Help Interpreter - Last Fighting Commando in AFG

Fellow veterans, friends, and everyone else who has watched the tragic fall of Afghanistan over the last few weeks - this gofundme is being set up for a hero who has given up everything for a life of service to not only Afghanistan but the United States.

Mohammad Iqbal was my interpreter in 2008 when I was a Second Lieutenant deployed to Kunar Province -- a remote, treacherous region in the eastern mountains on the border with Pakistan. I was not the first American who worked with Iqbal, but like every soldier and journalist that interacted with him, I came to understand that he was not your average interpreter. He has always been fiercely protective of Americans sent to share the story of Afghanistan and to help build it back up. As one journalist and friend of Iqbal wrote, "I was a journalist embedded with the wolfhounds. We got ambushed and I didn't have my vest on. Iqbal risked his life to bring it to me in the middle of a firefight."

The US military's mission in Kunar province was dangerous and hard going. 13 of the 18 medals of honor awarded in Afghanistan were given for heroic action in Kunar. As US Forces rotated in and out every 12 months, Iqbal stayed and continued to assist. He served as an interpreter for eight years and was assigned to each commander that came through. He earned the trust of every commander he worked with, not limiting himself as an interpreter but also carrying a weapon and protecting anyone around him.

When USFOR left Kunar, Iqbal was left in his village. The Taliban raided his home and injured seven of his family members. He was forced out of his own home for the safety of his family and was homeless. He started a contracting business and continued to support Americans around the country. When the contracts ran out, he joined the most elite unit in Afghanistan - the OGA's paramilitary NDS 0-series commandos.

Iqbal quickly rose through the ranks and six months ago became the commander of all NDS 03 commandos. When Kandahar fell, the provincial governor called Iqbal on his cell phone and told him to surrender his weapons and his men. Iqbal refused. He destroyed whatever his men couldn't carry in an effort to not allow the Taliban to secure American weapons and equipment. He then retrograded to Kandahar Airfield with his men and consolidated all other fleeing soldiers whose commanders had surrendered into a force of 1000. He also had 2 American Vice Reporters embedded. See video below.

Surrounded by Taliban and running low on ammunition, Iqbal bluffed his way into a negotiation with the Taliban commanders on the ground and managed to get six C-130s on the ground in Kandahar Airfield for the evacuation. Amidst the confusion, he arrived in Kabul and realized there were still ~300 NDS 03 Soldiers still at KAF as well as the 2 Americans. He forced the pilot to return to Kandahar, saved the 2 Americans and remained behind with the last 100....not being able to fit all of his commandos on the single C-130.

The next day all seemed lost and he was out of ammo. His men had been without food, water, and ammunition resupply for 6 days. The aerial resupply that had come earlier, was dropped instead to the Taliban inadvertently. He called me telling me that he would have to surrender in three hours because he didn't want to be responsible for making 100 widows.

As the Taliban moved in and asked him if he was out of ammunition, he pointed every heavy machine gun at them and said he had a "week's worth of death" waiting for them. Not having lost a single commando to this point and with hundreds of dead Taliban all around the airfield, they negotiated one more C-130 run. Iqbal called his commandos who had escaped to Kabul the previous night and they hunted the airfield for a plane.

In Kabul they found a plane with Afghan government and military officials attempting to flee the country - they kicked them off the plane and hijacked it. Minutes before the Taliban deadline....Iqbal's men arrived with the hijacked C-130 with an American gunship overhead. Iqbal had orchestrated the successful evacuation of ~1000 Commandos who continued to fight for their country as well as the two stranded Vice reporters.

Back at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Iqbal continued to help smuggle Afghans and Americans alike through the gates of HKIA . He refused to leave Afghan soil before all his men had departed Kabul -- he was the last of NDS 03 to set foot on an evacuation plane. Just this week he secured his family and departed for the United States. His dream is to live on the West Coast. 

Folks - we couldn't run up these numbers high enough. We (Iqbal's friends/previous commanders) are starting low but are hopeful that we can more than exceed our initial goal and get Iqbal and his family enough money for a home and fresh start in the United States. He has earned it more than many Americans have. Iqbal is the rare selfless human that never asks for anything and always puts others first, especially Americans who he believed gave his country more than a fighting chance to succeed over these last two decades. He's the type of person that inspires the best of us.

We hope you'll consider donating - the commanders, journalists, and friends of Iqbal. 

He spent his adult life helping US Soldiers - WaPo

The Fall of Kandahar - Vice News

Soldiers Odyssey to Evacuate Afghan Ally