Veterans and other volunteers who helped evacuate Afghans after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, as well as a group of Afghan refugees, were honored at a private White House event Thursday evening.
“It was incredible, absolutely incredible,” Shawn VanDiver, president of the #AfghanEvac coalition, an umbrella organization for hundreds of nongovernmental groups that helped with the evacuation, said in an interview Friday with Military.com.
“The coalition's really happy,” continued VanDiver, a Navy veteran. “They feel seen. They feel like this really matters. And they were told about the impact that they made, that their actions made. It was really easy to feel forgotten, feel like nobody saw them. But, like, the f—ing president wrote them a letter.”
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While President Joe Biden was not there, he wrote letters to the attendees that were delivered as they left, VanDiver said. Attendees were also given artwork drawn by Afghan children while they temporarily lived on U.S. military bases during the resettlement process.
“In the coming years, through [Operation] Enduring Welcome, we will continue to stand with our Afghan partners, just as they stood with us,” Biden wrote in the letter to VanDiver, according to a copy shared with Military.com. “I am deeply grateful to you and so many other volunteers — including our veterans and…
