A British Naval Officer said Prince William intervened to get an Afghan officer out during the “chaotic” withdrawal from the country after the Taliban took over.
Lieutenant Commander Dixon said the Duke of Cambridge knew the officer as a classmate from Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the call for help made it possible for the former cadet and his family to get through the gate at the airport in Kabul and out of the country, the Telegraph reported Thursday. (RELATED: Taliban Fighters Enter Kabul After Afghan President Flees)
Dixon, who also had worked with the member of the royal family prior, said he reached out to the necessary personnel and the officer, who is believed to have served with the Afghan army, and was able to get him and his relatives waved through the gate and able to board a plane bound for the United Kingdom, according to the Telegraph.
The commander explained that the group was previously eligible to leave the country but, in the chaos that ensued after the Taliban took over, got lost as hundreds of Afghans attempted to flee the country, the outlet reported.
The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, heard a former Afghan officer whom he had met at Sandhurst during his military training, was trying to escape Afghanistan.
The Prince helped his family get through security & onto a plane at Kabul Airport.https://t.co/YeJmQPbgUY
— Alex Tiffin (@RespectIsVital) September 2, 2021
“I myself got 2 Para to rush out into the crowd and grab someone for me,” Major Andrew Fox, a former paratrooper who served three tours in Afghanistan and has been helping to evacuate interpreters, reportedly shared as he praised the duke’s move. (RELATED: ‘Dragged’: Meghan McCain Blasts ‘Every Single Person In Biden Administration’ Over Fall Of Kabul)
“It’s fully in line with what we get taught in the Army in terms of values, loyalty, respect for others, all that good stuff,” he added. “We’re trained to help where we can.”
“The situation was so chaotic and was so, frankly, mismanaged, that people would do whatever they could to get out,” Fox continued, according to the Telegraph.
President Joe Biden took to the podium Tuesday in a speech from the White House where he framed the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a success after the administration admitted there were still 100 to 200 Americans stranded. 13 members of the military were killed when a suicide bomber exploded near the Hamid Karzai International Airport.