Major Joshua Mast

And so there was collection points for these children. And even to the point where like they're terminally ill children that eventually died in the U.S. and we were trying to find out if anyone somehow could find out who this, so they'd have someone there when the child died in the United States. Like, I don't think people realize how crazy that was, like that mission set was.

And ironically, my replacement, I was the executive officer for Raider Battalion for a while, or Raider Sport Battalion. And I replaced the previous XO was the planner who planned the evacuation ad hoc. And he was like, hey, man, I plan most of this on, like, my 4G phone. And I was briefing the president on a napkin and then all this ad hoc.

And ironically, my replacement, I was the executive officer for Raider Battalion for a while, or Raider Sport Battalion. And I replaced the previous XO was the planner who planned the evacuation ad hoc. And he was like, hey, man, I plan most of this on, like, my 4G phone. And I was briefing the president on a napkin and then all this ad hoc.

And ironically, my replacement, I was the executive officer for Raider Battalion for a while, or Raider Sport Battalion. And I replaced the previous XO was the planner who planned the evacuation ad hoc. And he was like, hey, man, I plan most of this on, like, my 4G phone. And I was briefing the president on a napkin and then all this ad hoc.

And, like, basically what we had done, what we had experienced was across DOD, all these vets of the wars were trying to get their connections to get their people safely out. And, like, such a heroic experience. execution of a terrible mission, like a mission that, I mean, I think was unnecessary.

And, like, basically what we had done, what we had experienced was across DOD, all these vets of the wars were trying to get their connections to get their people safely out. And, like, such a heroic experience. execution of a terrible mission, like a mission that, I mean, I think was unnecessary.

And, like, basically what we had done, what we had experienced was across DOD, all these vets of the wars were trying to get their connections to get their people safely out. And, like, such a heroic experience. execution of a terrible mission, like a mission that, I mean, I think was unnecessary.

And based on my just happenstance, I thought at the time, but like bouncing around Afghanistan in my deployments, you know, seeing the strategic potential

And based on my just happenstance, I thought at the time, but like bouncing around Afghanistan in my deployments, you know, seeing the strategic potential

And based on my just happenstance, I thought at the time, but like bouncing around Afghanistan in my deployments, you know, seeing the strategic potential

difficulties of flying out of an airport where the population center is right built up onto it and like it's just the mercy of the taliban they're not shooting down our c-17s you know and then listen to some of these other guys on the ground like uh like you mentioned i think earlier uh sergeant tyler vargas and his account of like watch them beat people to death if we rejected them like all that stuff was common knowledge like we were getting reports of other suicide bombers other attacks

difficulties of flying out of an airport where the population center is right built up onto it and like it's just the mercy of the taliban they're not shooting down our c-17s you know and then listen to some of these other guys on the ground like uh like you mentioned i think earlier uh sergeant tyler vargas and his account of like watch them beat people to death if we rejected them like all that stuff was common knowledge like we were getting reports of other suicide bombers other attacks

difficulties of flying out of an airport where the population center is right built up onto it and like it's just the mercy of the taliban they're not shooting down our c-17s you know and then listen to some of these other guys on the ground like uh like you mentioned i think earlier uh sergeant tyler vargas and his account of like watch them beat people to death if we rejected them like all that stuff was common knowledge like we were getting reports of other suicide bombers other attacks

And, like, it was a ticking time bomb to get these people out. And the Marines and soldiers just executed just heroically a really bad mission set. I still—I cry like a baby every time I think about it. I watched—we ended up—Steph and I both ended up going to Ramstein. to meet our group because they got through Doha. We had some rangers go find them.

And, like, it was a ticking time bomb to get these people out. And the Marines and soldiers just executed just heroically a really bad mission set. I still—I cry like a baby every time I think about it. I watched—we ended up—Steph and I both ended up going to Ramstein. to meet our group because they got through Doha. We had some rangers go find them.

And, like, it was a ticking time bomb to get these people out. And the Marines and soldiers just executed just heroically a really bad mission set. I still—I cry like a baby every time I think about it. I watched—we ended up—Steph and I both ended up going to Ramstein. to meet our group because they got through Doha. We had some rangers go find them.

And I talked to the tower at Doha and I'm like, my group just got put on a plane. Where are they going? He's like, sir, we don't have manifest. We have no idea where anybody, we're just packing people on planes. And he listed off like 12 tail numbers in all over the globe, like Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, you know, It was like they were going everywhere.

And I talked to the tower at Doha and I'm like, my group just got put on a plane. Where are they going? He's like, sir, we don't have manifest. We have no idea where anybody, we're just packing people on planes. And he listed off like 12 tail numbers in all over the globe, like Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, you know, It was like they were going everywhere.

And I talked to the tower at Doha and I'm like, my group just got put on a plane. Where are they going? He's like, sir, we don't have manifest. We have no idea where anybody, we're just packing people on planes. And he listed off like 12 tail numbers in all over the globe, like Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, you know, It was like they were going everywhere.

And so we guessed like the most planes were going to Ramstein, like 60% of them. So like the biggest chance was to go to Ramstein to try to meet up with them because we had all of our documents. We had vouched for these people disobeying the Taliban. So I was there to advocate like, hey, these people disobeyed the Taliban for us. They brought a U.S. person to U.S. forces using our military ID.