Reunite an Afghan family
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This fundraiser is for Saeed*, a former Afghan army infantryman who made it to the United States in the last days of the republic, and is trying to reunite with his wife and 5 children who are still in Afghanistan.
I’m George, a former US army infantryman, I patrolled with Saeed in 2013 in Afghanistan. And he is currently here in 2022, sitting on my couch.
In Afghanistan on patrol, he stuck out to me. A young leader who held his guys accountable, kept track of what was going on, and motivated them toward a common goal. We shared patrol bases, COPs, and qulats. Like many of his countrymen, he chewed Grizzly, drank Monster, and could butcher a goat in the field and have it roasting in about 15 minutes. Like many of mine, I was reliant on his units’ knowledge of people and land, and the legendary tribal hospitality they blanketed us with kept us alive in a place we were unprepared for in so many ways.
Before I left country, he asked for a letter of recommendation on DoA letterhead; many people had asked me for these, and I gave him one without a second thought.
Fast forward 8 years, I came home, started having kids, and got out. Saeed participated in much of the major offensives and heavy fighting between 2014 and 2020, was injured two more times, smoked a grip of Taliban and HIG, and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in his early 30s. A fourth injury ended his military career in 2020, and he took a job as a taxi driver in Kabul, leaving his family in the safety of his rural home province. We stayed in touch through email— he saw the writing on the wall early, knew he would be a remembered and marked man, and was trying to navigate the immigration system.
In the crowd around the Kabul Airport in mid-August 2021, he pushed through to a Marine and showed him a piece of paper with DoA letterhead. And dude let him through. No visa, no passport. He spent the next 24 in the airport trying to find a way to get his family through, without success. By this point, he had 5 children, with the oldest being 8. He was put on a plane, two stopovers and he was in New Jersey.
His internment in an Army facility and the ensuing immigration placement process are a whole other story. But he ended up in a metropolitan area near where I currently live. He struggled, with limited English, in a city environment, and not many answers on his family. In early February 2022, he called me through our mutual interpreter friend, and asked if he could come to where I was at. He’s been on my couch ever since.
As we do everything from immigration lawyer meetings to ESL classes to getting a learner’s permit, I’m struck by how hard it is to start from scratch here. And I feel good, having someone close who has been in what I have been in.
I wrote this narrative but all funds are linked to his account . They will be used for the emigration, immigration, and reunification of his family. See article below for further information. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Organizer
Saeed Saeed
Organizer
Bismarck, ND
