As many as 1,500 Americans still waiting for evacuation
Fairfield veteran part of private effort to aid escapes dubbed ‘digital Dunkirk’
HARTFORD — In the desperate evacuation of Afghanistan, veterans in the U.S. and around the world are banding together to use social media, personal connections and their deep knowledge of military intelligence to get Americans and allies out of the war-torn country.
Alex Plitsas, a Fairfield resident who served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, is part of this confederation of national security professionals with detailed knowledge of Afghanistan who are helping families escape from the Taliban. The effort, dubbed “digital Dunkirk,” is operating independently from the U.S. government, but helping those trapped get to the airport in Kabul so they can leave Afghanistan.
“We’ve all been there at one point over the last 20 years or so,’’ said Plitsas, who chairs the Fairfield Republican Town Committee. “We understand the landscape, the geography, the security situation. We understand how to navigate the government bureaucracies between the State Department and the communications they are putting out. A lot of folks are looking for trusted voices of people that they know or that they know served in a similar capacity to people they trust.
We’re serving as coordinators and helping to provide information and direct people to the right places to go to get them out.’’
“My focus is on helping folks get out.’’
Amid widespread criticism of the U.S. effort to get all Americans out of Afghanistan, the private rescue effort has been saving families and getting them onto flights. Some of their work is secret, but they have been successful. Plitsas stressed, for security reasons, that he could not provide specific details of any tactics, techniques or procedures about precisely how the group is helping with evacuations.
Over the last 24 hours, U.S. and allies have flown nearly 20,000 people out of Kabul. An estimated 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan with an Aug. 31 deadline of all American troops set by President Biden. About 80,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul, with an estimated 10,000 people still at the airport hoping to leave, according to the New York Times.
Plitsas agreed with others who said that some of those still in Afghanistan had become stranded there after attending family events, such as weddings and funerals. They thought they could get out more quickly and then found themselves being unable to get to Kabul International Airport.
“That’s what I’m hearing as well from all of the folks I’m talking to and helping,’’ Plitsas said.
The veterans group, which was founded by a West Point graduate, has been acting as “force multipliers,’’ a military term used by Plitsas that means beefing up the operations beyond the original force.
With no American embassy functioning in
Afghanistan, the veterans have been helping with communications and spreading the word about how to get out.
State Rep. Matt Blumenthal of Stamford, who served with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan in 2011, is also helping in the evacuation efforts, although not directly affiliated with the same group as Plitsas.
“I’ve been working pretty constantly to try to connect interpreters and other allies with resources to try to get them into the airport and onto flights out of Afghanistan,’’ said Blumenthal, who is the son of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “I’ve been working with a number of Marine friends and through my dad’s office and with others to try to coordinate people getting to the airport and out.’’
For years, some Afghans have had difficulty leaving
the country due to the complicated, bureaucratic process under the special immigrant visa program.
“When I was in law school, along with another student, I represented an Afghan interpreter in the SIV process,’’ Blumenthal said. “It took us four years to get him here. This guy was the ideal candidate. He worked with all different Army units. He was rejected essentially because there were a couple of buzzwords that the visa processors wanted, and none of them were all in the same letter. I shudder to imagine what happens to countless other Afghan interpreters who are equally deserving and do not have a lawyer and two Yale law students to help them through this process.’’
Chris George, executive director of a refugee services agency in New Haven, described how one family
escaped after initially being stranded outside the airport.
“One person did get through,’’ George said. “A soldier sent a drone overhead, and the drone had a little infrared pointer and hit him on the head. ‘Is that you?’ they said to him on the phone ... The troops came out and grabbed him and his family — into the airport. That is not a scalable method of extracting hundreds of thousands of people. So it is really bedlam over there.’’
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday that the veterans group has been successful due to their round-the-clock effort and invaluable contacts both on the ground and in Washington, D.C., at a time when the Taliban has been blocking Afghans from the airport.
“One point that is so impressive is the passion of veterans — because they
worked with these guys,’’ Blumenthal said, referring to the veterans and their Afghan translators. “They’ve been under fire when they were taking mortars or small-arms fire. These guys were right there. For them, abandoning the interpreters and translators or other Afghan allies who risked everything for them is unimaginable and unspeakable. They feel so deeply to their corps — these veterans. They are up all night.’’
Blumenthal says it is appropriate to use the name Dunkirk, a small town in northern France that became well-known in World War II during intense fighting in 1940.
“It reminds me of Dunkirk, where the Brits rescued their military from near-certain catastrophe,’’ Blumenthal said. “They sent this private armada. It rallied the British to defend against the Nazi onslaught.’’
In the recent chaos in Afghanistan, Blumenthal said that those stranded have been directed by the veterans to the right spots to escape.
“One of the key obstacles has been getting through the checkpoints,’’ Blumenthal said. “In this totally desperate situation, these rescuers are resorting to anything that works. It’s more than cutting through the red tape of the special immigration visa. It’s overcoming the logistical and physical obstacles on the ground.’’
Although President Biden says the United States is sticking to next week’s deadline for the evacuations, Blumenthal is not so sure.
“Accomplishing this mission by Aug. 31 seems very, very difficult — close to impossible,’’ Blumenthal said, “but our military has done the impossible before.’’