We had a night flight on 13 August 2021. Most of the provinces were already collapsed and Taliban took the control. Only two provinces were not in control of Taliban, Kabul and the nearest province Logar. The government prepare special force crew to go there and take control of the fighting soldiers and not let Taliban come in and get control. We flew in the midnight and dropped those people in Logar. We get back around 2.30 in the morning. Early next morning, we found out that they all surrendered to Taliban. That was the last flight I did.
When Taliban get control of the country, they announce amnesty for everyone. It makes us calm and relaxed. But in the meantime, our US advisors were working on applications to get us out of country. But Taliban were not standing on their amnesty. They were still searching for pilots, for intelligence officers and for every single person who was working in the military. One friend said they come to our neighbor’s house and they took that guy who was serving as a military officer. No one knows where they took him. Everyone was scared. I was not living in my house. I was trying to hide in different locations.
One night, I was in my uncle’s house. It was almost midnight, and my sister called me very scared. She was saying, “Don’t come to the house. Please don’t come to the house.” I got scared and I said, “What happened? You’re scaring me. Tell me what happened.” She said, “There are people standing in front of our house, screaming your name.” My mother was also scared. I could hear her voice telling my sister, “Tell Shahpur, please if someone get to your uncle’s house, just run from there. Just run. Run somewhere that even we don’t know.” I was so scared. I couldn’t fall asleep until the morning. Everything was getting worse, second by second. I was asking my US advisors and friends to get us out. Finally, we found a way to get in the airport and get out of the country.
I get emotional the day I entered the airport and saw the situation inside the airport. Before that, every time when we were entering the airport and we were walking towards our aircraft, everyone was smiling. Everyone was working with a good smile on the face. And the field was also clean. But that night, I saw everyone was scared, everyone was crying. And every single thing was broken. People were running. They were just trying to get out of the country. But fortunately, we made it. We get out of the country and we came to United States.
This is what I am made for. This is what I’m born for. I like to fly again as an airline pilot. To fly for private companies. I want to provide good life for my family here in the United States and spend time with them.
When I came to US, I was searching for a job. A friend of mine, who helped me in the evacuation, he knew about Upwardly Global. He gave me very good positive comments about them. He said that “lots of pilots connect with Upwardly Global and they help them to find a job where they’re flying now. Maybe that will happen to you too.” I was very happy to hear that and really wanted to connect with Upwardly Global. Every person I met at Upwardly Global is very friendly, very helpful, very nice. I really appreciate them.
Upwardly Global also helped me get my current job. I am working as a flight line technician in an airport with a good company. I am providing services for aircrafts, like fueling, transportation services, towing aircraft from one place to another, and some customer services.
Upwardly Global just told me about another training that they can help me with for a FAA certificate to become a flight dispatcher. This is also very interesting to me. I could work with an airliner, oversee flight safety and control. They told me that opportunity is there to be recruited to another job, bigger job from flight dispatcher. Maybe even as an airline pilot too!
When my family gets emotional about Afghanistan, my father motivates us. He says “We will have a good life in US. A new life is waiting for us to start.”