Photo: U.S. Air Force
Among the hundreds of people crowded onto a departing Air Force plane on Sunday hoping to escapethe Taliban takeover of Afghanistanwas a small boy, cold and tired.
A widely circulated photo shows what happened next: A U.S. airman gave the child his uniform to keep warm as the boy slept.
The gesture drew praise from military leaders and underlined the stakes of the ongoing evacuation efforts out of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
“Our airmen did a seemingly small act, but it wasn’t really a small act, right?” Bass says. “It was actually something that is very big and that image will last for generations to come. But we have ordinary airmen every day doing extraordinary things, whether it’s in Afghanistan, in Haiti fighting wildfires … or whether they’re at COVID vaccination sites.”
The boy was one of 823 passengers aboard a C-17 that left Kabul for Qatar on Sunday, an Air Force spokeswoman says. It was unclear who the unidentified boy was traveling with, though it is understood that children must be accompanied to evacuate.
The scene at Kabul International Airport in August, 2021.WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty
The flight the boy was onhad already made headlinesbecause the crew decided to leave with numerous more passengers than they were expecting after hundreds of people who had been cleared to leave Kabul flooded into the plane.
The Defense Department previously confirmed to PEOPLE that there were 640 people on board. The Air Force then said Friday that number didn’t originally include 183 children.
According to the Air Force, the plane is designed to hold 102 troops/paratroops, 36 litter and 54 ambulatory patients and attendants and 170,900 lbs. of cargo.
Defense Onereported thatwhile the C-17 wasn’t built to hold so many passengers, people boarded via a half-open ramp before the aircraft took off.
The flight is believed to have carried among the most passengers ever on a military cargo plane.
Courtesy
An official told Defense One that “the crew made the decision to go,” after the large group of Afghans who had been cleared began pulling themselves through the ramp.
The evacuation of U.S. citizens, allies and refugees is ongoing in Kabul.
While the Biden administration hasfaced criticismfor its handling of the operation, they have vowed to help as many people depart the country as possible.
- With VIRGINIA CHAMLEE
source: people.com
