From Kabul to Sweet Home Chicago - a story about Project Dynamo and the rescue of 117 Afghani-Americans.

Below are my reflections on the amazing effort mobilized in support of the 117 Afghani-Americans that were evacuated from Afghanistan by Ret. Lt. Com. Brian Stern's team, Project?Dynamo?which landed at O'Hare on September 30 and?the welcoming and?assisting efforts rallied on October 1. As I am sure many of us feel, I was there merely as a witness to this effort, but in writing this, my hope is to shine light on the incredible work and stories of the truly remarkable men and women of ProjectDyamo.org and ShadowWarriorProject.org who facilitated this heroic evacuation and are preparing this very moment for their next rescue mission. I encourage you to learn more about these organizations and please consider supporting each in their ongoing life-saving efforts.

https://www.projectdynamo.org/

https://shadowwarriorsproject.org/

It was an amazing couple of days. Challenging to coherently put into words.

One cannot help but be struck and moved by the ordeal endured by the Afghani-American families that were evacuated, 59 of them being?children under the age of 18, also by the incredible outpouring of support which mobilized throughout Chicago when the flight was last minute rerouted from DC to NYC to Chicago.?Equally amazing are the stories of the retired military and case workers involved with Project?Dynamo?and The Shadow Warriors Project?. These are the stories which have really stuck with me -?the strength of character and personal sacrifice demonstrated by the men and women which organized this rescue project is impossible to overstate.?

The notice that this flight was to land at O'Hare on Thursday was circulated to a church group in Lake Forest by an out of state member and the engines of good-will sparked into action. I was there with a small group of private individuals donating personal care items and focused on trying to raise funds to help just one family travel to their home in the US from O'Hare.?Gratefully were able to successfully crowd-raise enough to purchase tickets for eight people - an interpreter named Zafar and his family of six and a mother, Fariha and her baby daughter to fly home from to Los Angeles after this long and harrowing ordeal.

These families had endured an unimaginable journey for over a month, each with their own story - some were allies and interpreters working with our military for years, decades even, building entire lives in Afghanistan, some with children who have never lived anywhere else, forced to leave. Others were American citizens who had fled Afghanistan many years prior, returning with their family for a wedding or funeral only to find the situation changed drastically and dangerously when the Taliban seized control in the blink of an eye. Even once getting out of the hot zone, they faced continued obstacles, political, medical and procedural in their long journey home. I remember the frustration of a cancelled flight from my own traveling with small children, these families have been traveling our of a war torn country for many uncertain weeks. The contrast of their stories is apparent in relation to the obvious relief and gratitude just to be safe, welcomed, well fed and rested after their first decent night's sleep in weeks, almost back home to their families. Though relief doesn't quite capture the complex emotion witnessed, hard to fully express - joyful certainly in the faces of the children running and playing and laughing, responding no doubt to a sense of ease in their parents that they haven’t seen in many weeks. In the adults, gratitude mixed with solemnity - the journey they have been on still fresh in their minds, the reality of the situation that still remains there in Afghanistan for so many, thousands, still in harm's way, so many not as fortunate to have American citizenship or green cards, so many who are even harder to help.

We showed up and did what little we could, sorted donations, booked flights, interacted awkwardly, some more naturally than others. But somehow, I think just our presence alone was a blessing. The simple smile, being there to witness and to listen, I feel like this is where a power greater than us - one which unifies us beyond national, cultural, racial, or denominational categories - works through us, quietly and yet so powerfully.

But for me personally, what has moved me even more profoundly as the days have passed, has been my interactions with and observations of the tirelessly dedicated and selfless military veterans and volunteers that sprang into action without hesitation when the need arose. For the past 4-6 weeks, across multiple continents, they have been coordinating, problem solving and adapting, against all odds, in a wildly dynamic and dangerous environment, navigating a web of international geopolitical obstacles to get this one flight of 117 people home.?

The night before, Thursday, I had driven down to the hotel with some supplies and to see if I could learn more of how we could be helpful the next day. Asking a group of obvious military types if they were with Project?Dynamo, they engaged me and talked with me for almost an hour. They told me about the group they had just brought, the delays and challenges, some posed by our own State Department, and this with a group of mostly American Citizens and well documented Afghani contractors and allies. One man, Mark, who was accompanied by a loyal and loving, yet obviously well-trained military service dog, explained the challenges they face helping people with lower levels of documentation and credentials than the group that just arrived. Often they are trying to relocate them to one of the “Stan” countries, as he called them, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, etc. Another, Sean, said he has a list of over 8,000 Afghani Christians and other groups that they are in contact with in Afghanistan that they are trying to assist to seek asylum if they can get them to a US Embassy. The one in Afghanistan is closed. Under Taliban rule, many have been forced into hiding.

As I left, I asked for their names again, Mark Geist and Sean Patrick - salt of the earth, dedicated, humble, yet incredibly impressive men. When I got home, I Googled them and learned that I had just been speaking with some true American heroes. Sean Patrick is one of four front line highly decorated veterans that formed Project?Dynamo?who I learned the next day have been in the Middle East for the past two months making this airlift possible and escorting them to safety and caring for them personally every step of the way.

The other guy, Mark Geist of The Shadow Warriors Project who has partnered with Project?Dynamo?and whose mission is to support and ensure extraction for the many security and military private contractors which are employed by the US Military, often composed of retired military with specialized regional and tactical training. Often these groups fall outside of the US Military’s efforts and benefits since they are private contractors, yet serve alongside and support military efforts. Mark has spent 30-years throughout the Middle East. He is highly decorated for his service in the Battle of Benghazi, credited with personally saving over 25 people in that extraction from the embassy. He co-wrote a NYT Best seller about it called 13 Hours which was made into a movie. Mark “Oz” Geist, this is him.

For these decorated and trained warriors, in this effort, they are clearly committed to a mission of caring and love. Mark is the one who encouraged me to bring our kids the next morning. There were over 50 children in this group of 117 people. For most of the past many weeks, they have been in danger and poorly treated, or delayed in customs or medical detention. For these children to see other kids, not just military types, even though they will speak different languages, will have a calming and healing impact.?

Returning Friday October 1st morning, I saw Sean again, but not Mark. I learned later that Mark’s team took a large group early Friday morning to Washington DC. These were those Afghanis who had been issued Special Immigrant Visas by the US State Department for their service as interpreters and translators for the US Military.

We also met the larger-than-life retired Lt. Commander, Brian Stern, one of the main founders of Project?Dynamo. He was stationed at the World Trade Center as a member of the Army on 9/11, finding himself on the front line of a world changing tragedy and the rescue efforts which followed the fall of the towers.?Later, Brian switched branches to the Navy to continue to serve his country, deployed to?Afghanistan in counterinsurgency and intelligence for many years.?A few months ago, he founded Project?Dynamo?with some other vets specifically to use their training, knowledge of the region, and network of relationships in the region to mobilize this privately funded rescue?effort to get?all those left behind and in danger to safety.?Warm and affable, he admitted that he was terrible with names, but welcomed all of us into a status update meeting that he was holding with his team of logistics operatives and caseworkers there in the hallway of the hotel while the rescued?Afghani's were having breakfast.?"You're part of the family," he said.?Sitting on the floor in a circle, his team joked?that he was like a tribal elder. It was obvious that he had been in this type of setting many times over the past 20 years in the Middle East earning the trust and cooperation of locals.?They discussed that the mission was to get them out of danger and to safety, which they had done.?The extent of their planning and funds ran out for this operation after the 3pm checkout time for this one night in the hotel and the breakfast and donated supplies they were now enjoying.?As Brian put it, "We're out of Schlitz!"??We explained that we were raising funds to be able to fly one family home. The group discussed that in order to most effectively complete a needs assessment to determine who of the remaining did not have the means to get themselves home, they would deliver a tough-love message to the group that now they were on their own.?Brian said the?few that do not have the means will make themselves known after that. Brian was the one to deliver the message: "We accomplished the objective and delivered you to safety.?Yesterday we had to decide if we were going to use remaining funds to get hotel rooms or get flights for some of them. Hotel was easy and needed, flights were hard, so they got the hotel.?Now it is time for you to go home, if you have flights, go to the airport, finalize your travel plans with your families. We need to be out of the hotel by 3pm."

In the end there were 3-4 families that needed particular assistance, both financial and logistical to purchase flights.?There were several other individuals or groups which aided the other families.?We were able to help two families whose homes are in Los Angeles, where there is a large Afghani community. Zafar spoke English fluently and had been employed as a contractor by the US military, most likely as an interpreter/ translator.?Kendra spoke on the phone with Lou, a member of the US Military that had hired Zafar.?He expressed his gratitude that we were assisting him and his family, saying that he has been trying desperately to find a way to get Zafar, his wife, Zaruba, and his 4 young children home.?Zafar had explained that during the?chaos that has developed?since the?Taliban had taken over, he has used all of his savings and credit cards caring for and moving his family to safety and securing a place to live when they return to Los Angeles.?Farina Haidari was in Afghanistan visiting family with her baby. Her husband, a US Citizen, had remained home in LA to work and had been separated for weeks by this ordeal.?Kendra also spoke with him on the phone, "Please help my wife and child to get home."?Project?Dynamo?Case Manager, who's phone had been blowing up for weeks, followed up with us the following day to confirm that everyone in fact did get home safely.

I now follow Project?Dynamo?and The Shadow Warrior Project on social media.?On Project?Dynamo's Facebook page, they have documented in pictures and video the twists and turns of the journey these Afghani-Americans have been on just for the rescue.?Harder to imagine are the days and weeks of danger, planning, frustrated efforts, and improvisation which were necessary to accomplish the evacuation.?

Before any of us who came to help arrived, Brian’s post on Facebook on Friday, October 1 at 7:37am really captures the spirit of trust, faith, selflessness, and an unceasing commitment?to the mission of the Project?Dynamo?team already making plans to airlift the next group, still there in Afghanistan, in harms way:

America, this was a team win. America did this. YOU, OUT THERE, built what happened here. You helped us fund this.

What our ground team was able to roll up in under 24 hours, in a city NONE of us live in, was truly truly awe inspiring.

To our friends in the NY media that reached out and connected us to your personal friends in Chicago, you earned this win too. We COULD NOT have done it without your help.

And to our Afghan American women in Chicago and Maryland that activated their “Afghan Auntie” phone tree to build out this reception party….my god….YOU are Dynamoes! We literally would have had nothing without you.

And to the Renaissance Hotels O’Hare. What can we say. There are no words. You gave us your entire hotel. We had a clean bed and a warm meal in a safe place because you opened your doors.

THIS is America. This is the very best of us. This is who we are.

Enjoy this team win, America.

Dynamo 02 process starts on Monday!

Dynamo.

https://www.projectdynamo.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ProjectDynamoorg-105552858525447

https://shadowwarriorsproject.org/