When the government of Afghanistan collapsed, American-trained Black Hawk helicopter pilots began searching for an exit strategy. They were already being hunted by the Taliban.
The fledgling Afghan Air Force had been so effective at delivering their commandos onto the battlefield, and directly engaging them with machine-gun fire from their helicopters that some pilots had been assassinated in the streets while off duty.
To use an American expression, it was time to get out of Dodge, or Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif in this case.
“I had guys that were starting to leave in June and July,” says Travis who asked Connecting Vets not to use his last name due to security threats he faces as he continues to do work abroad.
“The problem was one of the reasons Afghanistan collapsed, and no one will ever be able to convince me any otherwise, is that they had a very capable Air Force that was holding off the Taliban through all these positions,” he said.
A former U.S. Army Black Hawk pilot, Travis worked as a civilian contractor teaching and mentoring Afghan pilots.
“With the withdrawal, they lost all their maintenance part support, so it effectively grounded the entire Air Force, all these remote bases. You had commandos running out of bullets. I mean, because the Air Force couldn't or the Air Force or special mission wing couldn't get there to deliver it. So these guys just kind of gave up,” he continued, explaining that after the U.S. withdrawal, there were not even people to fill up the helicopters with fuel.
With the Taliban closing in, Travis advised his former students to escape if possible. In some cases, they made their great escape by taking off in their Black Hawks and flying north to Uzbekistan.
They knew it was time to go when they, “heard that Ghani had fled and the worst part of it was they were still feeling pretty safe and secure. There was no battle at Kabul, they just left,” Travis said of the Afghan government vanishing overnight.
The American program to train Afghan pilots began fairly late in the war, in 2017, but Travis felt it was a success story that brought out the best in his students and was then turned into an effective fighting force. “These guys were very, very brave. They were very professional. They took a lot of pride in the fact that they were Afghan Air Force Blackhawk guys,” he said.
“I think we made like 92 pilots, 92 crew chiefs and it actually went very well, it was one of the most successful training programs in the history of Afghanistan, their safety rate was on par with the U.S. military, and actually probably even a little bit better for the conditions. They performed exceptionally well,” Travis said.
About a dozen Afghan Black Hawk pilots flew their newly liberated helicopters across the Uzbek border, flying low and at night while wearing night-vision goggles. Some made it to an airfield, others ran out of fuel and landed just across the border. Additionally, other Afghan pilots flying a variety of different helicopters and airplanes also escaped in this manner.
Other Afghan pilots were not so lucky. One Black Hawk pilot from Panjshir flew his helicopter there to support the anti-Taliban resistance. “By the time he landed. Taliban had taken over the area in the soccer stadium where he landed so he accidentally delivered a Black Hawk and a pilot, to Panjshir Taliban,” Travis said. “So I talked to him and he, he just wants to get out, but they're being told hey, you fly or we'll kill you.”
He is not the only Afghan pilot who has been press-ganged into service with the Taliban. When Connecting Vets asked a helicopter mechanic how long the Black Hawks could be operated by the Taliban before they break down due to maintenance issues, he estimated they could fly for about 1,000 flight hours provided they figure out how to change the aircraft's fluids.
Travis' view is that the environment in Afghanistan is so challenging and takes a beating on the helicopters that it is probably less than 1,000 flight hours, but he also points out that in the 1980s America sold some Black Hawk helicopters to China, and that the Chinese manufacture replacement parts for them. If the Taliban keep lines of communications open with the Chinese government, they could potentially operate the helicopters indefinitely.
For the pilots and aircrew who made it to Uzbekistan, they were then evacuated to the UAE for further processing, and the first batch of them have arrived in the United States at Fort Bliss, Texas Travis said. The McCain Institute is also helping with the resettlement.
Travis is still working to help his former students and friends as best he can. “I've been working with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine as well her office because I've got two guys that are stuck in Istanbul, who were able to take a commercial flight out before. I can't get the embassy to even get in contact with them,” he said.
In the meantime, he is also hoping to settle some of the Afghan pilots in Maine where he lives so he can help look after them.
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