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Last serving US soldier leaves Afghanistan: Who is Major General Chris Donahue?
The United States ended its military mission in Afghanistan a day before self-imposed deadline of August 31.
Major General Chris Donahue has been identified by the United States Department of Defence as the last serving member of the US military to leave Afghanistan, bringing to an end America’s 20-year military presence in that country. “The last American soldier to leave Afghanistan: Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue boards a C-17 of the US Air Force on August 30th 2021, ending the US mission in Kabul,” the Department of Defence said in a tweet.
Major General Donahue is the commanding officer of the 82nd Airborne Division which comes under the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 18th Airborne Corps of the US Army. According to a report in USA Today, the officer was deployed this month to help secure the Kabul airport as America’s self-imposed August 31 deadline to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan neared. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1992 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
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The report further notes that Donahue has been deployed 17 times to oversee operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, northern Africa and eastern Europe. His career includes a stint in the Pentagon, where he served as a special assistant to chairman of the Joints Chief of Staffs.
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The now viral image shared by the Pentagon was taken just as the officer was getting ready to board the departing C-17 aircraft.
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American troops had landed on the Afghan soil in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. They defeated the Taliban, five years after the regime first seized power in the country. The group’s latest advance towards Kabul, and eventual victory, came amid the withdrawal of US soldiers as directed by president Joe Biden in April this year.
