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One of the eleven members, a representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Gintautas Ciunis, said that it was simply impossible to retell the events of those days: various situations required flexibility, military improvisation and sometimes aggression, trying to dissuade the infiltrated.
How did the Kabul Eleven manage to prepare for the operation, find a car, a place for a temporary camp, interpreters to keep in touch, and wander the streets full of Taliban troops? G.Ciunis spoke about this in the program “Question of the day” of “Žinių radijo”.
Located in an old repair shop
A representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces stated that the priority role of the “Kabul Eleven” was to “get out” the people they needed – translators who had cooperated with Lithuania – and then organize their flight from Afghanistan to other countries.
This is how the operation was planned: by all means, contacts were maintained with interpreters who assisted the Lithuanian soldiers, who were directed to two points near the Kabul airport. The people who carried out the operation had to find them, identify them and transport them to a safer place.
How did you do that? The eleventh man from Kabul landed at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. With them, they only had the ammunition they needed and some dry rations. They were informed that more dry rations and water would be available in Kabul.
“We landed, got off the plane, took all our belongings with us. At first the German soldiers who had been there for some time helped a little. We found the place where we stayed, a purely ‘Wild West Saloon’ style. day, we found a much more serious place – an old repair shop, a hangar, where there was an invisible luxury at the airport – electricity and air conditioning, ”said a representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
According to him, this was the behavior of the soldiers of all countries. If the place were empty, temporary camps would be set up. Leaving Kabul, the “Eleventh Kabul” gave way to the Japanese soldiers, who were also looking for a place to stay.
How did the vehicle search work?
Participants in the operation also needed to find the means to find all the interpreters waiting with the families at the agreed locations.
“Fortunately, the Kabul airport area was full of abandoned cars. The image is very similar to that of the Wild West. There are abandoned cars in entire parks, sidewalks, etc. We rolled up our sleeves, walked among those vehicles and ‘lifted’ the cars. two, – said G. Ciunis.
Soon both cars were decorated with Lithuanian symbols: the Gediminas poles and the LTU inscriptions. Fuel could be provided at a service station for which US troops were responsible. It was enough to come there and the tank seemed extra. When the eleven left, these vehicles were also handed over to the allies.
“It just came to our knowledge then. We made sure with our own eyes. We were helped by the Germans, then we joined the Polish troops. personal and we received a lot of fraternal help, when we went to look for a car they gave us transportation so that we didn’t have to walk because the distances were very long ”, said the operator.
Memories of the memorable faces of Taliban soldiers
He remembered the indifferent faces of the Taliban soldiers whom our “Kabul Eleven” met in the streets looking for scattered translators. The soldiers, armed to the ears, watched the surroundings with boredom, which was their main calling card: without interest in getting anywhere.
“One of the last days we were standing on one side of the channel, on the other side of the channel was a representative of the Taliban. With a couple of grenades, he gazed at the surroundings indifferently, arguing with someone. I could not speak of some confrontations. They all regulate their sides and there was no contact, at least on our part ”, assured the representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
Although the use of weapons was lost, the aggressiveness of the eleven was necessary in an effort to deter all who tried to infiltrate the wanted translators.
“No weapons were used, but we had to be aggressive to protect our translators, to prevent strangers from infiltrating. There were intrusion situations in which you only had to be aggressive, but for that the soldiers went to this operation ”, he summarized.
The last American soldiers to oversee the desperate evacuation operation flew in from Kabul airport on Monday night, ending the pullout, which raised deep doubts about the United States’ status as a superpower.
