The veterans were not officially part of the US military force in Kabul, and they made their way through the dark Afghan capital at their own risk. However, they worked in coordination with the US military and the embassy in Kabul. The covert work also involved former members of the secret intelligence and aid workers in Afghanistan.
Operate “Quick Pineapple”
The group has christened Operation Pineapple Express and calls itself the “Task Force Pineapple”. The initiator and commander of the entire operation was the retired “Green Berets”, Colonel Scott Mann, former commander of the US Army.
They say they took people in small units, always in small groups, to the US-controlled Kabul airport. The final rescue missions overnight from Wednesday to Thursday will involve at least 500 people, including former members of the Afghan Armed Forces special units and their families. However, more than 130 people have already been transferred to the airport by these volunteers on Wednesday.
The private rescue operation began after Colonel Mann received desperate messages in mid-August shortly after the Taliban seized Kabul from a former Afghan commando he had fought and was still waiting for a special US visa. Afghani was part of an American commando team that has been hunting Taliban leaders for years, and the Taliban knows it. So they threatened to kill him. Man decided to try to smuggle him out of the country. ABC reported that he eventually became hundreds with the “Pineapple Express.”
