Kabul Evac: Sgt. Bloomstrom

Sgt. Bloomstrom Write Up
Northern Provisions
-Stash

Up North Trip

"As much as I didn’t want to go against my morals, I had to…"

    A motor-transport operator for H&S Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines (1/8), Tessa Bloomstrom was just in another chow line, during another sunbaked day at Al-Jaber Airbase, when the first indications of a push into Afghanistan was a go.  “I was in line at the DFAC, I was waiting and then they had the news on and the news headline that popped up ‘3000 troops are being sent to Afghanistan.” Part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), composite groups of 1/8 had been staged all over the sandy, pan-handle-of-a-country of Kuwait, primed to intervene if a crisis, any crisis, developed. “Well, that’s us. We got the call. 1/8’s going. I was [feeling] anywhere between, excited to participate in something real and I’m not going home.” Chosen among the few for a female-engagement team (FET), Bloomstrom had contributed her combat-trucker experience to the cross-training that naturally develops with such a team. The Marine creed of “every Marine a rifleman,” seemed to resonate, and it quickly became a reality, to Bloomstrom, as “being Motor-T, my whole career, and then transitioning…all of a sudden…to be a FET team, or part of one…it was exciting, and new. I was excited to learn it, nervous because I mean, I wasn’t always trained to be boot-on-the-ground. I was a combat trucker on wheels. [The cross-training] kind of went hand-in-hand, it was pretty similar…as far as needing to know where you need to have security and things to watch out for.”

Receiving a rapid training cycle in noncombatant skills, only two weeks prior to the push, the following days became labor-intensive and stretched late into the desert nights. Soon, they were airborne, wanting from the lack of information given. Later, they were briefed as they were touching down “Alright, when we get off this C-17, we’re gonna all Condition 1, we’re gonna be ready for anything, we’re gonna be moving, we need to not be taking our time.” However, this group of Marines, stepping off the C-17, couldn’t help but notice how calm the situation appeared to be at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA). The airfield was clear. Striding past a ‘Welcome to Kabul,’ sign adorning the terminal, the group set down their gear in a deserted, ramshackle PX. No sooner had this occurred when she and her tightly knit FET were rushed to the under-threat North Gate.
“The crowd a North Gate was Chaotic, they were climbing the fence, throwing their own bodies over the C-wire…They were so desperate to get out and they wanted to leave…they needed that.” As a microcosm of the developing situation surrounding HKIA, each gate seemed to offer its own version of name-brand chaos, between the Afghan civilians attempting to flee and the recently arrived Marines holding the line. Flashbangs and the thrust of C-17’s punctuated the near-endless scenes of yelling, screaming, and thrashing. A meet-and-greet of threats developed, perceived and real, and presented themselves to Bloomstrom: swarms of people and luggage who could be concealing IEDs and, not least, the scattered shots of unknown fire.

“We were getting small-arms fire at all of our gates, where it was coming from I have no idea. I mean, there’s firefights all the time, sometimes you couldn’t even tell [who] they were between.” This omnidirectional fire could have been warning shots, she explains, but the regularity of ‘warning shots’ created an uncertain scene of whom was firing at whom. Being at North Gate, East Gate and Abbey Gate, Bloomstrom had both a broad, boots-on-the-ground perspective to the developing chaos, as well as the opportunity to view stunning acts of bravery, specifically from the Afghan children. “You’d see this 12 year-old girl, holding hands in a chain with her mom, all her other sibling, guiding [them] through the crowds, into the search tent, guiding them into the comfort area. They were holding it down…It was just an amazing to see that such a small child could accomplish something so big.” The same bravery can be said of Bloomstrom as well, holding it down, making those tough decisions to escort Afghan civilians back outside the gates.

Putting morals aside, and her fellow Marines and mission first, her ceaseless actions helped mitigate the chaos that threatened to consume all those present. Bloomstrom was awarded a case of Rip-Its when she found a little girl who had become parted from her family and lost in the sea of people. “[T]here was an interpreter that needed help finding this little girl’s parents. The little girl ended up lost somewhere too. I ended up finding this little girl and found the interpreter and we had brought the little girl to her family.”

Part of the morning shift at Abbey Gate on August 26th, 2021, Bloomstrom describes the emotional fallout from the PBVIED that hit and killed thirteen U.S servicemembers:

 “We quickly threw our gear back on because we had just set it down. I’m personally trying to find a way if I can get back out there…I want to help…I want to be there…the answer was no. [T]hey just kind of had us geared up, ready if something were to come next. I have no idea how long we waited there but I know eventually we finally got word on who passed and how many.” The leadership then began listing off the Marines who were killed and wounded to the group of semi-stunned Marines and Corpsmen. With Elaine Hart wounded, the death of Nicole Gee, Bloomstrom could only describe it as a ‘punch to the gut.’ “No matter how much you know the person, it hurts just as much.” A true testament to the sisterhood that the Marine Corps forges in austere conditions. Expanding on Gee’s impact on her career, recalls that “She was somebody who I looked up to, as a Marine in general, she was great. She was, as another female Marine, you would want to reach out to be…you would want to reach her level, and I’m just seeing everything that she was doing, in putting her whole heart into this whole operation and having such a positive attitude all the time. She was just somebody that I really looked up to and wanted to be like. I still do.”

Very few bonds are stronger, or more sacred, than those of Marines and their attached Fleet-Marine-Force Corpsmen and sailors. The chaplain of CLB-24, the supporting logistics element of the 24th MEU, had gathered the Marines in in a school-circle and “[W]e all kind of just did this mass group hug thing and he just started singing at the top of his lungs and we all just kind of listened to him sing and just all cried it out in this big group-huddle. I’d say close to almost 100 Marines. We weren’t saying anything, we were all just listening and…was something that I’ll never forget." As a lasting memory, Bloomstrom witnessed the lowering of the U.S national colors over the airfield. Throughout the operation, allied nations had slowly lowered their flags in succession. By the time 1/8 had retrograded, the Stars and Stripes stood sentinel to the isolated U.S forces, the last flag above Afghanistan.

Rest, let alone sleep, had not come easily to Bloomstrom. Returning from the chaos of the Kabul evacuation to the relative calm of Kuwaiti nights, Bloomstrom would gaze at the stars dotting the night sky. The touch-and-go tempo of Operation Allies Refuge would stand in stark contrast to the inertia of the country-sized FOB called Kuwait. Thankful, and relieved, to be back in the United States, Bloomstrom, who had kept personal communication to her family at a minimum during the last month of her deployment, was nevertheless eager to see them again. When asked on how she coped with such an operation, and the rapid return to stability, Bloomstrom explains “I shut my brain off, I couldn’t really let myself feel much because then my morals were gonna get in the way, my values, were gonna get in the way and then I mean…that could flaunt the mission in a way. As far as food and eating, I ate when I could. My priority was not eating, to be honest. I really didn’t care if I ate or not.” 

To Bloomstrom, the appropriate way to honor the sacrifices of the thirteen U.S servicemembers is by letting their families know that they are not forgotten, while not overwhelming them at the same time. Saying the thirteen names, even setting a table on the anniversary of August 26th, can do honor those lost during our last chapter in the War in Afghanistan.

This piece was written by an assistant writer, a "scribe" of American military and Marine Corps history, "Stash".