The Marines That Led the Evacuation of Afghanistan, Four Years Later

**Nicole Wiley** (0:11)
Hi, I'm Nicole Wiley, membership editor here at War on the Rocks, and you're listening to a special, free episode of Marine Pulse, one of our members-only shows for Marines by Marines. The Marines that you'll hear from in this episode were at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the suicide bombing attack on the Abbey Gate, during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. You're going to hear their raw, unfiltered accounts of what happened that day, what it was like to be there, and the lessons learned. We hope that you enjoy this episode, and if you want to hear more like it, you can become a member by going to warontherocks.com/membership. And with that, here's former Marine Pulse host Ian Brown.

**Ian Brown** (0:59)
Greetings, everyone, and welcome to this episode of Marine Pulse, a War on the Rocks podcast focused on Corps-wide questions. My name is Ian Brown, and I'm your host for this episode. As always, the opinions expressed here are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Marine Corps, Defense Department, United States government, or any organization with which the individual may be affiliated. It's my privilege today to talk to two Marines who were deployed to one of the most challenging operations that the Corps was given in recent years, the evacuation of civilians from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August of 2021 Joining me to talk about their experiences are Lee Bowden and Aaron Reep. Lee currently serves as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer for the 12th Lateral Logistics Battalion, part of the 12th Marine Lateral Regiment based in Okinawa, Japan. Major Aaron Reep is an infantry officer, currently assigned as a Marine Corps Legislative Liaison to the US. House of Representatives. So, gentlemen, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. Any opening comments before we begin?

**Aaron Reep** (2:04)
Ian, just appreciate you asking us to join you and looking forward to the opportunity and the discussion here.

**Lee Bowden** (2:11)
Yeah, likewise, Ian. Great opportunity to get the stories out there of the Marines, our DHKIA. I'm happy to talk to you about it.

**Ian Brown** (2:18)
Awesome. Yeah, like I said, I think this is an incredibly difficult mission, one of the hardest that the Corps has gotten in recent years. And I really believe in the value of sharing the stories of the Marines who executed that mission because they deserve the attention. But I also think there's probably some things to be learned coming out of that experience. So let's go ahead and sort of start with the background. It's the summer of 2021 Where were you two stationed and assigned at the time that the sort of unraveling of Afghanistan was going on at the time?

**Aaron Reep** (2:49)
We were deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. I was the Charlie Company Commander with BLT-18. For the 24th MU, we generally expected to be in the Mediterranean and the 6th Fleet AOR. Then as the summer progressed, we increasingly got indications and warnings. The focus of the MU would shift from 6th Fleet and we potentially move over to 5th Fleet and be prepared to support the contingencies in Afghanistan.

**Ian Brown** (3:18)
Great. And Lee, what was your situation?

**Lee Bowden** (3:20)
Yes, I was the EOD Officer for Combat Legislative Battalion 24, so the LCE within 24th MU. I'd been with the battalion for about three years at that point, having first joined in 2018 Led a section during SP MAGTF in 2019 and then got the section ready for the deployment with the MU as well.

**Ian Brown** (3:41)
Okay. Great. Thank you both. So now we're kind of looking at, beginning in about May of 2021 This is about the time when the Taliban had undertaken a widespread offensive across Afghanistan following the final withdrawal of American forces from that country. And in a couple of months, they had overrun most of the country. And Kabul was left as the only departure point for people who were trying to leave with Hamid Karzai International Airport being essentially the port of embarkation to get people out of there. So you guys were afloat on the Mew. When did you get the warning order to actually prepare for potentially supporting the evacuation? And then what kind of training and preparation did you undergo to get ready to go and execute the evacuation?

**Aaron Reep** (4:26)
So as that offensive began in May, Afghanistan was on our radar, but there were still so many variables at play, as well as the assumption at that time, at least at the national political level that Afghanistan would hold. But in May, the potential of a NEO and supporting Afghanistan came on our radar. In June is really where we got more significant indications and warnings that BLT-18 might be tasked to go into Afghanistan. In June, we offloaded the battalion in Saudi Arabia, primarily, and then also one company in Jordan. And we were doing sustainment training, but along with the conventional sustainment training, became increased focus on contingencies for Afghanistan and a NEO. And then in July is when we staged in Kuwait. And by July, it turned out a little over 30 days prior to us going into Kabul, we were fully focused on the contingencies of supporting Afghanistan and a NEO. So what that looked like for us at the company level is we were participating in MEU and battalion level exercises at Al-Jabr Air Base in Kuwait. We integrated with the Air Force MPs and did rotations with the real world perimeter security there at Al-Jabr. And then we had an extensive training package just internally to the company at the battalion's guidance to fully focus on NEO contingencies. So that looked like platoon level, squad leader led, white space training to a TDG packet that we created that had detailed scenarios that were informed by the rules of engagement of shoot, no shoot scenarios and put that down to the squad leader level to sit down with their Marines kneecap to kneecap and run through a whole packet of scenarios. And that proved almost surreal at times on the deck in Kabul where it seemed at times that we were living that TDG packet that everybody was going through. And then we were also doing map studies. We had a GRG of Achecaia and we had that produced via paper form, but then also distributed electronically. So every Marine had a copy of that. And then they were being quizzed and tested on their ability to locate key features there at Kabul. So we were all hands on deck, entirely focused from the Mew to the BLT company, all the way down to the squad and individual Marine on the Afghan contingency and NEO support during those those 30 days that we were in Al-Jabr.