Joshua Mast
speaker
189 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Feb 2025
Joshua Mast’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
He had not really talked to anybody in four or five days that I've been around this guy. And he's like chatting away. I'm like, who's his friend to somebody who spoke English? And they're like, oh, this guy's from his home village. Like they know each other. And then when I find out about 10 minutes later, I went up to the Border Patrol agent. I'm like, hey man, like what are we doing here?
He's like, oh, this is the inconclusives where people flagged for a match on the terror watch list and we're vetting them. And I'm like, holy cow. Right. Because I have a child from a capture or kill mission of Al Qaeda. I've got a dad who went to the Taliban shadow governor.
Oh, and I forgot to mention this guy tells my turp before he comes to American lines like, hey, I have a lot of militants in my phone. Will this be a problem when I come to American lines?
don't tell joshua though he's like don't tell joshua and i'm like you know task force already tracking this guy so no it didn't make a difference because we know where you are and like and that actually was corroborated my board of inquiry we had someone come from jsoc and testify yep we knew this guy had dirt and so um i had some red flags going on yeah you send me a video i have a video of it because i'm sitting there at dolos waiting for him because i thought same thing she's like where are you for the covid test i'm like
And so again, kind of thinking that facts matter and like you should report stuff like this, you know, See something, say something. So I immediately reported to my chain of command through our NCS liaison. And it kind of like nothing happened. And obviously that is when we like immediately requested like they're going to get vetted. They're probably going to get deported.
We should probably like now is a good time to separate her. And my interpreter's kids also came with that. So it took them a couple of days to get their act together and actually do that. But like I think it makes a lot more sense to the American people how this conflict started with they know the guy flags. And with the context behind that.
And so like, that really was the turning point where we're like, Hey, maybe I was projecting some compassion I had for all these allies that went to war with us. And maybe I should have been a little more cautious of the outset, because to be honest, like,
We faced a decision point in the evacuation where my colonel was like, hey, you're going to probably have to choose between these Afghans and your little girl. Because the assets we're using to get them don't give a crap about Afghans. And they'll probably just stick a gun in their face and take her. And they're not going to waste their resources getting these random people. Right.
And I literally had to advocate to take all of them.
Yeah. We actually had a team that was funded by the Mercury One Funds, like volunteers, to go get them all. They had 9,000 a head or whatever for the private aircrafts. set to go. And I think they had an incident at Northgate that night and they canceled all the volunteers going out. And that's when my colonel got them picked up by a national ministry and force unit. And so like,
I guess the peace of mind, knowing that there was Americans who were volunteering to go behind lines when it sounded like no one else was doing. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
So I want people to understand. We were so devastated when she got turned over and we couldn't understand why. Why would that happen? But when this historic event kicks off and you're getting texts and calls from people and you're able to get real people moved inside to safety and a new life, I mean, especially from like 8,000 miles away, it's so weird.
You're so far from it, but you're changing lives. And all these volunteers are doing that too. It was very clear that that was a larger purpose. We had a vision to save this one child just because we were in a place to do it. But there was a bigger plan that ended up her life, her existence, saved dozens and dozens of American interpreters that worked with us and their families.
And I'll tell you one story for your audience. There was one group. They had Australian visas. Glenn, I worked with one Australian ever in Afghanistan. And I call this man as I'm dangerously driving and texting all the way up to DC to fly to Afghanistan. That's what my first attempt to go. I'm like, hey, sir, remember me? I'm at MARSOC. I'm working volunteering to vet all these groups.
Do you know anybody running the Australian response to the Kabul evacuation? And he goes, oh, my brother is running the Australian Army's response in Doha. Here's his number. And so I then called Australia. I called Doha while dangerously driving to D.C. And they're like, we have bad comms right now. We can't reach them. We'll send an email.
And I've got like 14 people in a ditch of water at two in the morning outside Abbey Gate. And they got like a two month old and like a 60 year old, like in a range of people here. And they're Hazaras. They're Shia Muslims. They're both ethnically and religiously persecuted by the Taliban. And the matriarch of the family is an advocate for women's rights. Like they're dead. They're dead.
They're so dead. And so I'm like. you see any Americans around? And cause we were using like a signal on a phone, right? Like, like everybody else was doing. And my guy wasn't at the gate at that time and he wasn't able to get the Marines. So, so she hands the phone to American and I heard this female voice like, hello, like super weirded out. And I'm like, Hey, my name's major mass.
I've been vetting these people. They have Australian visas. Are there any Australians? And she's like, sir, the Australians aren't doing 24 hour ops right now. They don't come on until six and it's two in the morning. And I'm like, I was like, she goes, what do you want me to do? It's like, I want you to pull these people in and sit them down and wait for Australians. Come.
So she hands me off to a captain. I do the same spiel. And this is what he says to me. He's like, sir, he goes, I'm looking at 15,000 people and I'm playing God on who gets out. So what do you want me to do? And, um, I was like, I want you to pull these people in and sit them down and wait for Australians to come because would it be awful if these people die when they have visas to Australia?
And, um, we were in the air to Ramstein when Abbey gate happened. And, you know, in the moment, you have so many groups you're working and we would name them very like 14 pack packs or passengers, 14 packs and the gate. I was like, what gate was that? You know, cause I talked to that girl, she was a Marine and, um,
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