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