Seth Udinski, FISM News

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Even as President Biden capitulated to the Taliban’s demands in Afghanistan, leaving hundreds of American citizens abandoned there, a group of courageous former U.S. military members are working to rescue those stranded in the region.

Known as the “Pineapple Express,” the organization consists of former special forces and other elite U.S. military members, many of whom served tours of duty in Afghanistan in the years immediately following 9/11. According to a report from ABC News, the group has already rescued more than 500 innocent civilians in the region, sneaking them into the airport at Kabul in the dead of night. The operation was able to maneuver around the horrific ISIS-K Kabul bombing, getting civilians to safety just before the blast occurred at the airport.

Lt. Col. Scott Mann is a retired member of Green Berets, and he helped organize the escape. He said after,

Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom….This Herculean effort couldn’t have been done without the unofficial heroes inside the airfield who defied their orders to not help beyond the airport perimeter, by wading into sewage canals and pulling in these targeted people who were flashing pineapples on their phones.

Rescue operations such as this are exciting and seem to carry the feel of a thriller action movie. The truth is much more weighty. These brave ex-military men are partaking in long history of special operations carried out by Americans who believe that freedom is worth risk of one’s life. The group has provided an “underground railroad” for those trapped behind Taliban lines, much like the one used by abolitionists in the 1850s and early 1860s, with the same goal – providing freedom and help to those in desperate need.