"I Couldn't Give Up": How One Board Member Helped Evacuate an Afghan Special Operator

Nearly a decade ago, Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Annie Yu Kleiman deployed to Afghanistan as part of a Cultural Support Team, or American women who worked alongside U.S. special operations forces.

Her mission was to train a select group of Afghan women for the Female Tactical Platoon (FTP), an elite unit that conducted combat missions and night raids with U.S. Army Rangers and other special operators.

"They were in danger for being in the military, they were in danger for being ethnic minorities, they were in danger for challenging these traditional gender stereotypes," Annie said. "Some of these women were in danger from their neighbors, who would see them leave early in the morning and then see them come back home late at night."

Even when the American-backed government controlled Afghanistan, these women took enormous risks. They joined a military that didn't want them. They wore ball caps instead of headscarves. They carried weapons alongside male soldiers.

They were, Annie says, "badasses."

Annie trained at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, learning medical civic action programs, searches and seizures, humanitarian assistance, and Afghan culture. She thought she wouldn't see combat.

"I had this weird cognitive dissonance going on," Annie recalled. "I'm not going to be in combat. The objective is going to be secured before they bring us in."

She was wrong.

Annie remembers bullets zipping past her from distances of 50 to 100 feet. The women she trained fought in real combat operations. They were special operators who conducted missions alongside America's most elite forces.

WHEN KABUL FELL

By August 2021, Annie had joined the Board of Directors of No One Left Behind, an organization dedicated to helping Afghan allies come to America and restart their lives.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban, Annie and other Cultural Support Team veterans immediately mobilized.

"When Kabul fell a bunch of CSTs were working night and day to get the FTPs to the airport and then onto planes," Annie said.

The CSTs coordinated via a Signal group. Those with direct contact with Female Tactical Platoon members communicated via WhatsApp.

"The big group attracted too much attention, so we had to move them in smaller groups," Annie said.

All the CSTs would ping their contacts to figure out ways to get the women into the airport.

When they had a promising lead, depending on the timing, which gate they needed to go to, and the location of the women, they would direct a group to start moving to the airport and monitor them via WhatsApp.

For over a week, they worked 20+ hours a day.

"When we first started, we were working with the newer FTPs so I didn't have a personal connection with them," Annie said.

"I COULDN'T GIVE UP"

After about a week and a half, Annie learned that one of the original Female Tactical Platoon members wanted to leave Afghanistan.

A mother of three children.

"I had personally trained this FTP; she was a badass and pretty much anyone who knew about FTPs knew who she was," Annie said.

By this point, everyone was exhausted. The last U.S. forces were getting ready to pull out.

Flights were essentially shutting down.

The situation looked bleak.

"But I couldn't give up on this particular FTP," Annie said.

Luckily, the woman had a current passport for herself and her three kids, critical documentation that many Afghans lacked.

"By some weird luck, I connected with an Army officer who was working on helping another group of Afghans," Annie said. "He included her in his list."

In late September 2021, weeks after the official U.S. evacuation had ended, the Army officer got part of his group onto a flight.

The Female Tactical Platoon member and her three children were on that plane.

TWO PHOTOS

Annie received two pictures that tell the whole story.

In the first, taken on a bus heading to the airport, the woman is wearing a headscarf, the only time in her life Annie had ever seen her wear one. Her face is serious.

In the second, taken immediately after getting off the plane out of Afghanistan, the headscarf is gone. She and her kids have huge smiles on their faces.

"I love that we got to be part of her family's 'coming to America' story," Annie said.

TODAY

In addition to her role as an Air Force Reserve Lt. Col., Annie Yu Kleiman continues to serve on No One Left Behind's Board of Directors, working to help the allies who served alongside American forces.

Through No One Left Behind, veterans have helped thousands of Afghan allies leave the country since Kabul fell. Yet many thousands of SIV-eligible people remain in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Afghan women who joined the Female Tactical Platoon risked everything, from their Taliban neighbors, from their communities, and eventually from a regime that wanted them dead for daring to serve.

American women like Annie trained them. Fought alongside them. And when Kabul fell, refused to abandon them.

This is what keeping our promises looks like.

This is the Power of a Promise.