Pulling in a few old friends today to talk about a topic that's been a major news item recently; getting former interpreters out of Afghanistan. John Wagner, Conor McNamara and I were roommates at West Point and each spent time in Afghanistan. Over the past 10 years, both John and Conor have worked to help get some of their former interpreters here to the US under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program. We hit on a few topics -International Refugee Assistance Project -Special Immigrant Visa Program -Why there is a sense of urgency to getting these folks out -What you can do to help -Touching base and running into interpreters once they're here in the US International Refugee Assistance Project https://refugreerights.org No One Left Behind https://nooneleft.org/ Association of Wartime Allies https://www.wartimeallies.co/ https://www.facebook.com/USwartimeallies Conor was a Ranger-qualified Infantry Officer who served as a platoon leader during a twelve month deployment to Zabul, Afghanistan with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment during 2011-2012. He is now an attorney who has volunteered with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) for the past seven years, assisting former interpreters and Afghan support personnel with immigrating to the United States. John was a Ranger-qualified Artillery Officer who served as a platoon leader and a fire support officer during a twelve month deployment to Zhari District, Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment during the troop surge of 2010-2011. He also served as an artillery advisor to the Afghan National Army in the Kunar River valley for most of 2012. He now works in medical device manufacturing with a startup called GT Medical Technologies, whose mission is to improve the lives of patients with brain tumors.

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