and two guys in black shirts and nvg, knowing that zak will understand that means night vision goggles. he says, zak, put your kid with the blue shirt on your shoulders as a way for them to figure out how to spot each other. and zak sends a picture of his exact location at the airport. the air force captain responds got him. majorschueman says thank god, you are safe. i ll see you in america. zak responds with a few videos of his family. he writes to major schueman, waiting for the flight, sir. hope to see you soon, sir. major schueman shared this picture of zak and his family on their way to the airport after meeting up with that air force captain. as of this morning he said he didn t know when they would make it on a plane or what their final destination would be but he knew they were safe because they were with the marines.
made for our country. there is a special category for men like zak who helped u.s. troops so they could come to the united states. zak first applied for that visa six years ago but it hit a snag, because overall, zak spent about three years working for the u.s. war effort in afghanistan. in addition to working for major schueman and that battalion of marines, he also spent time working for a u.s. government contractor that was supplying translation services to the u.s. army. in order to get this visa, this special visa that was created for people like him, he needed to prove that he had worked for u.s. troops for two years or more. in order to do that, he needed a letter from everybody he had worked for, including that contractor who set him up to translate for the u.s. army. he needed that attestation to his service so he could get credit both for his service with the marines but also for his time in the army. he needed credit for both to qualify for the visa. the contractor through w
him and his family out and it s just been story after story of these bottlenecks and it not working and glitches. and it s not just zak s story that is familiar by now. it is major schueman s story too. the experience of all of these american combat veterans of the war in afghanistan who are now working what amounts to second full-time jobs, trying to do what the u.s. government as a whole hasn t been able to do quickly enough. individual veterans all over the country cashing in every favor they can, pulling every lever they can reach, trying to get their guy to the u.s. before the taliban get to him first. it is the excruciating story of so many other afghanistan u.s. afghanistan veterans right now. just look at some of the headlines about this over the last few days. look at the local papers. look at this. i am begging you guys. ft. myers veteran fights to bring afghan interpreter home to america. that s in ft. myers news press.
contractor doesn t exist anymore. like so many military contracting organizations that existed for a moment, provided a service and then, poof. but because they are gone, they re defunct and have left sort of no trace, zak has not been able to get a letter from them. they don t exist anymore. and the fact that he wasn t able to get a letter from a defunct contractor that doesn t exist is enough to deny him a visa. it means he has been stuck in afghanistan which is a very dangerous place to be if you re an afghan citizen who helped the united states, particularly one who helped in so many, so many literal battles against taliban fighters. in february of last year, february 2020, zak started getting menacing phone calls from the taliban. they told him you are an infidel because you worked for the americans. just a few weeks ago, zak
or two. obviously the system that was set up within the u.s. government, the special immigrant visa specifically for men like zak, people who had provided this service to our country, had been promised that they would be given safe passage to be here in this country for us to pay them back for what they did, that system was literally set up for somebody like him and yet for all intents and purposes it did not work for him until this series of hail marys, as you describe it at the very end. do you feel like having been through this with i imagine the elation and relief that you re feeling today, do you feel like you have anything that you have learned that you can say right now about things that can be done to change that process right now, to get people out right now? things that can be done in the short term to fix what is obviously a broken system, at least to save some more lives in coming days? sure. it s worth noting that the