Alex Burnett, 82nd Airborne Public Affairs). Air Force C-17 on August 30th, 2021 at the Hamid Karzai International Airport. He figured Donahue would be the last guy out because it’s just “his leadership style … he didn’t want to get on the aircraft until he knew every single one of his people was on an aircraft ready to depart.” Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division prepare to board a U.S. “I was like, ‘Okay I should probably get a photo of the last guy getting out of Afghanistan,’ which we knew was going to be Donahue,” Burnett said. helicopters overhead, which eventually landed and were loaded onto the C-17s.Īs they neared the moment when Donahue would board the plane as well, Burnett knew he had a job to do. They waited as other units finished loading their personnel and equipment. service members “loaded up” onto one of the last buses they had access to, and drove out to the tarmac. That kind of focus and dedication to capturing important moments continued up to the very last moment, when Burnett was one of the last roughly dozen people to board a plane out of Afghanistan late on Aug. Alex Burnett) ‘I should probably get a photo of the last guy getting out of Afghanistan’ United States Marines honor their fallen during a Ramp Ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 27.Īfghan children pose for a photo while waiting for a flight at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 29. Burnett said he also took a photo of two Marines with their arms around each other in the aftermath of the suicide bombing that killed 13 American service members and dozens of Afghan civilians at Abbey Gate. troops.Īnd soldiers weren’t Burnett and Hix’s only focus. But a video shot by a Marine infantryman with a GoPro provided an unfiltered look at the chaos unfolding at the airport: huge crowds gathered outside the gates of the airport, Marines ordering civilians to back up as masses of people pushed those at the front of the crowd into barbed wire, a woman sobbing as she’s pulled into safety, and one man hitting others with the butt of a rifle outside the gate, just feet away from U.S. Soldiers and Marines were caring for children and holding babies, attempting to process as many people as they could to come into the airport to evacuate, and doing as much as possible to help the civilians in front of them. More than 1,000 photos were released by military public affairs during the evacuation, though a chaotic and desperate scene outside the airport walls was captured on social media. Alex Burnett)īurnett and Hix were “grinding,” he said, uploading what they’d captured every six hours or so to their laptops and sending it back to Fort Bragg, and hauling not only their camera and video equipment, but their body armor, ammunition, and rifles everywhere they went.
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The soldiers pulling guard were doing “exactly what guys on guard do, which is watching a specific point for an extended period of time … hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.” They visited groups of soldiers who were “trying to figure out how to sleep comfortably” during their down-time in the airport hangars, and soldiers who were “playing cards and BSing.” Two Paratroopers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conduct security while a C-130 Hercules takes off during a non-combatant evacuation operation in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 25. Their first day on the ground, Hix and Burnett went to every area at HKIA where the 82nd Airborne Division had soldiers. “I’m glad that I got to be there to see that moment, but it still just blows my mind because honestly I was stressed the entire time, like ‘Please be in focus, please be in focus, please be in focus.’” “I’m absolutely proud to have been the one to take that photo,” Burnett said. Donahue was the final American service member to depart Afghanistan. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. He told Task & Purpose at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, last week that he was “dumbfounded” by the amount of attention his photo received, since he’s been taking photos for the Army for over a decade and has never seen a photo get this kind of traction. He wasn’t using any fancy equipment - he simply put his night observation devices, or NODs, in front of his cell phone camera.
But to Burnett, he was just doing his job.