{"id":34643,"date":"2019-06-19T15:46:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T15:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/06\/19\/deployed-eglin-civilian-coined-for-her-assistance-after-taliban-attack\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:02:38","slug":"deployed-eglin-civilian-coined-for-her-assistance-after-taliban-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/06\/19\/deployed-eglin-civilian-coined-for-her-assistance-after-taliban-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Deployed Eglin civilian coined for her assistance after Taliban attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When armed Taliban terrorists invaded Camp Anjuman, a British security compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 28, civilian contractor and retired Air Force officer Kathy Lawhon wasted no time in rallying around the survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six people were killed and 32 others injured when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at the entrance to Camp Anjuman, which houses British security company G4S, then stormed the compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the explosion, which could be heard throughout the city, security guards and Afghan security forces engaged the attackers, Kabul Police Chief Basir Mujahid told ABC News<\/a>. The militants tried to destroy everything they could inside the camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 200 people were in the compound at the time of the attack, and survivors were evacuated into the adjacent NATO-managed Hamid Karzai International Airport<\/a>, where Lawhon took them under her wing, according to an Eglin Air Force Base<\/a> news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe evacuees were not American, but it didn\u2019t make a difference to us,\u201d Lawhon said in the release. \u201cThere is good-natured cooperation between all of the allied forces. They needed us so we found a way to help them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a retired Air Force officer, Lawhon \u2014 now known as \u201cThe Iron Lady\u201d because of her tenacity in the face of the emergency \u2014 had 24 years of active-duty experience before becoming the housing branch chief at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. She later deployed to HKIA as a civilian for 18 months as the U.S. site manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawhon\u2019s efforts to help the evacuees resulted in her being coined by Gen. Scott Miller, the head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack, which occurred as temperatures were in the low 30s, saw survivors escaping with only what they had on them, said Col. Bill Courtemanche, deputy base commander of HKIA at the time of the attack. Many left without shoes, coats or even pants in the frigid weather. In the rush to escape, there was no time to collect personal belongings, he said in the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Afghan Security forces walks next to a crater caused by suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. Taliban insurgents staged a coordinated attack targeting a security firm in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing people and wounding others. (AP Photo\/Rahmat Gul)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur base was already at max capacity, so logistics were challenging to say the least. We pulled together enough infrastructure to provide the evacuees with cots in tents and feed them, but we had no supplies to provide personal provisions,” Courtemanche said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t