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Afghan soil the military says. pell bath snapped this cellphone you picture of his own flight. then he gave the order, clamshell, close the cargo doors. minutes later, flush the force. take off. i was able to see the first aircraft this just made their left turn. the second aircraft right behind, the third had just 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-17s had been on the ground three hours, he says. the end of a 20-year war was his final flight. part of what made this so special for lieutenant colonel pell bath his own grandparents were on a u.s. evacuation flight. they lived in hur garre and fled to austria in 1957. they were removed by u.s. military aircraft in 1957 as part of operation safe haven and that made this very personal for pell bath. i also asked him at the end of the interview if he this any thoughts. he said this isn t the credit of ....
Danger what all the operators do, focus on your individual tasks, you focus on success, and you focus on doing your part of the mission as well as you possibly can. reporter: he was the mission commander of the final five flights out of kabul. he snapped this picture of another c-17 taking on afghan evacuees. in the background the cars and baggage and haj g hangars about to be left behind. i graduated the cair force academy in 2001 and a couple years later september 11th happened. my entire career has been spent with a conflict in afghanistan. to see it come to an end, that does make a mark, i think. reporter: pell bath 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, commander of the 82nd airborne, the last soldier to step off ....