As hundreds of Afghans fight to get into Kabul’s airport to flee the country, a group of veterans thousands of miles away is working to help secure the safety of their former translators.
Hana Romer, a veteran and mother of two, is among a group of five people, including her husband who is active duty in the Marine Corps, racing to rescue three Afghan translators and their families from the Taliban-controlled country. Her husband is currently stationed in Monterey, California, and the others are spread across the country in Los Angeles, Mississippi, and Texas.
Romer, an Iraq War veteran, and the others, who are all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have had many sleepless nights as they make phone calls, send emails, and try to work every source they have from their time in the military. Through their efforts, they have been able to extricate one translator and his cousin, but they are desperately working to get the others, including one family with four small children, out of Kabul.
She described in an interview with the Washington Examiner that the situation in Kabul is growing worse as time drags on, as those seeking refuge try even harder to get let into the airport to be processed.
“One of our interpreters was beaten at a Taliban checkpoint, and his head was busted open,” she said. “One of the children passed out just from the sheer exhaustion.”
FAMILIES TRYING TO ESCAPE KABUL FEARFUL OF TRYING TO GET TO AIRPORT
Images splash across newspapers and social media feeds show a mass of bodies squeezed together, waving identification and immigration papers — all desperate to be let in. The desperation has led to casualties, with a 2-year-old girl being crushed to death over the weekend. And while the situation of getting into the airport is fraught, so too is the situation of the translators if they were to stay put under Taliban rule.
Romer described how difficult the process has been, particularly for the family with four children. She said her group sent the family’s immigration documents to Marines at the airport and were told if the family could get close enough to the front and the Marines could see them, they would pull them into the complex — although the attempts have been unsuccessful so far.
“It was 10 times worse. There was way more Taliban present,” she said of the family’s latest effort to push through the mob and gain entrance into the airport, which also houses U.S. Embassy staff. “They were out there for almost 18 hours basically trying to inch their way to the front.”
After hours of pushing forward, the family had to turn back because the translator was afraid his children would suffocate.
Hamid Karzai International AirportThe group has also reached out to lawmakers who have offered help, but all the offices have been able to do is add the names of the translators and their Special Immigrant Visa numbers to a spreadsheet sent to the State Department.
“And at this point, that’s what every organization wants, and we have filled out so many of these damn Google spreadsheets for every single organization,” she said.
And while the group is forgoing sleep and reaching out to anyone who might be able to assist, the Taliban’s grip over the country is tightening.
Romer, who served in the Marine Corps for a decade before leaving as a staff sergeant, said the Taliban’s presence near the airport is getting more visible. She said that Taliban militants have recently taken to harassing people outside the airport and ripping up their passports.
ONE AFGHAN SOLDIER DEAD AFTER GUNFIRE AT KABUL AIRPORT
President Joe Biden has said the goal is to evacuate U.S. citizens and allies by the end of the month, which some worry is not enough time. Further complicating matters and adding to the fear in Kabul is that the Taliban do not seem open to allowing the United States more time to evacuate. A Taliban spokesman warned on Monday of “consequences” should the U.S. continue to airlift people from the country after Aug. 31.
Romer said her biggest concern about the families returning home are reports the Taliban have been going door to door hunting down people who worked with U.S. forces.
She said that after all the failed attempts of trying to get the families through the airport gates, her team is now working to get a vehicle extraction for the translators, which would involve a non-governmental organization setting a rallying point in Kabul, avoiding Taliban checkpoints, and whisking the families out of the streets and into a safe house, from which they could later be transported to the airport.
KabulWhile homed in on rescuing the translators, the weight of the U.S. withdrawal and subsequent fall of the country to the Taliban has pressed heavily on both Romer and her husband, whose best friend was killed in Afghanistan. She said it has been difficult for them to watch the government of Afghanistan fall apart.
“Our family, every aspect of our life, has been heavily impacted by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said while fighting back tears.
Romer said that for so many veterans, their translators became “like family.” She highlighted the sacrifices they made and the risks they took to help the U.S. One of the interpreters they are helping is a medical doctor who gave up his career to help the military “because he believed in a better Afghanistan,” Romer said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Despite failing to get all four translators and their families out of Afghanistan so far, she said the translators themselves have not expressed anger about the situation. Instead, they have shown nothing but gratitude, which has been difficult.
“If he had any sort of resentment or was mad at the situation, it might have made it a little easier on me emotionally,” she said of the translator with the four children. “But I think the fact that they’re just so humble and just so grateful that someone is fighting for them — it just makes me want to help them more and make sure they get out and give his children a fighting chance at education and a better life than what they’re facing right now.”
