Army general was the last soldier to leave Afghanistan
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, was the last soldier to leave Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
U.S. Central Command released a picture of Donahue preparing to board the final military C-17 cargo plane to leave Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command, told reporters in a virtual briefing that with the departure of the C-17 at 3:29 p.m. ET, "every single U.S. service member is now out of Afghanistan."
Donahue "is the final American service member to depart Afghanistan; his departure closes the U.S. mission to evacuate American citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and vulnerable Afghans," Central Command said.
The operation evacuated more than 120,000 U.S. citizens, citizens of U.S. allies and Afghan allies in less than three weeks.
Nearly 2,500 service members and 3,800 U.S. contractors were killed in nearly 20 years of war, including 13 service members who died Thursday in a terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport.
CORRECTION (Sept. 2, 2021, 4:10 p.m. ET): A previous photo caption on this article misstated the date Donahue boarded the plane. It was Monday, not Tuesday.
