'It looked apocalyptic' Air Force crew describes Afghan departure

WASHINGTON — It looked like a zombie apocalypse. For the U. S. military pilots and aircrew about to make their final takeoffs out of Afghanistan, the sky was lit up with fireworks and sporadic gunfire and the airfield littered with battered shells of airplanes and destroyed equipment. Stray dogs raced around the tarmac. And Taliban fighters, visible in the darkness through the green-tinged view of night vision goggles, walked the airfield waving an eerie goodbye. Lined up on the runway at the Kabul airport Monday night were the five last C-17s to leave the country after a chaotic and deadly airlift evacuation that marked the end of America's involvement in the Afghanistan war. In the final hours, there were no more rocket defense systems to protect them on the runway, and no one in the airport control center to direct them out."It just looked apocalyptic," said Air Force Lt. Col. Braden Coleman, who was in charge of monitoring the outside of his aircraft for artillery fire and other threats. "It looked like one of those zombie movies where all the airplanes had been destroyed, their doors were open, the wheels were broken. There was a plane that was burned all the way. You could see the cockpit was there, and the whole rest of the plane looked like the skeleton of a fish."In interviews Wednesday with The Associated Press, members of the Air Force's 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron who flew out on the last military flights detailed their final fraught hours in what has been a dark, emotional and divisive U. S. exit from a war that now leaves the country in the hands of the same Taliban enemy it once ousted from power."It was just definitely very tense, and we were definitely all on edge watching everything going on to make sure that we were ready," said Air Force Capt. Kirby Wedan, pilot of MOOSE81, who led the final formation of five aircraft out. Adding to the stress, she said, was that their planes were parked in an area of the airport that had been attacked and breached in the past. At one point during the night, a group of civilians got onto the airfield and tried to get to the aircraft, but they were stopped by Army troops securing the plane, said Wedan, who is the squadron's mission planning cell chief. Right behind her C-17 was MOOSE92, where Coleman, the director of operations for the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, was going through his own checklists for takeoff. When he was told to taxi up a bit farther, he stepped out of the plane to help direct the crew where to go."I had my NVG's on, my night vision goggles, and I had a Raven behind me following me out, making sure that I was, you know, safe," said Coleman, referring to a member of the specially trained security forces who protect Air Force aircraft. "It was a bit tense, I'm not going to lie. But I guess you don't really think of it at the time. You just ... do what you're trained to do.


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Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/09/02/afghanistan-withdrawal-air-force-crew-describes-its-final-moments/5693911001/


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