All army models concerned within the withdrawal and evacuation missions from Afghanistan final yr will probably be awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation or its equal, Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced Wednesday.
Austin can be directing all army branches to carry out an “expedited evaluate” of all models staged at Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport throughout the top of evacuation efforts from Aug. 15-30, 2021, “to establish these models or people that meet the excessive requirements of the Presidential Unit Quotation or applicable particular person awards,” based on the Pentagon.
The announcement got here one yr after the evacuation mission from Kabul ended Aug. 30, 2021. The U.S. and its allies flew about 124,000 Afghans and People in another country however left behind hundreds of Afghans and American civilians who wished to flee the Taliban which seized energy Aug. 15, 2021.
13 U.S. service members and a minimum of 170 Afghans had been killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport believed carried out by an Afghanistan department of the Islamic State, or ISIS, 4 days earlier than the mission was accomplished.
“No different army might have protected so many lives underneath such difficult circumstances in such a brief period of time — not simply due to our airlift or our logistics capabilities, however most of all due to the immense compassion, talent, and dedication of American service members,” the Pentagon mentioned in its assertion.
Units concerned within the resettlement of Afghan allies within the U.S. as a part of Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome can even obtain the Meritorious Unit Commendations, based on the assertion.
“Since World Struggle II, the nation has acknowledged the extraordinary heroism of army models in motion towards an armed enemy with the Presidential Unit Quotation,” Austin mentioned. “President [Joe Biden] directed these actions after session with me and with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees.”
Austin mentioned the awards characterize “the gratitude and love of our nation” for service members’ actions throughout the withdrawal.
“No phrases can correctly honor the deeds we acknowledge with these awards,” Austin mentioned. “I hope these awards function a reminder to every service member who wears them of the lives they helped save and the thanks of the nation and Division of Protection they serve so effectively.”
