LOWELL — The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan on Monday, ending America’s longest war.
As chaos consumes Kabul following the Taliban’s swift takeover and a suicide bombing that killed 13 American military members and over 170 people, a Chelmsford man — through “Evac Fellows,” an online Slack channel working to help reunite families with the support of U.S. Rep Lori Trahan’s office — is working to help people affected by the crisis.
“I’m actively managing people right now in Kabul,” said John Moses, a veteran and School Committee member. “I have a green card holder on a bus in Kabul trying to get in the airport and Taliban have been harassing him all day, not letting the bus get in and then shooting at it.”
Moses has been managing families alongside 20 people he’s never met. “I know a couple of them. They’re all veterans, military, diplomats, Condoleezza Rice’s aide is working with us — I found her in a chat channel.”
Moses said so far the group has helped get 68 people out of Kabul, managed through crowd-sourcing.
“This giant group of incredible people took it upon themselves and worked to fix it the best way we can. Every life matters,” he said.
Moses served in the Army Reserves for 23 years, completing three tours. Two were in Kuwait. “In 2011-12 I was in Afghanistan in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Part of the reason I felt like I would be helpful is because I knew the state department pretty well and I knew the army pretty well. And I knew Kabul really well because I had been in the city a lot. Like the Ministry of Interior, I know exactly where that is.”
He retired two years ago.
“This all started for me when the country collapsed. I got a call at three in the morning from a friend in California, he was my interpreter when I was in Afghanistan. He reached out to me and said ‘my brother is in Kabul. I need him to get out.’ And this is when I called the congresswoman’s office freaking out,” he said.
Moses receives most correspondence from Afghanistan starting at 7 p.m. due to the 8.5-hour time difference. They’re staying up until 4 and 5 a.m. talking to people, he said.
Moses reached out to Trahan’s deputy district director, Sara Khun Leng, for help.
The State Department set up a special email for congressional offices to submit names, Khun Leng said.
“At this point it’s a matter of helping as many lives as possible get out of Kabul to a safe country wherever that may be,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re our constituents or if they live in our state, we’re just taking as many names as possible.”.
The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program was created to protect Afghan allies helping U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Khun Leng is submitting cases and getting them on the State Department’s radar — once they receive these names there’s personnel and staff working around the clock. “I know this because they’re sending me responses at 1 a.m.,” she said.
They forward it to the appropriate task force whether it’s U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, SIV applicants, or other categories. They’ll send Khun Leng a general response saying it will be forwarded to the appropriate task force for further processing.
“We’ve received many many cases and names from all over. Had people reach out from California and other states as well,” she said.
“Sarah and this office (have) been great,” Moses said. “Not every office has been like that — a lot of people are having problems with their Congress people supporting these efforts, but this is not one of them,” he added. “A lot of people sit on it and not realize how long there is left — an hour here is like a lifetime to these people.”
“The legislative part is super important — I don’t have any power. I don’t have any access or authority to fix any of this stuff. and I don’t think anybody’s gonna fix it in the next three days but at least you have somebody advocating that has ability to speak to people with power,” Moses said.
“Our focus in Afghanistan right now must be the immediate evacuation of Americans and our courageous Afghan allies who worked alongside our servicemembers. The United States made a promise to our Afghan partners, many of whom saved countless American lives over the past two decades, and we have an obligation to fulfill it,” Rep. Trahan said.
“I supported legislation to get our allies and their families to safety — and to do so urgently. My team and I are grateful to all who have contacted our office and are continuing to work around the clock to achieve that goal. Additionally, we are still encouraging those who are in touch with our Afghan partners to call or email us for assistance if they haven’t already,” Trahan said.
Families will send photos to Moses when they finally board an airplane. “A lot of what I’ve been doing is keeping people calm. And trying to make sure they’re not making bad decisions because they’re terrified,” Moses said.
Others message him that they are scared.
He said the Evac Fellows came together on Facebook and Twitter — everyone would say, “you’re not alone. there are other people trying to do this.” People kept coming together.
“This is all coordinated through no official channels — just people on Signal across the ocean helping each other. It’s been a really incredible effort for a terrible situation,” Moses said.
They have full Signal groups providing intel so families can move out of dangerous places.
“We’ve been working with No One Left Behind,” Moses said. “They’ve been a godsend because I can get (people) on a manifest.”
Moses credits a man only known as “Jesse” in Special Forces doing snatches. “We were moving people to different places and this unbelievable hero was coming out of gates, over walls, pulling people over,” Moses said. “That guy probably saved 500 people. I wouldn’t have got a single person out without him.”
Moses recounts moments soothing people on the phone while they searched for ways into the airport or had just encountered the Taliban. He also talked about special code words and signals people had on their phones. “If I show you (this color) you show me (that color). So these Afghans are sitting there like ‘OK he’s gonna show me green’,” he said.
Moses did a lot of vetting and knew individuals’ visa statuses. If they get to the point where they’re waiting on an interview and have pretty much made it, they then need a memo — the State Department wants you to make memos to do these snatches, he explained.
“The Taliban is hunting teachers. Women teachers specifically,” Moses said. “You don’t really actually understand what’s going on — nobody in the U.S. gets it. I have pictures, videos, it’s really ugly there.”
Some cases have better chances than others, he said. “Citizens, not the government, (are) making choices about who’s probably gonna live and who’s probably gonna die.”
“I just don’t understand how we have an immigration system that it takes eight years to get an approval for people that have 15 recommendation letters from every person they’ve ever met and said these people deserve to be Americans and they’re just stuck,” Moses said.
“I hadn’t thought about Afghanistan in an intense way in a long time and when that happened it put me right back,” he said. “People keep saying you’re doing a great thing. It’s not me. It’s like a family of people.”
The real story, he said, is that “hundreds and hundreds of people got together and did this.”
