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Reports have indicated that 2 veterans groups teamed up to help more than 450 people flee Afghanistan and working to evacuate many Afghans from Kabul. The ad hoc squads, armed with cellphones and laptops, came together for one last mission to honor a promise to protect the Afghan allies who protected them during the 20-year war on terror. A former Army captain Joe Saboe used his expertise in the digital space to create a vast volunteer network dubbed Team America. He said, “We started referring to it as like a digital Dunkirk”. Saboe amassed a group of nearly 200 volunteers and established a 24/7 virtual operation center during the weeks-long evacuation. He added, “I think we very quickly realized, as a result of our actions those first few days, Aug. 13, 14, and even 15”.

Saboe also said, “Our government didn’t have a real plan and most especially didn’t even have communication with a lot of the families that were trying to get out including American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and especially SIVs (Special Immigration Visas). I think that’s when we realized, gosh, we might need a lot of people trying to support this effort”. A group of senior military veterans known as Task Force Dunkirk guided his team. A retired US Marine lieutenant colonel, Russell Worth Parker said, “Task Force Dunkirk was kind of the command element. We were a bunch of older guys with a lot of connections and a lot of numbers in our phones who could call and break down barriers. The Team America folks are younger, faster, more nimble and vastly more knowledgeable about how to use social media and use the digital space to good effect”.

Parker is a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He said his 20-hour days working the phones were like a deployment. Parker said, “Things were so chaotic. People say all the time. We were building the airplane in flight. We were designing, envisioning, buying the parts, welding, there was no airplane to build in flight. And we just kind of took off and people started throwing parts up to us”. A retired Green Beret commander, Scott Mann, formed another group in Florida: Task Force Pineapple. Mann said, “It all started with a couple of us who came together to try and save one Afghan commando named Nesam. We needed to be his eyes and ears. We needed to be his shepherd. He was the one taking all the risks, but we were the ones that can be his eyes and ears and see around corners, and that’s really what happened”.