Afghanistan Peace Campaign
One minute later, Aug. 31 began in Kabul. No U.S. troops remained on the ground in Afghanistan.
Five years ago Sunday, that flight ended a military mission that had begun nearly 20 years earlier, on Oct. 7, 2001, when the United States launched combat operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban government that had sheltered Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The final day was anything but quiet. American troops were still evacuating Afghans, defending the airport from ISIS-K attacks, dismantling equipment and pulling thousands of service members out of a shrinking perimeter. The final extraction involved five C-17s that would carry the remaining American forces out of Afghanistan.
The Airport Was Still Under Attack
Four days earlier, on Aug. 26, an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at Abbey Gate, where crowds of Afghans had gathered hoping to enter the airport. The attack killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians, according to the military’s investigation.
A supplemental Pentagon review completed in 2024 upheld the finding that a single suicide bomber carried out the attack. Threat reporting remained intense.
On Aug. 29, the U.S. military launched a drone strike against a white Toyota Corolla in Kabul that commanders believed was connected to an imminent ISIS-K attack on the airport.
CENTCOM initially described the strike as successful. It was not.
The Pentagon later acknowledged that U.S. personnel had misidentified the vehicle and its occupants. An Air Force investigation determined the strike killed three adults and seven children. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then commander of U.S. Central Command, called the strike a “tragic mistake” and accepted responsibility.
The military’s Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar systems, known as C-RAMs, engaged the attack. Two rockets fell on the airfield, and McKenzie later said the defensive systems probably prevented more significant damage. The weapons remained operational until almost the end.
Soldiers with the Massachusetts National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, were still operating their C-RAM guns after 9 p.m. local time. Two of their guns had engaged the five-rocket volley earlier that day. Not long afterward, the remaining equipment was destroyed, and the soldiers boarded a C-17.
At the same time, Army engineers were working to leave the airport’s electrical system running after American forces departed.
The airport still had to function while the Americans dismantled the force protecting it.
The Evacuation Continued Into the Final Day
Even as troops began collapsing their positions, evacuation flights continued. McKenzie said more than 1,500 Afghans were flown out during roughly the final 24 hours.
By the end of the operation, U.S. military aircraft had evacuated more than 79,000 civilians from Kabul over 18 days. That included about 6,000 Americans, more than 73,500 Afghans, and third-country nationals. Combined U.S. and coalition flights evacuated more than 123,000 people.
At the peak of the evacuation, approximately 21,600 people were flown out in a single 24-hour period aboard U.S. and coalition aircraft. Thirty-seven U.S. military flights carried about 12,700 people, while 57 coalition and partner flights carried another 8,900.
That pace slowed dramatically as the military approached its withdrawal deadline and shifted from moving civilians to extracting the troops who had been running and protecting the airport.
The final five C-17s were part of what McKenzie called the “joint tactical exfiltration.”
No additional American civilian evacuees reached the airport in time to leave aboard those five aircraft, although U.S. diplomatic personnel, including Wilson, departed as part of the final American contingent. McKenzie said the military retained the ability to take evacuees until shortly before departure, but none reached the airport in time.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said later that evening that fewer than 200, and likely closer to 100, Americans who wanted to leave remained in Afghanistan. He cautioned that officials were still working to determine the exact number. Afghan interpreters, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other U.S. partners also remained behind.
The Final C-17s Flew Into a Darkening Airport
Air Force records released after the withdrawal provide a glimpse of what crews encountered while flying some of those final missions.
MOOSE 81 and MOOSE 92 were two of the five C-17s sent from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar for the final flight into Kabul on Aug. 30.
Once on the ground, the crews moved quickly.
Air Force records say the loadmasters aboard MOOSE 81 and MOOSE 92 loaded the remaining U.S. personnel and sensitive equipment onto their aircraft in less than an hour. Airmen from the crews later received Distinguished Flying Crosses with “C” devices for their actions during the mission.
McKenzie said U.S. forces demilitarized up to 70 MRAP armored vehicles and 27 Humvees. Seventy-three aircraft left on the airport ramp were also rendered inoperable. Most of those aircraft, McKenzie emphasized, were already not mission-capable before U.S. forces left.
The C-RAM systems that had helped defend the airport hours earlier were also disabled.
The decision to leave them operating until nearly the last moment was deliberate. Breaking down and extracting the systems would have taken time, McKenzie said, and commanders determined that protecting the remaining troops was more important than bringing the equipment home.
The Last American Soldier
McKenzie said the Taliban had established a perimeter outside the airfield during the withdrawal, preventing people from entering while the Americans departed. Shortly before leaving, Donahue spoke with the Taliban commander with whom U.S. forces had been coordinating and told him the Americans were leaving.
“We did not turn it over to the Taliban,” McKenzie told reporters. Then the remaining paratroopers boarded.
Army Master Sgt. Alex Burnett photographed Donahue walking toward the final C-17 through the green glow of night-vision equipment, his rifle hanging at his side. The photograph quickly became one of the defining images of the withdrawal.
Donahue was the final U.S. service member to board.
Wilson boarded with him, bringing the State Department and Defense Department teams out together on the final aircraft. At 3:29 p.m. Eastern time, 11:59 p.m. in Kabul, the final C-17 lifted off.
It also ended an evacuation carried out under extraordinary circumstances. U.S. troops had secured and operated an international airport inside a capital controlled by the Taliban, while military and diplomatic personnel processed evacuees and troops provided security, medical assistance, food and water.
More than 123,000 people were evacuated aboard U.S. and coalition aircraft. Thirteen American service members were killed at Abbey Gate. Ten Afghan civilians were killed in the mistaken U.S. drone strike. Americans and Afghan partners who still wanted to leave remained in the country after the last military aircraft was gone.
For the troops aboard the final C-17s, the deadline had arrived.
The wheels left the runway with one minute remaining before midnight, and America’s nearly 20-year military mission on the ground in Afghanistan was over.