As Afghanistan fell, in august of 2021 I watched the news and twitter. I started checking in on veteran buddies in signal. “How are you doing? How is this sitting with you?” No one was happy.
Eventually on August 15th I hit a friend from B-school who had gone back into the US Army. “I have 28 people Im trying to get out” he said. “Ill talk again when I’m human.” “Good luck and godspeed” I said.
A few messages later one of my old Master Sergeants said “Sir (he still won’t call me by name), come get on Facebook Messenger, it’s Nemat, he’s stuck in Kabul”
I messaged my friend from b-school: “I want in, one of mine is stuck in Kabul.”
And so began the most intense mission I joined, with the finest team I served with, building the best and most meaningful product I’ll ever build.
I’ll tell you the ending before we really begin, because I didn’t get to know it and I want you to share my excitement. Nemat escaped safely. His family has not yet. Another of my very good friends S. just messaged me that his wife, his mother and his daughter, now 3 years old – born right as Afghanistan fell- have made it safely out of Afghanistan. Two friends I was in touch with. Two wins. One at the beginning, one just now.
Two thousand others were assisted by this team, this system, this product we built. 80k more still have information stored within it. Safe exits have gone from a roar to a trickle, but it continues.
More to follow….
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