Myers has been working with two other retired Marines, Katy Garroway of Maryland and Rico Reyes of Texas. In the final grim 12 hours in Kabul, no matter what anyone in military leadership or President Joe Biden said, no Americans who reached the airport were able to get out, Myers said.
“Within that last 12 hours, I had four buses of American citizens outside the gate," he said. "They were mostly pregnant women and babies, including a child with spina bifida, just all packed together waiting at the gate.”
Myers said his team paid off the Taliban with a big bribe to allow their buses to go through. “They got to the gate, and there was an aid organization that was supposed to meet us with representatives, with the rosters, and to tell the Taliban to expect them.”
The aid organization didn’t show up.
“I, in panic mode, called, and called, and called all my Marine networks, I got the number for one of the top commanders down there explained the situation and we got in a big argument when he told me the Taliban makes the calls down here,” said Myers.
They never got out.
...
But the weight of not getting someone, anyone out is crushing to them. “Telling people, 'I can't help you save your family,' isn’t anything I ever anticipated. But going through spreadsheets and saying this family can live because they have four members and I have four seats, but this family can't because they have five members, and I don't have enough seats…” he says, his voice dropping.
“We should not be doing this. We should not be the ones having to do this. This should have been taken care of by the government. I'm literally telling people that their families are going to die because I don't have space for them.”
The operation has become clandestine since the U.S. military abandoned thousands of American citizens, green card holders, and journalists to the Taliban.
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