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Was precious. every second on the tarmac was added risk. with the final troops loading up, the danger was at its peak. major general chris donahue, commander of the 82nd airborne, the last soldier to step off afghan soil, the military says. pelbath snapped this cell phone picture, then gave the order, clamshell, close the cargo doors. minutes later, flush the force, the order to take off. i was able to see in front of me the first aircraft had just made their left turn. the second aircraft right behind them. the third aircraft lifted off. the fourth aircraft on the runway. i had the entire picture of the c-17 force in front of me, for sure, an image that i will never forget. reporter: the five c-17th had been on the ground a total of three hours, the end of a 20-year war was his final flight. oren lieberman, cnn, at the pentagon. court documents made public just hours ago in new zealand have named the man responsible ....
He gave the order, clam shell, close the cargo doors. minutes later the order to takeoff. i was able to see the first aircraft made their left turn the second behind them. the third aircraft lifted off. the fourth aircraft the entire picture of the c-17 force in front of me for sure an image i will never forget. reporter: the five c-17s on the ground a total of three hours, the end of a 20-year war was his final flight. part of what made this so special for the lieutenant colonel is that his own grandparents were on a u.s. evacuation flight they lived in hungary and fled to austria in 1957, removed in 1957 as part of operation safe haven and that made this very personal for pelbath. i asked him at the end if he had any thoughts. he said this isn t just the credit of one person or any individual. this was all of the 80 or so ....
Pelbath later snap this had own picture of hoins flight and then gave the order clam shell, close the cargo doors. minutes later, flush the force respect the order to take off. he was able to see in front of me the first aircraft had just made their left turn, the second aircraft right behind me, third had just lifted off, fourth on the runway. i had the entire picture of the c-17 force in front of me, for sure an image that i will never forget. reporter: the five c 17s had been on the ground a total of three hours. end of a 20 year war was his final flight. part of what made this so special for lieutenant colonel pelbath is that his own grandparents with are on a u.s. evacuation flight, they had fled to neighboring austria in 1957 and removed from the military as part of operation safe haven and so this was very personal for pelbath. and i asked him if he had any thoughts and he said this is not just the credit of one person or ....
Make a mark. he knew time was precious. every second on the tarmac was added risk and with the final troops loading up the danger was at its peak. major general chris donahue, the commander of the 82nd airborne was the last soldier to step off afghan soil. he later snapped this cell phone picture of his own flight and he gave the order clam shell, close the cargo doors. minutes later flush the force. the order to take off. i was able to see in front of me the first aircraft had just just made their left turn. the second aircraft right behind them and the third aircraft had just lifted off and i had the entire picture of the c-17 force in front of me for sure, an image that i ll never forgot. the five c-17s had been on the ground a total of throw hours, he says. the end of a 20-year war was his final flight. the colonel says the credit for that final mission goes not ....
Of another c-17 taking on afghan evacuees. in the background the cars and baggage and hangars about to be left behind. i granted the air force academy in 2001 and a couple months later september 11th happened. so my entire career has been spent with the conflict in afghanistan. and to see it come to an end, that does make a mark i think. reporter: pelbath knew time was precious. every second on the tarmac was added risk. and with the final troops loading up the danger was at its peak. major general chris donahue, the commander of the 82nd airborne, was the last soldier to step off afghan soil, the military says. pelbath later snapped this cell phone picture of his own flight. then pelbath gave the order, clam shell, close the cargo doors. minutes later flush the force, the order to take off. i was able to see in front of me the first aircraft that just made left turn. ....