Lockeford parents reflect on son’s sacrifice as Afghanistan falls following U.S. departure
LOCKEFORD — When Greg and Lori Coumas saw the images of U.S. military helicopters leaving Kabul this past weekend as the Taliban overtook Afghanistan and hundreds of its citizens flooded airports seeking safe passage abroad, the former was reminded of a similar exit from an overseas conflict deemed a disaster.
“It was like Saigon all over again,” Greg Coumas said. “But this was far worse. In Saigon, they were able to get 100,000 people out of there. Those people we’re leaving behind are going to be slaughtered.”
Greg Coumas feels very strongly about the Afghan conflict and the current administration’s exit strategy. He said on the one hand, he was relieved the military was finally
pulling out of the wartorn nation after 20 years.
But on the other, the way it has been executed has left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“We’re leaving thousands of dollars of military equipment, Black Hawks, tanks and weapons, for the Taliban,” he said. “I’m thinking this administration is inept. To think they handled this the way they did, and then to blame another president, now we have one who’s clearly inept.”
Coumas isn’t solely blaming the Biden administration for the chaos erupting in Afghanistan. He acknowledged that former President George W. Bush entered the conflict without an exit strategy in place, and lamented that his successor, Barack Obama, stumbled with a plan to leave the country.
He said he didn’t know what to think of Donald Trump, but was completely disappointed in the current president, stating the blood of Afghan civilians who are killed by the over-pwoering regime would be on Biden’s hands.
The Coumas’ 22-yearold son Kyle was killed in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan in 2009 when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
The couple has remained in touch with many of their sons’ fellow soldiers and comrades, and Greg Coumas said the current situation overseas was almost like a slap in the face to those who fought to bring order and peace to the region.
“The soldiers over there, actually everyone over there, believed in the mission, and they were proud that they weren’t sacrificed in vain,” he said. “There’s something to be said about 20 years without a serious attack. But on the other hand, a lot of the guys I’ve talked to feel used by the military, and their mission was restricted with the rules of engagement.”
As an example, Coumas said, he heard complaints from many soldiers that they would be attacked by insurgents while on patrol.
Soldiers would give chase during a firefight, and their assailant would find refuge in a non-combative citizen’s home.
He said that soldiers then had to wait for permission from superior officers to enter the home and continue pursuit, often times being rejected, as command wanted to keep civilians out of harm’s way.
It was this policy of counterinsurgency — in which U.S. forces take a more non-combative and diplomatic approach to warfare — that many of the enlisted feel was hampering efforts to secure the nation, Coumas said.
“That just makes no sense,” he said. “We’re not allowed to kill the enemy in certain situations, but they’re killing us at every turn. They can hide out in someone’s home, and they’ll be safe there because that person is too scared to say or do anything. And later on, they come back to fight again.”
Kyle Coumas was the couple’s only son, and served with the Army’s 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat team.
Greg Coumas said that out of the 5,000 servicemen and women that accompanied their son to Afghanistan, only about 1,000 actually saw combat. And of those, 44 were killed in action. Half of those killed were in Kyle’s regiment, he said. Since Kyle’s death, Coumas said he and Lori have found love and support from their son’s comrades and friends he made while serving overseas.
“They’ve been welcoming and inclusive, and have really treated us like family,” he said. “When we get together, they’ll tell us about all the ridiculous things they did or that Kyle did. They’re like our sons.”
One amusing story Coumas recalled was when his son saluted a commanding officer while being chewed out, then turned around and did the exact same thing that earned him the first reprimand.
“He did it because, he was like, ‘what are you going to do to me?’ They were sending him out into a warzone,” Coumas said. “Whatever punishment they were going to give him didn’t compare to what those guys had seen or experienced.”