US Air Force members, last to leave Kabul, describe scenes near airport

Pilots and crew members of the final five C-17 aircraft of the US Air Force to leave Afghanistan have described as “apocalyptic,” scenes near the Kabul airport as the United States finally ended its 20-year military presence in the country on August 30, day before a self-imposed deadline to do so.

“It just looked apocalyptic,” said Lieutenant Colonel Braden Coleman of the US Air Force, who was responsible for monitoring the outside of his aircraft for threats including artillery fire. “It was like one of those movies in which all the aeroplanes had been destroyed. There was a plane that was burned all the way. You could see its cockpit, while the rest of the plane resembled the skeleton of a fish,” Lt. Colonel Coleman remarked.