From thousands of miles away, an Army veteran and ‘big brother’ fights to keep a promise in aftermath of war
More than 6,000 miles away near Chicago, U.S. Army veteran Chris McClanathan would open each message and wonder how much longer his friend could hold out. Romal, an interpreter for the U.S. military and government contractors for most of his adult life, was among the tens of thousands of Afghan allies left behind when the United States hastily withdrew from the country in August 2021 and the Taliban seized control.
McClanathan, a suburban dad from Dyer, Indiana, began reaching out to elected officials, the U.S. State Department and local media in hopes of finding someone with the power to help extricate Romal. Romal also occasionally brought his English homework to the base, where he found dozens of willing tutors among the soldiers. On long overnight shifts, he talked about immigrating to the United States and giving his family a better life.
In spring 2021, the defense contractor Romal worked for quickly left Mazar-e-Sharif and their employment records fell into the Taliban’s hands, Romal said. He received a phone call soon after, with an anonymous voice on the other end saying the regime wanted to talk to him about his work with the Americans. The caller named some of his co-workers too.“I will find you,” Romal recalled the man saying. “You can’t hide yourself here.
Back home in northwest Indiana, McClanathan watched the chaotic U.S. evacuation on television and his thoughts instantly turned to Romal. He took a chance that Romal still had internet access and sent a message to him on Facebook. The reply was almost instantaneous.Romal had applied for a Special Immigrant Visa in May 2021 because he knew his life was in danger. He expressed confidence that he would qualify for a refugee flight, but he needed the paperwork to pass through the airport checkpoint.
The congressman said he championed Romal’s case because he wanted America to keep its word to an ally. He also wanted to uphold a promise he made to his own father, who immigrated to the United States from India with his family when Krishnamoorthi was an infant. Romal said one hiding spot was even raided by Taliban guards, who accepted his story that he was a shopkeeper from the north who had brought his mother to Kabul for medical treatment. If they had found the cellphone he’d hidden in the room, they would have discovered the truth and Romal would have been killed. In moments like these, he didn’t know how much longer he and Samima could live this way.“I was losing hope,” he said. “And I would tell people that they’re breaking their promise.
If the baby was born in Afghanistan, they would have little choice but to stay. The child would be forced to live in hiding with them.Romal is pictured in a home he is living in on June 26, 2023 in the suburban Seattle area. Samima hid Romal’s phone in her undergarments, knowing Taliban guards would be unlikely to search a woman. Before leaving Kabul, Romal tapped out a quick message to McClanathan.We are on the way from Kabul to Pakistan,” it read. “There are two more families with us. Right now, everything is OK.”
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