Thread by @Ranger_Up

This is the team that has worked around the clock for the past 10 days in the Middle East. The 12 of us, plus 2 social workers who just arrived to help the refugees, have evacuated 8,911 refugees into our host country plus 3,000 more elsewhere to assist the state department. /1

This is one of the most impressive groups of men I have ever worked with. Most of us had never met prior to this mission.

@ChadRobo and @sarah_verardo asked @TimKennedyMMA and me to go and we were on a plane within 48 hours. We had no idea what we were walking into. /2

Our ground commander, Sean Gabler, did a masterful job focusing a group of people used to running their own shows, and we did everything we could possibly do to help everyone. /3

Thanks to our benefactors in DC. Thanks to all of you desperately trying to get your friends out and sending us information so we could get them cleared and manifested. Thanks to all the other veteran groups that worked your own spheres of influence. /4

Thanks to the DOD and DOS for trusting us with this mission and working with us to approve manifests. And lastly, thanks so much to our host nation. Your generosity and grace were overwhelming. /5

It started with landing one plane and only getting 30 people on it. It ended with us as a listed asset in the JOC, our own ramp and hangar in Kabul, and 2,000 people evacuated on five flights on our last day of operations. /6

I’m so very sorry to those we could not get out. We processed 29,000 requests. We evacuated 12,000. That leaves 17,000 failures. We are still getting your messages. We aren’t quitting on you.

#SaveOurAllies /fin