US veterans aren’t giving up on Afghans who saved their lives

After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the disastrous 2021 American withdrawal from Afghanistan may seem like ancient history.

But to David Tyson — an Army veteran turned CIA paramilitary officer who was part of Team Alpha, the first Americans deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11 — it remains very much top of mind.

Two years after the pull-out, Tyson and other Alpha team members are still working to bring an important group of US allies stateside.

“I want to stress that these were the first guys that helped the US government after 9/11,” Tyson told me.

Five weeks after the 2001 terrorist attacks, a group of CIA paramilitary and Special Forces officers were deployed to Northern Afghanistan, joining Afghan fighters.

Most of those fighters, from the Northern Alliance, were ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks living under the oppressive rule.

The perilous mission — which was captured in the book “First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11” by Toby Harnden, and in the 2018 Chris Hemsworth movie “12 Strong“—- would include brutal hand-to-hand combat and eventually lead to the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

“They did not work for us. We did not pay them salaries. They just joined us and fought with us,” said Tyson of the Afghan fighters. “Obviously, it was in their interest. But these guys came to us voluntarily expecting nothing. Many of them died for us. We had cavalry commanders who fought tooth and nail, and then for the next 20 years were part of the Afghan government, military, police and intelligence services.”

They also, he stressed, helped take care of the Americans.

“We were small in number and we lived with the Afghans,” Tyson recalled. “We were fed by them and protected by them.”

But in September 2021, when the US pulled out of Afghanistan, our Afghan allies were largely left scrambling to find their own way to safety with the Taliban reclaiming power; very few were granted Special Immigration visas to the US.

Desperate to repay the life-saving kindness shown to him and to uphold the compact made, Tyson joined with Green Beret Justin Sapp and Shannon Spann, whose husband, Mike, a former Marine and CIA paramilitary officer, was the first American casualty of the war.

In 2022, they formed Badger Six — after a call sign used by Spann and Sapp — to financially support the 30 or so families holed up in Afghan safe houses or in neighboring countries, including Pakistan, waiting for the US government to clear their paperwork.

On Thursday, more than a hundred US Veterans will gather in Hoboken’s Pier A Park for the inaugural “Ruck the River“: a two-mile charity ruck walk hosted by the Hoboken American Legion and benefiting Badger Six.

“The deal was you stick your neck out for us and we stick our neck out for you and we take that to the grave,” Sapp told me. “The bonds you build with these locals are as strong as the bonds you build with soldiers in your unit.”

The crisis has most recently been exacerbated by Pakistan ordering undocumented Afghans to leave the country last month.

Tyson said it’s particularly galling that it’s happening while there is a virtual free-for-all for migrants at our Southern border.

“These people are coming in illegally — and our people are going through the vetting process, which takes so long,” he said. “You can imagine our frustration at that.”

He said some Afghan families have made their way to the United States, where they are self-sufficient and working toward their shot at the American dream.

“They are not lukewarm about their feelings about the States. They are so patriotic … because we went over and sacrificed for them,” said Tyson, noting this charity has a finite goal. “Maybe I’m an optimist, but I hope that two years from now Badger Six is just a memory.”