{"id":15113,"date":"2021-10-21T15:02:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/10\/21\/how-the-family-of-an-interpreter-turned-us-marine-was-saved-from-afghanistan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:14:08","slug":"how-the-family-of-an-interpreter-turned-us-marine-was-saved-from-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/disaster\/2021\/10\/21\/how-the-family-of-an-interpreter-turned-us-marine-was-saved-from-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"How the family of an interpreter turned US Marine escaped Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Omar Essazay and his family were making their way through Taliban checkpoints on Aug. 18, trying to get to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They only had the clothes on their backs, some money and documents that hopefully would allow them through the U.S. military\u2019s defensive line and onto a plane that would see them to safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omar Essazay had been an interpreter who had worked for the U.S. military during the final few years of the war in Afghanistan. His father was an Afghan Air Force veteran who later worked for U.S. contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were planning to leave Afghanistan before the Taliban came,\u201d Omar Essazay told Marine Corps Times<\/a> in a phone interview. \u201cWe were waiting to get our visas but on the 15th of August the Taliban came.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t