How an Afghan family escaped the Taliban

A year after the chaotic end of America's war in Afghanistan, looking back for Elliot Looking at it, it doesn't look any better. Ackermann: "This was America's moral breakdown and the way it treated its allies," he said. "It was a collapse of America's ability, its ability to carry out this mission." The breakup was personal. “Suddenly I was back in the war. Currently, he is writing a book about America's longest war called "The Fifth Act" (on August 9 he was published by Penguin Press).

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin asked. ``Five acts. rice field.

The Taliban have outlived the world's greatest superpower and sought revenge on the Afghans who sided with the Americans. I was imploding inside. Ackermann said, "Through your cell phone, I could hear all these Afghans believing what we said and screaming for help.

So, He became part of a digital network of veterans working to expel Afghans: "I was involved in an effort to expel probably more than 200 people." Kabul's airport was overrun, with Afghans swarming the gates, looking for a way to slip through the security guards and board the plane. It's like being called on stage by a band," said Ackermann. "You had to know someone in the band."

Or someone in the Marines guarding the gate. Ackerman's network texted them pictures with arrows pointing to where to look for certain Afghans with handmade signs.Most of them were strangers. All of them were hopeless.

Like the man Ackermann calls "Aziz." He used to work for the U.S. government and now sends anguished voice messages about his fear of the Taliban:

I don't want the Taliban to catch me because they

``It's a very bad situation with the whole family at home. Children are so scared."

Ackermann said, 'Why are you ignoring that?'

"I didn't think we could help him. Then a bomb went off at the monastery gate and everything stopped."

Suicide bomber13 Americans and an estimated 170 Afghans were killed

Four days later, the last American soldier left Afghanistan. Ackerman flew off. There was nothing he could do but tell Aziz that he was sorry.

"He sent me this text message: 'You did your best. A superhero in our family, I feel lucky to be killed by the Taliban.”

Later, Ackerman heard that a plane was leaving from Mazar-e-Sharif. is a long drive.

He texted Aziz:

"Go as soon as possible." 

"Hurry up. All flights leave today. Hurry up."

Aziz said. I sent you a video of the drive north. He reached Mazar-i-Sharif in time. "But no planes flew that day or the next, and days and weeks went by, and he was in the safety of his home, and it was really just a wedding hall. … He'd been inside this frontier for about a month. And then one night I found out he had turned up for a flight and I went to sleep.” He left Afghanistan with his family and ended up in a refugee center in Qatar - Finally safe from the Taliban.

"Hello, how are you?" said Aziz. "I don't know how to thank you. But I thank all the people of America because we never dreamed of that. But their Love, their mercy. Thank you, thank you for everything."

Ackermann said, "Having gone through the trials he went through, and seeing how disastrous it ended, he  And he said, ``Thank you to all Americans.''

Just because you decide to turn the page doesn't mean that the page will be turned for everyone. All Afghans who are still in Afghanistan or who have come to America and whose families are still there." 89}

      
Read excerpt: The Fifth

     
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Story by Mary Walsh. Editor by Mike Levine.