One year ago, on the 7,293rd day since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, US CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. announced the end of the Afghanistan war minutes after the last US aircraft — call sign “Moose88” — took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
American service members and civilians alike evacuated more than 79,000 civilians, including 6,000 Americans, during the war’s final days. Many more were left behind.
America’s longest war ended in chaos, with a deadly suicide attack that killed 13 Americans, making a total of 2,327 American lives lost in Afghanistan since the war started. For the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal, Coffee or Die Magazine sat down with two Marines and a retired Army Ranger-turned-journalist who were there until the end. This documentary is their eyewitness account of how it all went down, from the compassion they witnessed, the chaos they experienced, and the friends they lost.