Working from a conference room at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, a group of war veterans, Afghan diplomats, defense contractors, nonprofit workers, and others conducted a global military-style rescue operation to retrieve 5,000 Afghan evacuees.
Alex Cornel du Houx '06
Involved in that effort, according to The Wall Street Journal, was former US Marine Alex Cornell du Houx ’06.
Excerpts:
The self-named Commercial Task Force dispatched former commandos to Kabul to retrieve evacuees, said Mr. Van Meter, president of New Standard Holdings, a private-equity company, and others affiliated with the group. It made a deal with the United Arab Emirates that allowed an airlift to carry Afghans from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport to temporary shelter in Abu Dhabi where many of the 5,000 evacuees await permission to travel to countries willing to give them permanent refuge.
Alex Cornell du Houx, who served in the Marine Corps in Iraq, was trying to maneuver a convoy of female judges past the Taliban checkpoints surrounding the airport. As of Sunday morning in Kabul, he hadn’t gotten any word.
Read the article, Trapped in Afghanistan, Rescued by Volunteers: How a Handful of Americans Freed 5,000 Afghans. Subscription may be required.