Mills is helping Americans get out of Israel. His past rescues include an Amarillo woman.

On Oct. 10, 2023, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida) read a report about a California-based church group who had been on a Holy Land tour when a Hamas terror group attacked Israel Oct. 7. He knew there were other Americans trapped in Israel as well after hearing more reports, due to major airlines' grounded flights to and from Israel. One of the Americans was on a Holy Land Tour.

It didn’t sit well with the former Afghanistan hero, and he made plans to charter aircraft to get 77 of them out of harm’s way and back to U.S. soil. “I just immediately left D.C. and I just decided I couldn’t sit there and do nothing anymore,” Mills said in a report with New York Post. “I campaigned on the fact that I wanted to be a statesman who acts and not a politician who talks.”

And he had rescued Americans stranded on foreign soil before.

During his first rescue in 2021, one of those people happened to be an Amarillo native with her three sons, Mariam Rahim. In news reports gathered from September 2021, Mariam told of her harrowing ordeal. She was among the first Americans to escape Afghanistan after the hasty retreat in Aug. 31, 2021. She was visiting her father who was in poor health, and when she tried to get tickets to leave, there were none available. Mariam said they went to Kabul to get a flight and were turned away. The State Department called her and told her to go to the airport gate and show her passport and she could go in.

They stayed 16 hours and then every night for eight hours with no help.

Mariam’s husband, in Amarillo, got in touch with U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Amarillo). Jackson gave them all the information, copies of passports and everything they could find with no results. Jackson then called Mills, a friend and former contractor. He and his team gathered to make the rescue in Kabul.

“They literally had an aircraft circling the airfield and were told by the State Department and U.S. Military that they could not land,” Jackson said in the report. Mariam said she continued to try to show the Taliban her passport and they threatened her with guns pulled to her head. Finally, the plane landed in the middle of the night, leaving Kabul and abandoning everyone.

Jackson said that the Taliban was looking for Mariam and her family, knowing she was American. Mills and his team took her and her kids to a safe house 13 hours away. There were six planes on the ground, fueled, with crews ready. But the Taliban would not let the flights leave, deciding instead to keep the family as ransom, to demand the U.S. to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

Mills's team then took them to the border of another country and for safety. The U.S. Embassy finally helped them get tourist visas to enter the country. At last, they let Mariam and her family across, and they were able to get on a flight and get back to America.

Mariam said, “Thank you. I thank you again for everybody to help me and especially Cory, who is my hero.” When she returned, she said the State Department called her three times after her return to the U.S. They didn’t know she was back in the country.

To date, Mills has gotten 96 Americans out from Israel and has a charter aircraft ready to hold 218 passengers at no cost to Americans.

He used his expertise to fly to Jordan on that Tuesday, cross into Israel by land and get his fellow countrymen out. Mills is a combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient. He was a part of the first successful overland mission in Afghanistan and knew he had to act quickly to mobilize and be on the ground to bring the stranded Americans home, he reported on a post on Facebook.

“God put me exactly where I was supposed to be, which is to help these people as much as I can. I literally tried to do this from start to stop to make sure that they knew, one, that they’re going to be taken care of and that they’re not left behind and forgotten by their own government,” he said. “I couldn’t care less what district they’re from or whether they can vote for me, whether they’re Democrat or Republican, these are Americans who wanted to get home.”

After National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s announcement that Thursday that the U.S. would begin chartering flights out of Israel for Americans there, Mills was feeling more confident that his mission would continue once he leaves.

“Seeing the failure of the State Department … I knew I had to act quickly,” he said. “I’m honored to have been able to evacuate 96 Americans out of Israel thus far and with a charter of over 200 returning soon, and free of charge.”

Mills served in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division and told “America Reports” he couldn’t share the specifics of his mission or location due to operational concerns and constraints, but added that his work is not over in rescuing fellow countrymen from harm’s way.

Some Americans found themselves stuck in areas that now lack a “permissible environment” for full escape, he said, adding that he also helped evacuate U.S. citizens and eligible individuals from Afghanistan during Biden’s chaotic August 2021 withdrawal.

“I went in and was very thankful to be able to get in – for the second time, by helping the administration who has failed to do their job,” he reported. Mills alleged there was no plan for evacuating Americans from Israel, including purported church and synagogue groups visiting the Holy Land.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Now helping with Israel, Rep. Mills rescued Amarillo woman in 2021