This was an o-6 from the 82nd Airborne. His identity must be known by many. Some one put it out there on the net:
At that point, the team members began conversing with a government rep at the airport, which triggered a series of calls up various chains of commands about the busses and its inhabitants.
That’s when the colonel, who was not named but belonged to the 82nd Airborne, arrived on the scene, Kennedy said. Immediately, the serviceman began to assert his authority - as he was the most senior officer on the scene.
One of the SoA members, a serviceman who goes by the pseudonym of Seaspray, recalled of the encounter: ‘There was colonel who came out and wanted to show that, essentially, he was the one that can decide whether or not somebody could get on a plane or not.’
‘And he just makes the call,’ Kennedy then added, recalling the colonel’s words.
‘”Turn everybody around; put everybody back out - I don’t care who they are,”’ Kennedy recounted.
At that point, Kennedy and his team frantically began making calls and arguing with brass at the de facto base - noting to officials that the lists of occupants on the bus had been verified, their bags searched, and their travel documents perused.
Seaspray said: ‘We had the appeal of, “These lists have been verified; they had been searched by US Marines; they weren’t carrying anything; their bags had already been gone through; they’ve been patted down; documents have been verified – we had all of that proof.’
US troops are pictured within a secure area of Kabul Airport last summer, while hopeful refugees await charter planes to leave
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US troops are pictured within a secure area of Kabul Airport last summer, while hopeful refugees await charter planes to leave
However, the colonel reportedly remained unconvinced - telling the team that he didn’t know if the documents and other criteria were ‘fake or not.’
Still, the group continued to attempt to talk sense into the serviceman, asking if they could at least go through the passengers and to pull out the American citizens and the green card holders.
‘And he’s like,’ Kennedy said: ‘”Nope – it’s my decision. It’s a command.”’
The fighter, who served in the Army’s Green Berets as a sniper during the early years of his storied MMA career, said that he at that point was growing increasing impatient with the colonel, and even accused him of making an unlawful order.
‘Like, well, I’m not in the military,’ Kennedy, who started Save Our Allies along with Palmisciano and Colonel Sarah Verardo, said. ‘I’m not here for the military – and that’s not really a lawful order.’
The colonel, according to Kennedy, continued to push the theory that the documentation - which had been checked by Kennedy and his team as well as other US officials - have been fabricated.
But Kennedy’s response this time was, ‘”Is it worth the risk of saying that it isn’t? If there’s a chance that these documents are real, are you willing to push Americans back off base?”’
‘And they were,’ Kennedy says in an excerpt of Send Me.’
Tim’s colleagues theorized that the colonel’s behavior stemmed from the fact that Kennedy is a pseudo celebrity - and no longer is part of the military. Palmiscianor said that because of this, he did not seem to take the group and their efforts seriously, looking at it as a publicity stunt by the ex-athlete.
‘From his perspective,’ Palmiscianor recalled, ‘Tim was the only guy that he knew.’
‘He thought, “This is some f***in guy that’s just showing up in Afghanistan, running seven buses in, you know – f**k this guy, I want to kick him out.”’
Seaspray added that at one point during the face-off, he heard the colonel sarcastically remark, ‘This isn’t the Tim Kennedy show.’
Kennedy, meanwhile, was irate over the treatment, chiefly due to the fact that their were people’s - and children’s - lives at stake. With that said, if the colonel’s theory was wrong, the mistake would be a costly one.
‘These were people that fought and had their relatives die for us,’ Kennedy recalled of the bus passengers, who would eventually be turned away and never heard from again - despite several generals later overruling the colonel’s inexplicable order.
‘They lost their limbs for us,’ Kennedy continued, referring to the Afghans onboard who had aided the US in the fight against the Taliban. ‘They lost their adult lives and youth and their innocence for us.
He added: ‘Yes, they’re fighting for Afghanistan. Yes, they’re fighting for their people – but they are fighting with us. That’s who – that’s who we’re trying to save here.’
Palmisciano added: ‘From our perspective, this was possibly the most valuable load of people we had brought in thus far.’
The group would then begin to desperately plea with the officer, who refused to make any concessions to the group, including just accepting those with American passports or those related to American citizens - all while the passengers waited desperately outside the gate, off the bus.
But the colonel still would not budge.
‘Everybody goes back on these buses and I want them escorted back off the base,’ he told Kennedy and the rest of the group. ‘Kick them out.’
Seaspray said: : ‘And at gunpoint, they pushed Americans, orphans, visa holders, back into buses, and forced them ack off base knowing that we were already rebaring and cementing the main gates closed, knowing that we’re going to leave soon, knowing that if you push those people back of the base, it was a high probability that they would not ever get on a plane.
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