Afghan interpreter recounts brave escape from Taliban controlled Afghanistan
West Texan and Green Beret Sgt. Joseph Torres worked with fellow soldiers to get Mikey out of Afghanistan.
The man we have come to know as Mikey has a remarkable story to tell – a story of standing up for what’s right despite the risk. A story of bravery. More importantly, it is a story of freedom.
Mikey is an Afghan man that worked with U.S. special forces as a translator. He began the process of applying for a Special Immigrant Visa in 2012, but the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan before he could get a visa and the U.S. began pulling troops.
Seemingly left behind by the troops he served alongside for years, Mikey was low on hope of surviving another Taliban controlled regime, let alone trying to get out of the country.
That was until his American comrades got involved. It’s a reminder that you’re never in the fight alone and you never leave a solder behind.
This is Mikey’s story.
AUGUST 16TH Taliban Takeover
Images of armed Taliban troops rolling into Kabul are everywhere – television screens, in news updates online and playing out on social media. The current Afghan government has retreated and given up control. The U.S. Embassy has all but collapsed. The Taliban have regained control of Afghanistan and it happened quick – quicker than anyone realized it would.
A country on its knees – an example of how hard it is to achieve national security and just how easy it is to lose.
NewsWest 9 is getting a firsthand account of one man’s plea from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. He’s in hiding and in fear for his life.
“The situation is getting worse,” he says in a video recorded in what looks to be a dark room.
Images on television show how dire the situation is; people rushing the Kabul airport, desperate to get out by any means necessary.
Former U.S. Army Green Beret Joseph Torres has watched it all playout.
“The hard part of seeing something like that is that I know where everything is,” he said. “History is being written right now. It’s being written in a bad way. So many lives are being lost right now. It’s hard for me to look at this and not feel compassion.”
Torres served eight tours of duty for U.S. special forces as a Green Beret, seven of them in Afghanistan. What’s happening now is a nightmare.
“It took a week to undo what we did in twenty years. My work negated. That’s how I feel and I’m angry at it,” Torres said.
That’s because for him, it’s personal. The Afghan man featured in the video is his friend. To protect his identity, Torres says he goes by Mikey.
“I can only pray for him and talk to him everyday and hope that I hear from him the next day,” Torres said.
Mikey worked with U.S. troops as a translator.
“Every time I deployed to Afghanistan, he was my first call,” Torres said.
And now he is in danger, because of his work with the U.S. military. Mikey and Torres have been in near constant contact. Mikey is trying to flee the country with his family. He was one of the many who rushed the Kabul airport Monday. He sent a voice memo to Torres.
“I’m standing at the airport right now, next to the army guys. Just between me and army guys is barbed wire,” Mikey said.
Hours after the voice memo, Torres received another update. Mikey’s wife and son were shot.
“He’s desperate,” Torres said.
Torres is also desperate – desperate to help his friend.
“It hurts because any time that we were down there, he helped us. Now I can’t help him. That bothers me. It hits me on a very personal level,” he said. “All I can hope is that my friend makes it out alive somehow, makes it to a border or we get him out of there.”
The result of a decades long war that has come to an abrupt end. The question tonight…for what?
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AUGUST 30TH Saving Mikey
Shona ba Shona, shoulder by shoulder in the Dari language. It also means together, a promise made a decade ago between U.S. special forces and Afghan interpreter we know as Mikey. Today it is a promise kept.
“I was that team’s eyes, hands, legs, everything,” Mikey said in a video interview. “These guys are my family.”
NewsWest 9 first brought attention to Mikey’s plight two weeks ago while he was hiding in Kabul. His work with the U.S. military put him in danger as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan.
“It was very tough. It was very difficult for me, especially for the couple days of hiding. I was changing spots every couple of days, going everywhere,” Mikey said. “I kept thinking, ‘what will happen to me?’”
While Mikey was in hiding, his friend and comrade Sgt. Joseph Torres and other stateside service members started their own mission to save Mikey.
“He was there for us when we needed him and now he needs us,” Sgt. Torres said. “Seeing him in trouble hits me on a very deep, personal level.”
Call it a rounding up of the troops, a reminder that you never leave family behind. Sgt. Torres and other colleagues began working their contacts, getting in touch with congressmen, leaving no stone unturned. A week into their campaign to help Mikey flee, it was go-time. Help had arrived and there wasn’t a lot of time to make it happen.
“I was shaking. My hands were shaking,” Mikey said.
The journey out started with a text.
“He was telling me, to get ready. Pack up whatever you need, not a lot just a little,” Mikey said.
To protect the identity of those who helped, details of exactly how Mikey and his family made it out of Afghanistan are not being shared. We know the family made it safely onto a cargo plane in Kabul, away from danger and towards freedom.
Mikey, his wife and two children are now safe.
“I don’t even know the word for more than appreciation, to use that word for Joe. That guy, he helped me with everything,” Mikey said.
It’s not hard to understand why Sgt. Torres jumped into action to help his friend. Shona ba Shona, shoulder to shoulder. Soldiers are always for each other and in it together.
NOVEMBER 26TH Freedom
Smiling ear-to-ear, Sgt. Joseph Torres and Mikey go in for a big hug. It’s a reunion celebrating a lot of things.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Sgt. Torres said.
This in-person greeting is remarkable, considering Mikey was in hiding just three months ago in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s resurgence put a giant target on Mikey’s back and everyone like him. He worked as a translator for U.S. Special Forces.
“I wasn’t just an interpreter. I was his soldier, right next to him. Shana b’Shana. Always with him,” Mikey said.
Mikey worked alongside Green Beret Sgt. Torres’ and U.S. Special Forces for several deployments. His role was vital. So when things began to fall apart in Kabul, Sgt. Torres was glued to his phone, working stateside with other soldiers on perhaps one of their most important missions to date: save Mikey.
“I didn’t sleep. It was pretty hectic to try and keep tabs on him. There were times I didn’t know if I’d hear from him again,” Sgt. Torres said.
It took some time, but the call finally came for Mikey and his family to leave.
“I remember that moment as if it’s happening right now. It was 4:30 p.m. I was sitting on a ladder. I was texting with Joe and the other guys,” he said. “The guy on the phone, he went by Kevin, told me, alright get ready. Get a backpack ready, whatever you need for your kids. Rest of the stuff, leave it all.”
While escaping, he was tasked with his final act in Afghanistan – save four other families too.
“I had to collect everybody. It took me about four-five hours. I was at the airport by nine or 10 pm. It was dark and everybody was just trying to get into the airport. He kept giving me a direction of a part of the airport, a totally different gate. I had never known about that area. No one else knew about it,” Mikey said.
He was given a gate code that would lead his family and the others inside the airport to the safety of a United States cargo plane. They just had to wait for the gate to open.
“They kept telling not to lose hope. The gate will open,” Mikey said. “We waited. Two families went in. I was still behind because I had to take them in because they gave me the responsibility of the other families. I was just waiting and wondering what’s going to happen to me and my family. We waited almost all night behind that gate because I had to get all of the other families in first, then it was me and my family.”
Mikey keeping his promise to serve the U.S. right up until his escape, despite the incredible risk. Why? The pursuit of freedom and humanity.
“I’m a human. I want to help the rest of the humans. I’m here right now in America. I’m thankful for these guys. I’m a human being and I want to make these guys proud. I will never do anything that these guys would regret bringing me here to the United States. I will make them proud. I promised that. I will do it. As much as I can,” he said.
Today Mikey and his family are safe. They’ve settled in Texas to begin their new life.
“When you see these families being resettled, look to Mikey. This is what we are getting,” Sgt. Torres said. “They are good hearted citizens that want to be American citizens. They want to do good and raise their families.”
Mikey and his family spent their first Thanksgiving with the Torres family in West Texas – a beautiful friendship born and bonded in war, now family.
Mikey’s bravery changed the course of his family. Call it the greatest gift and one you cannot put a price on or wrapped beneath a tree.
“I want to live my life here. When we were in Afghanistan, there was no freedom. We were alive but not living,” Mikey said. “Now I am here, I can smell and feel the peace and freedom. I’m alive and I want to live my life with my family.”
The gift of freedom.