Local military who served in Afghanistan grapple with helplessness in wake of attack

T.J. Forness couldn't sleep the night he heard that a suicide bomber had killed Marines and civilians at the Kabul airport Thursday in Afghanistan. His mind kept taking him back to the six months he served in Afghanistan in 2012, the people he met, the faces he saw, the comrades in arms who had given up so much.

The eight-year active duty service member and Evans resident who retired from the U.S. Marines in 2017 said that all Marines know what they've signed up for, that they owe their country everything, including their lives.

But that doesn't make the sadness and crushing disappointment over the United States' chaotic exit from Afghanistan less painful, he said.

"I’ve done my time during the time I was in, and now, I feel helpless," said Forness, 30.

More than 700,000 members of the U.S. military have served in the war in Afghanistan since 2001 and more than 2,300 have been killed. As the U.S. winds down its mission in the last days of the evacuation effort, local veterans who served in American's longest war look at what is happening now with grave concern.

Senior Master Sgt. Aaron Achenbach, a full-time reservist with Niagara Falls Air Base, recalled working alongside dedicated Afghan airmen during a six-month tour in Afghanistan from the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2017. The images of the Kabul airport he sees on the news hit home with him because the airport was where he had been stationed.

He worries about the airmen he flew with and trained to help operate C-130 cargo planes. They were pilots, engineers, load masters. They all cared about their country and the success of the Afghan government and air force.

"They all have families," said Achenbach, a Williamsville resident. "They all wanted to do a good job and be good airmen."

When he sees the airport images and the crowds surrounding it, Achenbach says he hopes the Afghans he worked with will make it on one of the remaining flights out. But despite the ongoing efforts to try to help these men from afar, he looks at the crush of people surrounding the airport and isn't hopeful.

Forness tries not to watch the news too much, he said. It's depressing. But he has been staying in touch with a friend he met while stationed in Georgia, who arrived in Afghanistan the day before the bombing occurred.

U.S. forces are struggling to address the "controlled chaos" in the military section of Hamid Karzai International Airport and are constantly in motion to keep up with a massive sea of people who are moving and regathering in different locations, his friend told him.

"Literally, they’re using helicopters and assault teams just to open up the runways so the planes can take off," Forness said.

Achenbach, who has served in active duty or the Air Force Reserve for nearly 40 years, said he wasn't surprised about the latest airport attack that has killed more than a dozen U.S. service members because attacks on the airport were commonplace when he was there. Rockets and improvised bombs regularly targeted the airport. Many Afghans were wounded.

"That was a constant thing," he said.

Forness said he's frustrated that the U.S. and Biden administration have abandoned millions in military assets and that they chose not to safeguard and control the Bagram Air Base, locking themselves into only one point of exit.

He wishes the United States had chosen to stay in Afghanistan, but never doubted that the Afghan government would fall once the U.S. military left.

"The war, from the beginning, was always a losing battle," he said.

Forness also recalled when two service members were killed while he was stationed at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province. It's hard to know which enemies you're fighting over there, he said. Aside from the Taliban, there's al-Qaida, ISIS and the mujahideen fighters from Iraq.

Achenbach, 56, is also well aware that those enemies remain a threat to remaining Afghan allies. Shortly after he left Afghanistan in 2017, two of his Afghan counterparts were shot to death on their way to work. Even though they weren't wearing their uniforms, they were marked men. 

"That’s the kind of environment those guys are living in every day," he said.

Just as there are many enemies, Achenbach and Forness said there are many Afghans who care about freedom and democracy. That's why so many are looking for a way out now that the Afghan government has collapsed.

"The people that I worked with and was in contact with for six months were genuinely proud of their country, and I think they really wanted democracy to succeed there," Achenbach said. "They understood what their freedoms were and how important that was."

The people who do make it back to the United States will still have a lot to work through.

When Forness retired from the Marines after eight years of active duty in 2017, it took some time for his mind and body to readjust. Sitting with his back against the wall at restaurants, constantly checking his rearview mirror to see who was behind him on the road, feeling his heart race for no apparent reason because he subconsciously felt threatened, that was normal for him.

"It’s a survival thing," said Forness, who now has a young family and works at Moog. "Your body has memory."

When this is over, some military service members will cope with what they experienced differently than others. Some may need more help, he said.

"You see stuff you don’t want to see, stuff that you should never have to see," he said. "Unfortunately, you have to go back and do your job."

Despite all that's transpired in recent weeks, neither Forness nor Achenbach say they regret their service in Afghanistan. 

Forness said that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he rode a wave of patriotic conviction that eventually led him to join the Marines and do his part to keep America safe.

"Marines want to deploy. That’s what we train for," he said. "It’s just sad that we had officials that couldn’t see what was happening until the point where we couldn’t turn back."