Day 1 of the end of the US war in Afghanistan 3 May, 2021 08:56 PM 7 minutes to read An American soldier aboard a Chinook helicopter over Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. Photo / Jim Huylebroek, The New York Times An American soldier aboard a Chinook helicopter over Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. Photo / Jim Huylebroek, The New York Times New York Times By: Thomas Gibbons-Neff The scenes over the weekend were almost as if a multitrillion-dollar effort had morphed into a garage sale. On the morning of May 1, an Afghan transport aircraft landed at this sprawling military base in the country's south. It was loaded with mortar shells, small-arms cartridges and 115kg bombs to supply Afghan troops under frequent attack by the Taliban in the countryside.