{"id":76699,"date":"2024-09-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/09\/01\/when-the-us-left-kabul-these-vets-tried-to-help-afghans-left-behind\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:02:41","slug":"when-the-us-left-kabul-these-vets-tried-to-help-afghans-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/09\/01\/when-the-us-left-kabul-these-vets-tried-to-help-afghans-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"When the US left Kabul, these vets tried to help Afghans left behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States\u2019 longest war officially ended in August 2021<\/a>. But in the three years since, hundreds of people around the country have struggled in obscurity to help the Afghans left behind. Working in isolation or in small grassroots networks, they became committed to helping these former allies to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have assisted Afghans struggling through State Department bureaucracy, sent food and rent money to families, fielded messages from Afghans pleading for help and welcomed those who made it out of Afghanistan into their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret who spent several deployments training Afghan special forces, describes the last few years as \u201cbeing on the world\u2019s longest 911 call\u201d and unable to hang up. Many veterans, like himself, owe their lives to Afghans they worked with, he said. Now those people need help for their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you hang up the phone on something like that?” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Green Beret veteran Thomas Kasza founded the 1208 Foundation, a group that helps Afghans who worked with special forces to detect explosives to come to America. (Damian Dovarganes\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This informal network was born in August 2021 when the Taliban assumed control of the country and U.S. forces pulled out<\/a>. Past and current members of the U.S. military, the State Department and U.S. intelligence services were all besieged by Afghans they\u2019d worked with begging for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Kasza was just leaving active duty where he’d spent a decade with U.S. Army Special Forces and was planning to go to medical school. Then came the evacuation. He started helping Afghans he knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years later, medical school has been abandoned and he\u2019s the executive director of an organization called the 1208 Foundation<\/a>. The group helps Afghans who worked with the special forces to detect explosives to come to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation does things like provide housing for the Afghans when they travel to other countries for visa interviews. In 2023 they helped 25 Afghan families get out of Afghanistan. Each is a hard-fought victory and a new life. But they still have about another 170 cases in their roster, representing more than 900 people when family members are included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To focus on the mission \u2014 getting those Afghan team members to safety \u2014 he limits the conversations he has with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to maintain a separation for your own sanity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Faraidoon “Fred” Abdullah, who worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan before enlisting in the U.S. Army, helps Afghans navigate the special immigrant visa program. (Pamela Smith\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time the last plane lifted off on Aug. 30, 2021, about 76,000 Afghans had been flown out of the country and eventually to the U.S. Another 84,000 have come since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more are still waiting. There are about 135,000 applicants to a special immigrant visa program for Afghans who worked with the U.S. government and another 28,000 waiting on other U.S. refugee programs for Afghans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration has taken steps to streamline these processes. The State department says in fiscal 2023, it issued more SIVs for Afghans in a single year than ever before \u2014 more than 18,000 \u2014 and is on track to surpass that figure this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are risks in Afghanistan for those still waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faraidoon \u201cFred\u201d Abdullah is a volunteer who talks often to those still waiting. The 37-year-old once worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Using the SIV program, he left Afghanistan in 2016 for America and enlisted in the U.S. Army a year later. Abdullah said he\u2019d lost many American friends who served in Afghanistan so it was a \u201cdream\u201d to wear the American military uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he helps other Afghans trying to navigate the same program he did. He\u2019s describes the work he does as similar to that of a social worker. The calls come at random and varying hours of the night and day, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He worries attention has faded from Afghanistan as other conflicts flare: \u201cThat focus has shifted to Ukraine, Gaza, Israel and Haiti. And then we are kind of like, you know, nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t