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About where they are today and how that has shaped them. let s listen. my first instinct was to look for my children and then my wife. i couldn t find my son or my two youngest. i heard screaming and i found kiani. the fact that she was screaming i knew that she was alive, she was coherent and i went to look for her mom and i said i would be right back. i knew i was bleeding out and my body was going into shock. so i closed my eyes and welcomed it. and figured i would join my wife and my three kids. but as i was slipping away, i heard this little girl call out to me daddy, don t you go. don t you leave me. and just when i thought, you ....
Opening up exclusively to cnn about that very day that changed everything for them. cnn s chief pentagon correspondent barbara starr sat down with the martinez family. i m pushing through it every day. it s difficult to go through the pain, but you have to look forward. reporter: for 18-year-old kiani martinez, her brothers and sisters, there is utter devastation beyond the pain of burns, shrapnel and broken bones. their mother, gayle, was killed. all four children and their father, air force colonel cado martinez, were among the americans critically wounded in the march isis suicide bomber attack on the brussels airport. lieutenant colonel martinez was just back from afghanistan. they d been waiting to check in for a flight to go on vacation. local media are reporting an ....
Exchange of gunfire, and they re reporting that this was a bomb blast. reporter: 35 people were killed, 300 wounded, when isis attackers detonated bombs hidden in suitcases at the airport departure area. in their first interview ever, the family wants the world to know what isis took from them when gayle died that day. tell me about your mom. what do you want people to know about her? i live every day because of her. i live every day for her, to remember her and to honor her. reporter: kiani says her mother was everything to the family. this young teenager is unflinching. i think it s important for me to talk about this. at 18, where you re supposed to be going to college, becoming independe ....
An american family caught in the brussels terror attack. five of them critically injured. their beloved mother and wife killed. now they re opening up exclusively to cnn about the day that forever changed them. cnn s chief pentagon correspondent barbara starr sat down exclusively with the martinez family. tell us about it, barbara. good morning. you know until now they have never spoken about what happened to them on march 22nd. now, they re ready to talk. they want to tell the world what did happen. i m pushing through it every day. it s difficult. to go through the pain. but you have to look forward. reporter: for 18-year-old kiani martinez, her brother and sisters, there is utter devastation beyond the pain of burns, shrapnel and broken bones. their mother gail was killed. ....
it s tough. reporter: lieutenant colonel martinez now raising four children on his own, grieving his wife and recovering from his own injuries. photos of happier times with gayle in europe while lieutenant colonel martinez held a nato job. i later learned i took most if not all of the shrapnel. my son took the secondary wave. he got the burn, the flame. i didn t lose consciousness. i was blasted forward. and i knew i was bleeding because i felt blood coming from my ear. reporter: martinez instantly feared the worst. my first instinct was to look for my children and for my wife. i couldn t find my son nor my two youngest. i heard screaming, and i found kiani. the fact that she was screaming, i knew that she was alive, she was coherent. and i went to look for her mom. i said, i ll be right back. i went to look for her mom. ....