In 2011 I deployed to Afghanistan, serving with an amazing group of American Heroes—the Afghan interpreters. As the first target of the Taliban, these souls risked their lives beside us, enabling our missions and advising us on unknown cultural matters.
For three years I have been trying to get one such Hero and family out; he, his wife and children have been in constant hiding during this time; two more Heroes were since added to my list.
The overseeing State Department SIV Office has been what we have come to expect from any bureaucratic office now wanting to fully take over our lives—going months without a response and denying an application for not crossing a “T” right.
We have been back in forth in steady effort, with these families’ lives on the line, and now the fall of Afghanistan has occurred.
Last night I am texting my Heroes to help them find a way out, knowing that they and their wives and kids may soon be dead. Children crying great tears and grief. Surreal Schindler’s List experience to have in Sanpete.
They, and our own sons who I saluted when they returned in boxes back in the day, all dying in vain. Damn our leaders.
CDR Carl Thomas Sullivan,
Sterling
US Navy Retired
Disabled Combat Veteran, Afghanistan 2011-2012
(Information Effects, 82nd Airborne Division/Regional Command South Headquarters, Kandahar Afghanistan)
