On Aug. 31, 2021, President Joe Biden claimed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan had been an “extraordinary success.” Published one year later, retired Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann’s Operation Pineapple Express eviscerates this narrative. Its barrage of short, intimate third-person recollections from a diverse group of Afghan military and government employees, veteran volunteers, and active-duty U.S. and foreign military personnel reveals the chaos and hopelessness that characterized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Operation Pineapple Express commences amid the Taliban’s rapid acquisition of territory during the summer of 2021. While American diplomats and the intelligence community predicted the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, Mann shows how unprepared the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was for Afghanistan’s fall. On Aug. 14, the day prior to the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, Mann writes, “The [State Department’s] Community Liaison Officer, who was responsible for organizing social events, had sent an email out notifying everyone that ‘today’s paint and sip is canceled due to circumstance.’ To which someone sarcastically replied, ‘The terrorists have won.’”
Like many of the evacuation volunteers whose stories fill Operation Pineapple Express, Mann was drawn into the unfolding disaster with the intention of helping evacuate a single Afghan colleague: Afghan Special Forces Sgt. Nezam. When the special immigrant visa program failed Nezam, Mann created a network of individuals with the knowledge and access to shepherd him to safety via Hamid Karzai International Airport. On Aug. 19, after nearly being turned away because he did not have the appropriate paperwork, Nezam used the code word “pineapple” to identify himself to Americans awaiting his arrival.
After securing Nezam’s passage out of Afghanistan, Mann’s network continued operating under the moniker “Task Force Pineapple.” Already, the group had a manifest of 250 Afghans, including commandos, the National Mine Removal Group, Special Forces personnel, a well-known female member of the Afghan National Army, and the former minister of women’s affairs.
With the Taliban administering random beatings with whips and batons, and people dying in the hordes outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, Task Force Pineapple needed an improved plan for helping Afghans escape. Using tradecraft gleaned from Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, a volunteer created the concept of the Pineapple Express. Volunteers staged groups of Afghans near a fetid sewage canal close to Abbey Gate. Afghan flocks waded into the canal and displayed images of pineapples to a “conductor” inside the airport wearing a bright glow stick. On recognition, the conductor ushered flocks through a hole cut into the wire after vetting them against a list of personnel volunteers provided.
With U.S. operations winding down and 600 Afghans to evacuate, tragedy struck. On Aug. 26, a 6-year-old girl on the group’s manifest was trampled to death. Hours later, an ISIS-K suicide bombing took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans. Included among the dead was a flock of orphaned girls a Task Force Pineapple volunteer was shepherding through the canal. Despite the devastation that overtook the team, the volunteer reminded Mann, “Task Force Pineapple gave them something they didn’t have … we gave them hope.”
Operation Pineapple Express also demonstrates the difficulties volunteers endured during weeks of sleepless nights and high tensions as they provided hope to Afghans. As another volunteer explained, “I’m not really here when I’m with the family. I mean, I’m here, but I’m over there … I’m on my damn phone dealing with s*** I used to do in combat. Only now, I’m doing it at the breakfast table while my kids are trying to get my attention.” Those personal sacrifices bore fruit. Task Force Pineapple saved more than 1,000 Afghans by the time of the U.S. withdrawal, though by then, its manifest contained 6,000 Afghans left behind and in need of support.
Operation Pineapple Express is an unmissable and poignant amalgamation of perspectives from those affected by the bureaucratic bungling of the U.S. withdrawal. Mann should write a sequel detailing the continued devastation volunteers from dozens of evacuation groups experience as they support many of the hundreds of thousands of Afghan allies struggling for survival under the growing oppression of the new Taliban government.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
