khan, the slain soldier's father, said he was pleased by the news that his son will be honored.

“We brought a high school graduate to Mr. Jefferson’s University and he turned into a patriot and a public servant,” Khan told the University of Virginia's news service. “He lived that tradition to his last breath.”

Capt. Khan's father and mother, Khizr and Ghazala Khan of Charlottesville, Virginia, continue to hear from his classmates. “They share their family photos and news of other events in their lives to stay connected as family members do. They all are our family," his father said.

Stacie Holzgrefe, a 2000 UVA graduate and Humayun Khan’s Army ROTC classmate, said it was appropriate that Khan will be remembered at the Rotunda.

“He loved UVA,” she told the news service. “Of all the honors that could have been bestowed, this would mean the most to him."

SEE ALSO: Father of Fallen Muslim Soldier Tells Trump: 'You Have Sacrificed Nothing'

His parents publicly quarreled with President-elect Donald Trump during the election campaign and told voters that their family wouldn’t be allowed in a United States under a Trump presidency — and their Muslim son wouldn’t have had the chance to fight for a country that believes in religious freedom.

Khizr Khan denounced Trump at the Democratic National Convention for his proposed ban of Muslims with the words “you have sacrificed nothing.”

During a presidential debate, Trump said if he were president, Capt. Khan would still be alive, because he would not have sent troops into Iraq.

"Disgraceful comment. It is total no empathy, not only for Capt. Humayun Khan. He died for a purpose," Khizr Khan told NBC News. "For this candidate to say, 'Had I been the president, they would be alive,' is such a disgrace."

Khizr Khan spoke for himself and his wife at the DNC in Philadelphia; Ghazala Khan said later she was too emotional about their son to speak in front of a nationwide audience. Trump surmised later that she wasn’t allowed to speak because of their Muslim faith, which the Khans vehemently denounced.

The couple had the convention on its feet in July when Khizr Khan asked Trump rhetorically from the stage: “Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law,'” Khan said as he pulled a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution from his suit jacket.

He urged Trump to visit Arlington Cemetery, where veterans of every faith, gender and ethnicity are buried.

“You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” Khan said to the GOP presidential nominee.
»Screenshots of Capt. Humayun Khan, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, from DNC video footage