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early this morning, quote, i do not know when they will make it on the plane. i don't know their final destination. i do know that through an enormous effort by few individuals, they won't be executed by the taliban. that's all that matters right now, he is with the marines. that post was from marine officer thomas shaman sharing the goodin ooze today that his former afghan interpreter, zak, had made it to kabul airport if you hours later we got this picture of zack and his family with caption, wheels up. it was not easy. zak waited six years for this moment since he first applied for a visit to get out. from rhode island, from all the way from afghanistan, officers truman made it his mission to help him out. joining us now is marine officer thomas truman. he's founder of the -- foundation that helps veteran communities across america. major truman, thank you for being with us tonight, i really
prop up support for the afghan government there. that experience was just absolutely devastating for the british army. by june of 2010, the british had lost around 300 soldiers, total, and all of afghanistan. but nearly a third of that number, nearly a third of all the british older skilled in the entire country in the entire war, were killed in sangin, and just that one single town in afghanistan. the guardian newspaper in the uk called sangin, the puppy town that became a death town for the british army. it wasn't something that was specific to the british. i one point sangin was responsible for 10% of the daily casualties of the entire nato mission, of all the nato countries fighting in afghanistan, not one little town. amid all that bloodshed, amid the disproportionate share of the bloodshed in the war being centered in that one town, by
taliban get him first. it's the excruciating story of -- u.s. afghanistan veterans, so look at some of the headlines of this over the last few, days in the local papers. right? look at this. i'm begging you guys. fort myers veteran, fights to get afghan interpreter home to america. that is in fort myers news press. he was one out of texas, woman fights to bring former student home from afghanistan. here is the philadelphia enquirer. in a couple under taliban control, philadelphia area quakers try to get one man out to safety. here is one and brighton oregon, right there with them, redmond marine works to get translator out of afghanistan. former police contractor pleads for help for former interpreter in afghanistan. here is from looks and mississippi, former marine tries desperately to get afghan colleague out of harm's way. it is, i, mean local papers, local tv stations, a local news coverage, all over the country,
september of 2010, the british foreign minister announced that sangin was going to go through a serious change, it was no longer going to be britain's problem, primarily. he announced that henceforth, all responsibility for sangin would be taken over by the american military. by a group of u.s. marines. one of those marines, said to perhaps the most dangerous place in afghanistan's, at the most dangerous times of the war, one of the marines was this man 's major thomas schueman. you see him there on the left. over the course of his long service in afghanistan, he served seven astonishingly difficult and intense months in sangin. he says during his seven months there, 25 marines he served with died there, in that one town, more than 200 others were wounded. he recounted one particularly brutal day in sangin to the chicago sometimes. it was the day in which he
like most afghan interpreters will help u.s. troops zach and his entire family qualify to emigrate to the united states in exchange for the sacrifice they made for our country. our country created a specific visa category specifically for man like zak who helped u.s. troops so than their families who come to the united states. and zach first applied for that visa six years ago. but it hit a snag, because overall zach spent about three years working for the u.s. war effort in afghanistan, in addition for working for major schueman, he also spent time working for u.s. government contractor that was supplying translation services to the u.s. army. in order to get the visa, the special visa that was created for people like him, he needed to prove that he had worked for u.s. troops for two years or more, in order to do that he needed a letter from everybody he worked for including that contractor who set him up to translate for the u.s. army.
he needed that attestation to his service so he could get credit both for his service with the marines but also for his time with the army, he needed credit for both to be able to qualify for the visa. the problem is, the contractor for who he worked for, that contracted as an existing. more like so many military contracting organizations that existed for a moment, provided the service and then proof. but because they are, gone they have left no trace zak has not been able to get a letter from them, they do not exist. and the fact that he wasn't able to get a letter from a defunct contractor that doesn't exist anymore, that was apparently justification enough for denying him a visa. which again, he applied for for the first time six years ago, and it means that he has been stuck in afghanistan ever since, which of course is a very difficult dangerous place to be if you are not against this and to help the united states, especially in so many different fights against the taliban's.
these individual stories, not just the individual afghans where people are trying to get out, but the individual americans, and small groups of americans who have some connection to the sacrifice of these folks, who are now trying to pull all of their american strengths, strings, use their american connections, use all of their american resources to try to pluck these people out of danger. and it's just, i mean, it is inspiring, but it's also obviously this deeply painful, deeply anchoring, frustrating thing for these veterans and these groups that are doing us right now. just desperately trying to get these people out who they know that they work with, in some cases save the lives in afghanistan of the american service members who are now trying to return the favor. right? leveraging any resources that they have before the taliban rounds them all up one by one. call your contacts, call you congressman, call your local tv stations, call your mom. anything, anything that might help. -- thanks in part to major truman
now, please, president, it's your time to help us, and take us out of this crisis. >> zak, working as an afghan interpreter for u.s. forces in afghanistan, his friend major thomas schueman, both of them here on this show together two weeks ago today. now, what's happened in two weeks, beside afghanistan falling in its entirety to the taliban's. back home and rhode island, major thomas schueman has been in repeated contact with zak in afghanistan, trying to do for zak what zak was asking of president biden, take him out of this crisis, help him flee the country. major schueman had helped zak with his visa application, he made phone calls, send zak money -- so he can try to get his family from where they were living and where they were than in hiding to kabul, you have to bribe your way through checkpoints in afghanistan, sometimes with a
and his family did go into hiding, the province where they were living in was taken over by the taliban. their hope was to somehow, miraculously, almost impossibly try to get themselves from that outline province where they were living to kabul, and then once in kabul to get to the airport to try to iron out this long-standing, years long, snagging his visa and then, to see if he and his family could get on one of the last flight out. as the u.s. continues its chaotic exodus out of afghanistan. now if any of the sounds familiar to you, it may be because zak and major thomas schueman actually spoke to us here a few weeks ago with my colleague ali velshi and you may remember that interview. >> zak undoubtedly went above and beyond his duties as an
their own. they had help. this guy right here, who were gonna show on the screen, there's a red arrow pointing to him, his arms are folded in front of him and he's focused intently on the local guy who is speaking to. the red arrow on that picture is pointing to a young afghan men who goes by the name zak, it's not his real name but that's with the marines called him. he was just 20 years old when he signed up to work within the rains it helmand province. he was an interpreter for the u.s. army, he would help them talk to other afghans like he is doing here. he would not only translate from whatever the local length which wasn't english, he would reverse those translations, he would also tell them in meetings, the meetings of the words that were being used. he was also helpful to the marines and translating radio communications among taliban fighters that the marines were able to intercept technically, but they weren't able to understand or interpret without help from zak. but there is something about