Help Wazir, who risked his life to defend America

Wazir Gul, an Afghan who grew up under brutal Taliban rule, served the US Army and US Air Force for five years at war. Now evacuated to America and separated from his family, he desperately needs help to reunite with them and build a life.

The abridged version: 

Wazir served alongside US military for five of the most intense years of the War in Afghanistan. Wazir risked his life, and the lives of his family to defend US forces supporting a free Afghanistan, but during the American withdrawal, was in grave danger if not evacuated. He miraculously escaped with his life but was forced to leave his wife and eight children behind. After months of effort and at great expense funded by donations from my family, they have now made it out of Afghanistan and are relatively safe in a third country. There is still a long road ahead to get them reunited in the US. We are continuing to work to bring them here. Wazir lived in my house with my family for five months but has moved into his own apartment and needs to build up the resources to start his life in the US. Now that Wazir has gotten his family out of Afghanistan, he needs to help finance their basic needs as he prepares for them to come to the US. Wazir has given so much to our country; please donate to help him settle and prepare to start his family's new lives in the United States.

 July 12, 2022 Update: this fundraiser was initially published months ago as a private fundraiser and shared with very few people while Wazirs family was still in danger in Afghanistan. It was only made public and shared widely today when, after months of planning and work, they made it out of Afghanistan to a third country. 

Please read the following article or watch the embedded video. https://www.grid.news/story/global/2022/05/09/escape-from-afghanistan-america-didnt-help-him-two-americans-did/

 

The not-so-abridged version:

 

From 2007 to 2012, during the height of the US/NATO war in Afghanistan, Wazir Gul,

young man from Parwan, served alongside American forces for two years with the US

Army and three years with US Air Force Security Forces. His position was one of the

most dangerous for an Afghan to serve with the coalition. Wazir worked as an armed

contractor for SOC, a major US security company with contracts embedded in the US defense force, searching potential suicide bombers,

watching for threats, manning checkpoints to stop enemy attacks. This put not only him, but his wife and children in danger from Taliban or Al-Qaeda retribution.

 

I met Wazir at Bagram Airfield in 2011 and spent the next six and a half months learning

from him as we defended the airfield together. We worked 14-hour days in guard towers and on patrols defending the sector of Bagram that extended into the city. The Americans worked closely with many Afghan contractors, but none earned as much affection and respect as Wazir did. Because of a striking resemblance, we affectionately nicknamed Wazir “George Clooney.”

 

 

(George Clooney)

 

When I got to Bagram, Wazir taught me patterns of life, what to watch for, what was

normal, whom to trust, whom to be wary of, and local customs. Every day he helped me to master more words in Dari, which I needed to do my job. Wazir had taught himself a great deal of English (and a bit of Spanish) while working for the US over the years. As the Intelligence NCO of our sector’s defense force, I was able to leverage what I learned from Wazir to educate and train almost 100 more USAF Defenders. I have no doubt that Wazir’s work saved American lives. Wazir’s dedication to the fight and to his and our country inspired me daily. I saw Wazir risk his own life during a rocket attack, standing on top of sandbags and peering through binoculars for a launch site to shoot at. That day, I asked him what made him willing to die and risk his family to help US forces. He told me that his four-year-old daughter dreamed of one day becoming a doctor. He said that the only way that would ever happen was for the coalition to defeat the terrorists trying to rule his country, and he wanted to help make that happen. Over the course of the deployment, we became brothers.

 

 

(Wazir and I manning a tower in Afghanistan together, Fall 2011)

 

This past summer, it became clear that the situation in Afghanistan was going to

become disastrous very quickly. The US government was not moving to evacuate those

who had worked with our forces in combat. If Wazir could not be evacuated, he would

have been in grave danger from the Taliban. I called Wazir. We began planning to get

him and his family out of the country. Things degraded faster than we had anticipated.

Wazir and his family left home and came to Kabul ahead of the Taliban advance. Wazir

and his wife have eight children, aged 14 years old to 18 months old, including two sets

of twins, 2 and 3 years old, respectively.

 

The situation in Kabul became impossible within days. After his Special Immigrant Visa

application had been submitted (with notably rapid help from other Americans who had served with Wazir as well as help from the leadership of his former employer SOC), Wazir tried to get his family into Kabul Airport for the evacuation. In attempts as long as 36 hours, his family was pressed in the crowd’s crush, thrown to the ground, his children almost trampled, and Wazir was beaten with a rifle. Trying to get into the airport became impossibly dangerous for Wazir’s wife and children.

 

Having served in such a visible role, his identity known to the Taliban, Wazir was faced

with a terrible choice. If he stayed in Afghanistan, he would be hunted and killed, and

his family might face the same fate for being with him. If he continued without them, he

would have no guarantees of when he would see them next. I urged that he could not

help them if he were dead, and that we would continue to work to get them out once he was safe. He said his goodbyes and sent his family elsewhere in the country to hide.

Wazir armed himself in case the Taliban came for him stayed in Kabul with his brother

(who also served the US during the war), and we continued to try to find ways to get him into the airport for the US evacuation.

 

Towards the end of the month, things were looking bleak, when I finally found help

through a friend in the tactical community. Justin, a Department of State Special Agent,

was willing to help get Wazir into the airport. We worked on a plan. Wazir would have to sneak past the Taliban checkpoints around the airport, armed only with a 1940’s pistol, climb into a sewage ditch, and fight through jam-packed crowds to get close enough to Abbey Gate that the Justin could retrieve him. Wazir and his brother got close to the Abbey Gate, but Justin and Wazir could not find each other initially. Justin knew that a suicide bomb was inbound to the gate. I was talking with both of them on separate lines in real time during this tense search. Then they found each other! Justin pulled Wazir and his brother out of the ditch, through the gate, and into the back of a vehicle, sped them past processing, and got them onto a plane for evacuation. Within minutes of Wazir’s entry, Abbey gate stopped allowing Afghans through due to the known threat. Hours later, the predicted bomb exploded, killing over two hundred people, including 13 Americans.

 

 

(Wazir, his brother Ziarat, and their rescuer, Justin, at the airport immediately after the rescue)

 

Wazir spent the next month in Qatar and at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico

where he had security screening and medical processing. Rather than having him wait

additional months to be resettled at random in the US, once cleared, I got him a plane

ticket to Washington, DC, and he began with Erin, Shoshana, and me at our

house.  He moved out and got his own apartment in March.  He has spent the last several months taking English classes,

learning to drive on American roads, and trying to advocate for the evacuation of his

family and the processing of their SIV paperwork by the state department. He has been

in regular communication with his family, and we were recently able to coordinate a way out of Afghanistan for them. They are now safe and awaiting US government processes to allow them to join Wazir in the United States. Our 2-year-old daughter has come to regard Wazir as an uncle. She looks for him in the house, calling out “Wawa?”

 

 

(Wazir, Ziarat, and my daughter, Shoshana at home in the house)

 

Wazir now has a job working midnight shifts in a food processing plant. He has recently moved out of our house and got his own apartment. He also recently got his Virginia Drivers Liscense. Once he gets settled in the US, he will be able to support himself. In the meantime, there is a lengthy list of hefty startup costs. He also needs money for furniture, clothing, vehicle maintenance, gas (a wonderful family donated a used car to him already), and many other expenses. The pay from the factory job will cover only a fraction of the expenses. He gets modest support from social service agencies, but not nearly enough.

 

Beyond that, a difficult and lengthy path lies ahead with regard to his family. As he

prepare for his family to come to the US, he also must send money to support their wives and children as we work to create a legal pathway to the US for them. This effort may require lawyers, airfare, and more. These costs will likely be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

 

 

(Wazir's wife and eight children)

 

Erin and I have paid most of the expenses to date, with significant help from some family members.

At this point, we really need others who are able to help to make donations. It would be great if the government would provide fuller support to protect and resettle Afghans who risked life and limb to help the Americans in Afghanistan. Since the government support is so limited, it is necessary to raise funds privately.