CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After serving in Afghanistan, a U.S. Marine originally from Chicago has been keeping his eye on the welfare of an interpreter who had aided his team in Afghanistan’s Helmand River Valley.
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Marine Corps Maj. Thomas Schueman was awarded a Purple Heart after he and others were ambushed in 2010. The Chicago Sun-Times reported they had been fighting in Afghanistan's Helmand River Valley for seven months during which 25 Marines died and more than 200 were wounded in that campaign against Taliban fighters.
An Afghan translator identified only as Zak fought alongside him. In 2016, Zak had applied for a U.S. visa program that was established for interpreters.
Five years later, he had still not received approval. The events of the past week brought new urgency for Zak to flee the country.
On Thursday, Schueman posted a picture of Zak, his wife and their four children at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport with the simple caption “wheels up.”
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