total troops on the ground. our mission to defend kabul airport and evacuate people from afghanistan as quickly and safely as possible continues. the airport remains secure. the evacuation flights are steadily increasing and we are doing everything we can to maximize safe evacuations. in the past 24 hours, 15 c-17s arrived with several hundred more troops that allowed us to get to that 5,800 number and also some supplies. as of 0300 eastern today and the previous 24 hours, 16 c-17s and one c-130 departed. these include a couple hundred american citizens. since august 14th as the president noted earlier today, we have air lifted approximately 13,000 total evacuees during the