The woke brass at the White House and Pentagon have zero clue what they are doing in Afghanistan, but that doesn't mean your average soldier has lost his fighting edge.
A group of volunteer veterans literally flew to Afghanistan to help hundreds of Afghan allies escape the country before the Taliban could find and kill them.
Although they coordinated with the U.S. military, this operation was their own. It certainly wasn't something ordered by the White House.
With the Taliban growing more violent and adding checkpoints near Kabul's airport, an all-volunteer group of American veterans of the Afghan war launched a final daring mission on Wednesday night dubbed the "Pineapple Express" to shepherd hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families to safety, members of the group told ABC News.
Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Think about this. These men already served their nation. They aren't active duty.
I know our military is trying to go woke, but darn it all if this doesn't show how exceptional America still is. Name one other nation in history where ex-soldiers have gone into harm's way on a hostile battlefield, as civilians and most likely on their own dime, to shepherd families to safety from a foreign country.
These vets are heroes.
The Pineapple Express' mission was underway Thursday when the attack occurred in Kabul. Two suicide bombers believed to have been ISIS fighters killed at least 13 U.S. service members -- 10 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, an Army soldier and another service member -- and wounded 15 other service members, according to U.S. officials.
There were wounded among the Pineapple Express travelers from the blast, and members of the group said they were assessing whether unaccounted-for Afghans they were helping had been killed.
So far, the group have saved over 500 Afghans and their families – Afghans who had helped the U.S. as assets, translators, and special forces.
The mission built on the work of another group of U.S. vets called "Task Group Pineapple" that smuggled 130 others out in the past 10 days.
This is what one of the vets, Jason Redman, had to say:
"The whole night was a roller-coaster ride. People were so terrified in that chaotic environment. These people were so exhausted, I kept trying to put myself in their shoes," Redman said.
Looking back at an effort that saved at least, by their count, 630 Afghan lives, Redman expressed deep frustration "that our own government didn't do this. We did what we should do, as Americans."
This entire volunteer task force was assembled in days and most hadn't even met each other, which makes this even more impressive.
With the uniformed U.S. military unable to venture outside the airport's perimeter to collect Americans and Afghans who've sought U.S. protection for their past joint service, they instead provided overwatch and awaited coordinated movements by an informal Pineapple Express ground team that included "conductors" led by former Green Beret Capt. Zac Lois, known as the underground railroad's "engineer."
The Afghan operators, assets, interpreters and their families were known as "passengers" and they were being guided remotely by "shepherds," who are, in most cases their loyal former U.S. special operations forces and CIA comrades and commanders, according to chat room communications viewed by ABC News.
Here's how it worked:
It all started last week with the goal of saving one Afghan commando who they managed to get to the airport... barely.
With Taliban fighters mixing into the crowd of thousands and firing their AK-47s above the masses, the former elite commando was finally pulled into the U.S. security perimeter, where he shouted the password "Pineapple!" to American troops at the checkpoint. The password has since changed, the sources said.
From there, the operation expanded to more and more people.
- Those being rescued were given GPS pins to follow to using their phones, allowing them to best zig-zag around the Taliban checkpoints in the city. They were instructed to move and stay in the shadows.
- Once they got to one GPS point, there would be a "conductor" (one of the vets) waiting with a green chem light. The conductor would signal to them to let them know when it was safe to proceed to the next GPS location. They would confirm the order by holding up their phones with a graphic of yellow pineapples on a pink field.
- Outside the airport, they had to wade through a sewage canal and the crowds of people to find a U.S. soldier wearing red sunglasses. They showed him the graphic of the pineapples to gain entrance to the airport, where they were protected by U.S. troops and put on planes.
Lois said he modeled his slow and steady system of maneuvering the Afghan families in the darkness after Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad for American slave escapees.
Amazing. Remember, this was all thrown together in the span of several days. That's insane!
Here's a few pics from Capt. Lois:
The Afghan passengers represented the span of the two-decade war there, and participants included Army Maj. Jim Gant, a retired Green Beret known as "Lawrence of Afghanistan," who was the subject of a 2014 "Nightline" investigation.
"I have been involved in some of the most incredible missions and operations that a special forces guy could be a part of, and I have never been a part of anything more incredible than this," Gant told ABC News. "The bravery and courage and commitment of my brothers and sisters in the Pineapple community was greater than the U.S. commitment on the battlefield."
"I just want to get my people out," he added.
Task Force Pineapple was formed and led by former Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret commander.
You guys want to know what leadership looks like in an unprecedented crisis? This is it. This is how you do it.
This is how you show the world that you have conviction and grit and honor.
Too bad the White House has no idea what any of those things mean.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
