Life and Death at Abbey Gate

The Fall of Afghanistan and the Operation to Save our Allies

Mikael Cook, Robert Conlin, Robert Conlin

• Publisher: Casemate
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781636243979
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"...a brutal, honest account by an American veteran of what went wrong and how a few determined people tried to make it right. Beautifully crafted and deeply researched, it marks a vital contribution to the accounts that have come out of the War on Terror."— Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author As the American government began a disastrous mass evacuation of its Afghan allies, a group of American veterans saw the writing on the wall—the people who had supported them on the ground over the past two decades were going to be left behind. Instead of watching on the sideline, they sprang into action. The effort became known nationally as #DigitalDunkirk, in reference to the civilian aspect of the evacuation of soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. As America's last days in Afghanistan came to a chaotic end, an ad-hoc group of veterans, intelligence assets and legislative aides undertook an extraordinary mission to honor the U.S. battlefield creed to leave no comrade behind. Relying on cell phones and satellites as their weapons, they worked feverishly around the clock to help evacuate as many Afghans who had supported U.S. troops over the past twenty years as possible. As the desperate mass of Afghans tried to flee brutal Taliban rule, Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, worked at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate in conditions that brought combat-hardened veterans to tears. After an ISIS suicide bomber detonated his S-vest, killing 13 U.S. service members, operations came to a halt. Told through the eyes of Mikael, his Afghan friend Abdul and the 2/1 Marines on the ground, including a Marine squad leader who personally led the Afghans through the airport, Life and Death at Abbey Gate tells the story behind the story of the mass evacuation of over 124,000 Americans and Afghan allies during a two-week period in the summer of 2021. This is an important story that should be read by all Americans. A story of leadership, empty government promises and the convictions of our military to stand by our allies in their time of need.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Prologue: Abbey Gate, HKIA
• Preface: What Was #DigitalDunkirk?
• 1 At Home in Michigan
• 2 An Ann Arbor Childhood
• 3 Basic Training
• 4 Deployment
• 5 A Kabul Childhood
• 6 Early Summer 2021
• 7 Marines Make their Way to HKIA
• 8 Underway With #DigitalDunkirk
• 9 Abbey Gate
• 10 Team Wins—Getting Them Out
• 11 The Blast
• 12 The Mission Continues—The Paiman Rescue
• 13 The Aftermath
• Photo Section