Kabul Evac: Sgt. Kemmling

Sgt. Kemmling
Northern Provisions
-Stash

The Stress Factor

"Once you accept that you’re dead, you’re good, that’s how it worked for me at least…"

A mortarman deprived of his mortars, Kemmling and his plussed-up group of Marines from Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, began filling gaps in the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA). He had received messages from their 1/8 sister-companies, while waiting for the word in Kuwait, as both Aztec (Alpha) and Charlie companies were already on the ground conducting crowd control. “I was pretty certain that we were going to miss what was happening there, but then, we got our plane, and all was good.” Arriving at 2AM on August 17th, 2021, expecting an eruption of chaos as soon as his section disembarked, Kemmling was struck by the cool night air, the city lights of Kabul and the looming mountains that only became more visible as the pre-dawn light emerged. Initially conducting bag checks at the North Gate, Kemmling would given a false impression of how this evacuation would turn out. “Things seemed composed; things seemed pretty nice at first. The Afghan people, they looked really nice and [I] had like a good interaction. How I thought it was going…was not how it ended up.”
Resting on his rotation, Kemmling and his section were abruptly alerted to become a quick-reaction force (QRF) to the North Gate. Donning their full kit, they ran to link up with the Marines on-station and worked the auxiliary gate, named the ‘Kickout Gate.’ With his section, combined with the machine gunners of Bravo Company, a scratch-team of seasoned Marines, ranging from Lance Corporals to Sergeants, removed Afghan civilians that did not have the proper, or timely, documentation. Due to the constantly changing requirements of the documentation needed to enter HKIA, this team eventually removed approximately five-thousand civilians during the first day alone. Removing a family with another Marine, Kemmling explains:
“They started breaking down hysterically, crying. The woman took the barrel of my gun, put it in her mouth and she said, ‘Kill me here, I’d rather die from you than the Taliban.’ And then the same thing, tried to move it over to her baby’s head. So, we had to kick them out and then, that’s when I knew what we were in for.”

Shifting from the various duties around the gates as QRF, Kemmling began leading a group of Marines who were utilizing biometric scanners, or SEEK systems (Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit), to determine who was good to go through the gates and to determine those who were, as Kemmling explained, ‘bad to go.’ Thumbprints, iris scans, facial patterns and identification information are logged into the system, searching for any hits, or ‘pops,’ by known ex-Taliban or ex-ISIS fighters. Fortunately, the group Kemmling had led did not receive any pops, but some high value, yet bizarre, individuals did make their way to Kemmling “This guy’s a four-star Iraqi general and he’s showing me a book of him shaking George [W.] Bush’s hand. And I’m like ‘Hey man, that’s pretty cool, I guess you’re good to go brother." Marines from CID (Criminal Investigations Units) individually roamed the areas around the gates, identifying any potentially hostile or above-the-baseline civilians to have the Marines search further. Impressed by their use of combat-hunter skills, Kemmling was nevertheless humbled when the CID Marines plucked a civilian from the crowd, who had slipped through the security screen.

‘Hey, I need you to come get this guy. We found maps with the grids on them, of all our positions. We found his cellphone with him posing with ISIS pictures.’

As advertised, the search of the backpack revealed the map complete with grids and red circles identifying U.S positions. This happened 20 meters from the terminal. Questioned on the spot, and for the sake of time, this high value individual was kicked out of the area and not detained. Grappling with the blurred lines between civilians and enemy combatants, Kemmling, and the Marines should-to-shoulder with him, attempted to discern readily identifiable threats among the backpack throwing mass of civilians…but found none. Not under fire, he nevertheless had a radio, due to him leading this group of Marines. “It was almost a systemic overload because every second that radio is going off. You were getting ten scenarios a second.”

North Gate…be advised: there’s a suspected person borne IED…be cognizant that’s out there…be ready.’
North Gate…be advised: we have reason to believe there’s a possible vehicle-borne coming your way.’

The previous experience Kemmling in IED-lane training seemed to melt away, as nearly all civilians opposite of him carried backpacks, luggage, satchels, and bags. Not to mention that to Kemmling, all vehicles in-country seemed to be weighed down, with wires exposed and military-age Afghani males just ‘weirding,’ it. A procession of Taliban technicals did not help either, as they roved around the crowds, cowing them, and heightening the concern of the Marines. “I tell my junior Marines about it now: you can train for it, but once you get there, you really can’t train for that. That amount of stimulus, you just got to really train yourself to be cool and feel it. That whole time you just kind of came to grips with the fact that everything in your immediate vicinity is capable of killing you.” Still at the terminal corralling more masses of civilians through, Kemmling was again checking the documents when personnel from the State Department began directing the Marines to the nearby bunkers. Unsure of what had just occurred, murmurs of the bombing began to disseminate through the ranks. Ordered by a SNCO to lock their immediate area down, Kemmling and his Marines now began to keep tabs on the civilians around them and posted security. As team leaders were gathered for a quick brief, the SNCO advised “Listen, a bomb just went off at Abbey Gate over there. They’re about to be rolling the casualties through over to here.” The terminal housed the BAS (battalion aid station) and the effect of such news, had ignited something in the Marines. “I can’t even explain it. It was the absolute intensity, the determination in the Marine’s eyes when they knew that someone, on our own, had been touched. We [needed] to make sure everything is capable, and everything is good for them to get those casualties through.” Staring down a bus entering the area, the group of Kemmling’s Marines halted the bus. Kemmling entered the now-stationary vehicle. Ordering the civilians not to move and not to leave, Kemmling and his Marines took this incursion into their secured position personally.

The days after his work in the terminal were hazy and seemed to blur together. Approximately 24 to 36 hours had passed when the airport remained still, almost calm, as the last civilians aboard the final flights departed. Whisked back to Kuwait, the Marines in his section had a day of rest before they began their regularly scheduled PT the next morning. Seeing other Marine units from the evacuation had opportunities to lounge, Kemmling and his Marines were not entirely enthusiastic about the return to the trappings of garrison life, Kemmling was thankful that it kept his mind occupied. Attending a wedding only six days later, the psychological whiplash between peace and conflict, between tribulation and jubilation, were wracking the brain of this recently returned Marine. “It was weird, it was super weird. I was sitting there all twerked up and everyone else was kind of having a great. I still had a lot of thoughts to wrestle with at the time, so it was kind of a weird scenario. It took me a long time to really figure out anything about it. It was definitely a long process.”

Kemmling offers all servicemembers with a postscript:
“Even if you’re out of the military, reach out to the dudes, reach out. I have no problem saying it was difficult for me for a while. SO, if its difficult for you, there’s no reason you gotta be alone with it.”

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