Area residents filled the Greater Beaches VFW Post 3270 on Friday, Jan. 14, to welcome a former Afghan combat interpreter and his family to America.
The post and Save Our Allies, a direct-response Afghan rescue organization, hosted the event for Kaihan, his wife Shamila, three-month-old daughter Dunya and a sister-in-law. Because Kaihan fought alongside American troops and supported other U.S. agencies, he and his family had been granted special consideration for expedited Special Immigrant Visas.
But getting out of the war-torn nation as the Taliban re-asserted control amid the recent U.S. withdrawal and settling in a new land were fraught with challenges, to say the least.
To ease the family’s transition, Carol Williams of Ponte Vedra and an army of local volunteers stepped forward to provide housing, furniture, clothes and children’s items. Joining the effort was a group from Christ Episcopal Church, who are collecting donations to pay for the many expenses.
Williams felt compelled to help after watching news coverage of the chaotic withdrawal at the Hamid Karzai International Airport. She organized the local effort to welcome, support and resettle Kaihan and his family.
“This is a community effort to do a good thing to right a terrible wrong,” Williams explained. “This is an opportunity for Americans to stand together, to stand proud, to do the right thing.”
This is not the first time Williams has been involved in helping war refugees. In the 1970s, she and a group from Rochester, New York, helped a family of Vietnamese refugees following the cessation of hostilities in Southeast Asia.
In August, seeing images of people falling to their deaths as they tried to cling to the exterior of planes evacuating Afghanistan and video of a newborn baby being passed to strangers in an attempt to get the child to safety, Williams knew she had to do something.
With the help of the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville, Sean Kilbane of Save Our Allies, Christ Church and a growing number of local residents – especially a friend, Susan Gilvarry – Williams was able to get Kaihan and his family resettled in the greater Jacksonville area.
“When I was talking to Kaihan about getting them a place, he said, ‘Please, Carol, if you could, find me a place with no cockroaches that doesn’t smell and is safe for my girls,’” Williams said. “That just touched my heart.”
Once she found an apartment, friends turned out to clean it until it was spotless and stocked the kitchen. People donated furniture, and when it was ready for the family to move in, the apartment looked as though a professional decorator had handled the project.
Some local businesses and nonprofits got involved, as well. After someone donated a car, a local dealership offered to service it. Havertys donated furniture. BEAM also helped.
An English tutor offered to help the women learn to speak the language. Once settled in, the women hope to launch an online clothing business.
“The community has been incredible,” Williams said. “There are miracles happening here. And I wouldn’t say every day; I would say every 30 minutes.”
She said she is not one to proselytize but felt the hand of God in the effort.
“I cannot deny it,” she said. “He just opened up the hearts of so many people.”
A harrowing escape
Kaihan attended the National Military Academy of Afghanistan, the Afghan equivalent of West Point, graduating in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. That year he was commissioned into the Afghan National Army as an infantry officer.
In 2017, he was invited by the U.S. government to complete an English immersion program at the Department of Defense’s language institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. A year later, he completed the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence’s initial entry rotary wing course in Fort Rucker, Alabama, which qualified him as a helicopter pilot.
He returned to Afghanistan and was certified as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot. He went on to lead Afghan National Army soldiers and supported the United States in the war.
“Kaihan didn’t just fly for the Afghans; he flew with the Americans, too,” said Save Our Allies board member Matt Nelson. “He did active operations with U.S. troops and with some of the other government agencies … so when everything fell, when everything started to collapse, he was definitely one of those people who had a target on his back. Not only him, but his entire family.”
In those final days of the American presence last August, Kaihan was tasked with bringing civilian aircraft in to evacuate about 1,200 people deemed to be critically at-risk amid the resurgence of the Taliban. When it became impossible to get the civilian planes out, Kaihan called in military transport planes to do the job.
At that point, Taliban forces arrived and demanded he surrender.
“He was not going to take that as an answer,” said Nelson. “He told them, ‘We’re going to fall back to our positions, and we’re going to fight. If we’re going to die, we’re all going to die here.’”
To make his point, he threatened to call in air support.
But the Taliban commander didn’t believe him, so he got on the phone and started calling, “Anybody up there. Anybody. We need air support. We need air support.”
But, of course, he had no air support. It had just been a bluff.
Four times he called for someone to respond, growing angry at the silence. But at last, he heard a voice: “What do you need, buddy?”
He said, “I don’t need anything. I just need you to show that you’re up there.”
Within seconds, a plane came screaming down over the heads of the everyone assembled there. And the Taliban commander, who minutes before had laughed at Kaihan’s threat, said, “OK, brother, we’re good. Just evacuate your people however you want to.”
So, Kaihan got the 1,200 out.
In the end, Kaihan, his wife and sister-in-law boarded a C-135 and left their homeland for a new life in America.
A new life
But the excitement was not over.
Kaihan’s wife, Shamila, had been expecting, and suddenly she went into labor.
“I can’t imagine – this young mother, fleeing her country, leaving her family, going into labor on the hard metal floor of a transport plane, having her baby, coming to the United States and not speaking the language,” said Williams.
It was a moving story for Williams, who had lost a child of her own at the age of 10 months. It also served as a kind of validation for Williams, whose efforts to help the family were part of a lifelong commitment to give meaning to her own child’s short life.
And, as though it was some sort of affirmation, Shamila’s baby was born on Aug. 27 – Williams’ own birthday.
Kaihan and Shamila named their daughter Dunya, which in their language means “world.”
Looking ahead
When Kaihan took the mic at the VFW post reception, he expressed gratitude to all who had helped him and his family and urged support for Save Our Allies.
The organization was established in 2021 in direct response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Its mission is to rescue American citizens, permanent residents, Special Immigrant Visa holders and other special populations from that country and help them to find a successful and productive life in the United States.
“I am very lucky that I made it to America,” Kaihan said. “We still have a thousand interpreters, a thousand Afghan allies that were taking bullets for you guys. Do not forget them. They’re still there in danger.”
As he concluded his remarks, Kaihan looked about and took note of the new life for his family.
“Now, I am in America, fitting into America,” he said. “I am breathing the American air, and my daughter … is really my world.”
Donations to help Kaihan’s family may be sent by mail to, or be dropped off at, Christ Episcopal Church, 400 San Juan Drive. Donations should be marked to the attention of Rhonda Toonk and include the words “Afghan resettlement.”
Learn more at christepiscopalchurch.org or call the church office at 904-285-6127 for details.
For further information on Save Our Allies, go to saveourallies.org.
