Soon after, one of the recipients posted it on LinkedIn, and it quickly circulated onto veteransвЂ™ chat groups, where anguished questioning was already being aired about how the US withdrawal could be squared with a core Marine creed: Leave no one behind. вЂњYou raised your hand and said, вЂIF NOT ME, THEN WHO?вЂ™ вЂќ Recalling the 92 Marines who died under his command in Helmand province, the 2,461 American service members overall who died in Afghanistan and the untold treasure lost, he wrote to his fellow Marines: вЂњI felt I had to say to the guys, вЂHey, get your heads up,вЂ™ вЂќ said Nicholson, who retired as a three-star general in 2018. Nothing - not the TalibanвЂ™s sweeping takeover after two decades of war, not the desperate Afghans falling from planes, not disbelief that Afghanistan had fallen overnight to the same enemy that the US had vanquished 20 years ago.ДЄlso read | A digital Dunkirk: veterans online scramble to get people out of Afghanistan вЂњNothing,вЂќ he wrote, вЂњcan diminish your selfless service to our nation.вЂќ Lawrence Nicholson as he drafted a letter in August to the men and women with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade who fought alongside him in Afghanistan. But in this case, someone else broke my word for me. вЂњItвЂ™s theirs to give away if they choose to lie or cheat. вЂњI tell my students in 11th grade that they are the only ones who can betray their integrity,вЂќ Sappenfield said. Rex Sappenfield, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan who now works as a high school English teacher, during class in Fredericksburg on Sept. SappenfieldвЂ™s emotions rise and fall with each message from P, who tried and failed three times to reach the Abbey Gate, one of the Kabul airportвЂ™s main entries, during the US evacuation.

But the shambolic withdrawal and the failure to evacuate thousands of now threatened Afghans whose help was essential to the US effort have only deepened the alienation felt by many veterans. In pulling out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden declared that he would not pass the conflict to another president and another generation. вЂњThe Taliban can easily spot us in this area because we are not from this part of Afghanistan,вЂќ he wrote to Sappenfield this month. (Kiana Hayeri/The New York Times)ДЄs of this week, P is waiting for a possible charter flight out as he is shuttled between safe houses.

Rex Sappenfield, right, laughs during a video call with his interpreter in Afghanistan from his home in Fredericksburg on Sept. He hid in Kabul for nearly a month, before the network managed to shepherd him, in a harrowing 15-hour bus ride, to another city in Afghanistan. He says the interpreter kept his unit alive in Helmand province вЂњby telling us where to go, and where not to.вЂќД®very day, Sappenfield is in contact with the interpreter, who went into hiding after the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August and for security reasons is being identified only as P, the first letter of his given name. But 346 people from 68 different families remain on its list of endangered Afghans, including the interpreter, whom Sappenfield regards as a brother.

The network has evacuated 69 people from 23 families from Afghanistan since mid-August. He is part of an informal network - including the retired general who once commanded his unit, retired diplomats and intelligence officers, and a former math teacher in rural Virginia - still working to fulfill a promise and save the Afghan colleagues who risked their lives for AmericaвЂ™s long fight in Afghanistan. But if the US has withdrawn from Afghanistan, Sappenfield and many other veterans have not.

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