National Harbor, Maryland—When the last U.S. C-17 transport plane took off for the last time from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, the longest war in the United States was the largest humanitarian war in history. The airlift evacuated civilians and ended. America, but the work is far from over.

The U.S. Air Force is now shifting from planning another large-scale evacuation of more than 124,000 Afghans and Americans from the Taliban-ruled country to a quieter role, helping more people leave on commercial and privately-organized flights.

The pilots are still working to complete the other follow-up steps of the crazy aid work: taking care of themselves and their planes after a month of trauma, treating diseases and delivering babies among refugees, distributing aid supplies for basic needs, and launching multiple vaccines Vaccination activities.

"It's a relief to see [landing gear] in the well of the last plane," said General Jacqueline Van Overst Speaking to reporters at the web conference. "But it also has a period of time,'Well, this is the event. There is more to do. We have a lot of refugees waiting.... We must continue."

According to AMC, between August 14 and 30, nearly 800 civilian and military aircraft from more than 30 countries transported passengers to safety.

More than 500 crew members of more than 250 Air Force maneuvering aircraft participated in the evacuation operation, including approximately 110 Air Force giant C-17s. As the Allied refuge began on August 14, the number of C-17 aircraft at Kabul Airport increased nearly eightfold in just two days, from 6 to 46.

In a typical day, the Air Force has nearly 70 C-17s dispatched around the world. During the Kabul evacuation, the service only dispatched 60 Globemasters to the US Central Command and the US European Command—an average of 113 per day during the peak operation period.

They transported people from Afghanistan to Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, Ali Al Salem Air Force Base in Kuwait and several other places, then to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, and then to the United States. Fuel trucks; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; strikes; command and control aircraft to assist all the way.

"Al Udeid, Ali Al Salem, and Ramstein are three of the four busiest military airports in Central Command and [US European Command]," AMC said. “What we have done is equivalent to increasing passenger and aircraft traffic at our country’s three busiest airports by 200-600% in three weeks (think about the level of holiday travel before COVID).”

On September 7, Captain Shelby Chapman, the head of public affairs mission partner support for the 86th Airlift Wing of the United States Air Force, comforted a child at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Chapman leads the community involvement team of the "Allies Refuge" operation. (Chief of Staff Jourdan Barrons/Air Force)

Evacuation is a multi-step process: for example, a refugee would take a plane in Qatar, then hop on another plane and continue to Germany, and then to the United States-more than 8,000 miles in total.

These distances mean that pilots are on duty longer than usual. Brig said that despite this, the pilot sought permission to give up rest and continue working. General Daniel DeVoe manages the tanker airlift control center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

Military aircraft take off from Kabul every 34 minutes; even if the summer heat soars to around 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the maintenance staff of Al Udeid and Ali Al Salem are still repairing and repairing the aircraft.

"I expect more planes to be destroyed," DeVoe said. "This proves the maintenance personnel and what they can do to keep these aircraft flying."

Now that the pace has slowed down, pilots can adapt to more predictable routines to help refugees temporarily settled at bases. The Air Force is strengthening C-5 Galaxy operations and is calling for more civilian and commercial flights so that its C-17 Globemaster III crew and airframe can be charged.

"We want to make sure that we sort the aircraft and provide them with the services they need, so that the crew can rest and recover, and frankly, they don't have additional training focused on other tasks," Van Overst said.

The U.S. Air Force stated that as of September 13, two weeks after U.S. participation ended on August 30, U.S. commercial aircraft handled more than 420 flights during and after the official airlift. These include 200 flights to the United States, about 190 flights within the United States, and about 30 flights to Ramstein.

Airlines either voluntarily perform these tasks or participate in the Civil Reserve Aviation Fleet Program, which allows the Pentagon to convene six airlines (American Airlines, Atlas Air Lines, Delta Air Lines, Omni Air, Hawaii Airlines and United Airlines) to transport the evacuees to and in the country/region of their final destination.

Other airlines have also joined in, such as Afghanistan’s Kam Air, which flew about 400 refugees from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan to Doha, Qatar on September 17, including 114 American citizens and legal permanent residents. And Afghan citizens.

Ramstein’s pilots transformed one of AMC’s largest hangars outside the continental United States into a temporary international terminal with nine gates for the remaining Americans, permanent residents of the United States, and special immigrant visa applicants and holders And their family members.

The force has become airport staff, checking the safety of passengers and luggage, caring for and feeding more than 25,000 passengers, and cooperating with field staff from the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration, and Federal Bureau. investigation. It is not clear how long this effort will last or how many people are still trying to leave the country.

"Our water lilies are still in use," Van Ovost said. "There will be some degree of downsizing, but there will be the ability to work with [the] State Department to handle additional personnel, just like we do with any other country."

On September 5th, Air Force pilots assigned to the 726th Air Mobility Squadron conducted a security check on their luggage while handling outbound passengers in Hangar 5 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The 521st Air Mobile Operations Wing transferred 78 pilots from various AMOW locations to support evacuation operations. (Tech. Sgt. Aaron Luetzen/Air Force)

At the same time, with the obstruction of the Taliban and the suicide bombers of the Islamic State attacking the airport, the pilots have returned home from the trauma, seeing thousands of people scrambling to flee for their lives. The federal investigation into the human remains found in the wheel bay of the C-17 besieged by the desperate Afghans is still ongoing.

"The most important thing for us is to take care of the crew and ensure that they get the necessary support services in Al Udeid so that they can deal with what happened, accept interviews, and the most important thing for them is to get back to the fight," Fan Ou Worster said.

Commanders provided plans to help returning pilots decompress and encouraged them to take advantage of initiatives such as True North, which embeds mental health professionals and religious support teams into the force.

Colonel Adrian Williams, commander of the 521st Air Mobile Operations Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said that the welfare director of the Wing went to Udeid to personally check the pilots on the flight line.

"At a high altitude, we have 46 C-17s parked on the ramp, where [maintenance crews] turn over the jets to make sure they can enter [Hamid Karzai International Airport]," Williams said. "She was with them and basically looked into their eyes to make sure they were okay. Surprisingly, they knew their impact on saving all these lives."

Rachel Cohen joined the Air Force Times in March 2021 as a senior reporter. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Internal Defense, Internal Health Policy, Frederick News Post (Maryland), Washington Post, etc.