Born into a poor family in a rural region of Afghanistan, Obaidullah Shurali’s father taught primary school and insisted his son complete high school. Upon graduation, Obaidullah joined the Afghan National Army (ANA) and earned the rank of Sergeant in 2011. Shurali’s first duty station as a leader in the ANA was at the Kabul Airport. His ANA unit assignment was near the Afghan Air Force Academy where he watched Afghan pilots perform training, orientation, and maintenance on their aircraft. He was inspired by watching the airmen and soon developed a love of planes. After a year watching the pilots train at the airport, the Army deployed him to Kandahar, “This was a very dangerous place as many consider this area as home to the Taliban,” says Shurali, “I feel lucky because I received orders for Officer Candidate School (OCS) three months after I arrived at Kandahar. OCS was far away from that dangerous province.”

During OCS, he stood out among his peers and excelled in areas concerning leadership, tactics, and discipline. Shurali earned his gold 2nd Lieutenant bar at the completion of OCS. He was handpicked to begin flight training in the United Arab Emirates to fly planes for his country. 

The first time away from his country, it was a challenge to be immersed in a foreign culture and away from his family, but he loved flying and took every opportunity to increase his hours in any aircraft available. Upon returning to Afghanistan with a new swagger of confidence, the Afghan Air Force selected him to attend fighter pilot training in the United States.“I arrived in the U.S. in March 2016 and attended the Defensive Language School (DLI) at Lackland Air Force Base outside San Antonio, Texas,” says Shurali. “They gave us nine months to learn the English language before sending us to the Columbus Air Force base to start flight school. I learned aerobatic maneuvers in a T-6. From there, we went to Moody Air Force Base to fly A-29 close air support attack aircraft. It was an exciting time in my life and a dream come true.”


Shurali returned to Afghanistan in June 2018. Anxious to flex his wings and fly his A-29 in combat for the first time, he was cleared to drop two MK81 250lb bombs on a known Taliban drug manufacturing center in Ghazni Province. “I was so proud. I couldn’t wait to tell my family,” says Shurali, “My excitement ended fast. Once they learned who dropped those bombs, the Taliban threatened to kill everyone in my family. For the next three years, everyone I loved had to change homes and cities every three to four months. It was a constant struggle to stay ahead of the Taliban scouts and their information networks. It was hard on everyone. I worried when I was in the air. I worried when I was on the ground.”   


Stationed at the Kandahar Airfield in Mazar e Sharif in August 2021, and with more than six hundred hours of combat time accumulated in his A-29, Shurali was home on leave visiting his wife and children when he heard the Afghan President fled the country on August 15, 2021, “I told my wife to give me the ATM card to withdraw as much money as we could. I knew what troubles were on the way and we needed to purchase necessities,” recalls Shurali. “On the way to the Kabul City Center, I noticed stores closing and people running in the streets. Cars fled from the city in chaos. I asked a man what happened, and he said the government had collapsed. Taliban were coming. I raced home. I found my wife in hysterics because she knew what the Taliban would do to all of us. I called my advisor in the United States. He told me to stay in my home and help would be coming.”

“We stayed in hiding for several days while the Taliban ransacked and tightened its grip on the city. I called my U.S. advisor every day for guidance. He must have been out of options because he finally told us to try and get to the East Gate at the Kabul Airport. He said our names would be on a list with the gate guards. We encountered over 5,000 people fighting to get in the gates. We saw Taliban everywhere firing their guns at people and in the air. It was chaos. Bodies in the streets. At one point a stranger offered to hold our five-month-old daughter because we were having a hard time carrying everything. He said he’d help carry her while I carried our two-year-old. He disappeared into the crowd with my daughter.” 

For hours, Lieutenant Shurali and his wife searched in vain for the man carrying their daughter. The danger and chaos only increased, and finally they decided they could double their chances of finding her if they split up and communicated by cell phone. Shurali held firm to his son as he moved through the crowd and texted his wife every few minutes. The Taliban sought out anyone from the Afghan military and government, and there was great danger in being recognized. Random gun fire pushed the crowds of thousands in different directions. “In one of the surges, my son and I got forced inside the gates, and we found our daughter. I called my wife and said to come meet us at the gate. There was yelling and gunfire and I could barely hear her, but I told her we were just on the other side. She cried and said she could not get through the crowds.”

“For four days we tried, and each day the violent mobs forced my wife back. Each day the Taliban closed in further. She was a woman traveling alone and unable to find a safe route to the airport. If caught and recognized, she would be raped, tortured, then killed. All I could hear was the sound of constant gunfire in the city. My heart sank every time I heard a gun go off because I thought they’d found my wife. On the fifth day, all my electronic devices ran out of battery. The last time I spoke to my wife, with both of us on Afghan soil, she told me to get on the plane and take our children to safety in the United States. Maybe someday she could get there too. I had to make the hardest choice a husband and father will ever make - sacrifice my wife to save our children.”

Lieutenant Durali was evacuated with his two children to the United Arab Emirates on August 24, 2021 and from there to a refugee camp on a military base in the United States a month later. In late fall, he was relocated to Arizona where he is raising his two children as a single father hopeful he can someday be reunited with his wife. The Underwood Foundation assists with clothing, food, and childcare costs which allows Obaidullah Shurali to enter the U Cadet Program and move forward with a career in commercial aviation. ∎

In 2010, the Afghan Air Force recalled young officers to active duty due to a shortage of pilots. One of those was Mohammad Nabi, a language teacher in a local school and an Afghan Air Force Lieutenant. Upon resigning his teacher position and joining the pilot training program, Mohammad Nabi was sent to the United States in 2011 to the Defense Language Institute (DLI) at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

"My father passed away in Afghanistan while I was at DLI Lackland AFB, but I was unable to attend the funeral due to the time constraints of the training schedules,” says Nabi. “We were a family of eleven. My father and I were the sole income earners to support our entire family. Since he passed away, all the responsibility now fell on my shoulders. It was very difficult to be in a foreign country [USA]; away from my family, studying, and being moved from base to base, but I knew I had to serve my homeland and support our U.S. allies, so I stayed focused and earned my wings in early 2013.”

Nabi returned to Afghanistan flying C-208’s and after a year, the U.S. advisors recommended he return to the United States for A-29 training so he could better support friendly forces during ground operations. In 2014, Nabi commenced training in the States with the A-29 Super Tucano. In 2016, he returned to Afghanistan and provided ground support in the province where he lived; which had become unstable during his absence.

“Shortly after my return,” says Nabi. “My family and I received death threats, and I had to move them to Mazar-e-Sharif which was safer, but I had to split them in two groups and still provide for all of their expenses as they were all young and students. It was a very hard time.”

In 2016, U.S. advisors recommended Nabi for the Instructor Pilot course, and he went to the United States for a third time for training. Away from his family for more than a year, Nabi returned to Afghanistan in 2017 and commenced night and day operations and also taught young future pilots. During this time, now Lieutenant Colonel Nabi, was shot down on a combat mission and managed to make his way back to friendly lines. 

"Every minute of every day was consumed with protecting Afghan and Allied forces on the ground,” says Nabi. “We were workhorses. The heavy surge of missions gave me little time for rest, and we weren’t even able to recognize our most sacred religious holidays.”

Muslims from all over the world would celebrate Ramadan in unison, except Nabi and his pilots. Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam but Nabi and his team weren’t afforded a moment to reflect and worship in peace.  

On the morning of August 15, 2021 Nabi’s squadron was in the team room waiting for the daily brief when chaos erupted in the city. His squadron learned ground troops were abandoning established positions; some on their own, some ordered by their chain of command. Nabi called his Commander and proposed several missions to protect Kabul city from the Taliban. While waiting for clearance to scramble aircraft and defend the city, some of the pilot’s cell phones stopped working, and Nabi had to borrow a phone to reach out to his U.S. advisors.

“They told me it would be best to get as many planes out as possible and fly to the UAE,” says Nabi. “While assembling our aircraft, our Aghan Air Force Commander called everyone to the ramp and said Kabul had fallen. He told us to gather as many planes and pilots as we could then fly our planes to Uzbekistan. All of us had to abandon our families. There wasn’t a chance to arrange for their safety or even to say good-bye. I left my wife and children knowing the Taliban would kill the families of Afghan pilots who fought alongside and supported the United States. Pilots and pilot families are at the top of the Taliban’s most wanted lists. I sacrificed, once again, for my country and for our allies.”

“We took off from Kabul in a three-ship formation to Uzbekistan. Upon arriving at Termez, the tower told us we could not land. When I suggested Qarshi airport as an alternative, the tower would not respond to my calls. When we arrived at Qarshi, all the runway lights were off. I did a low approach and determined it was impossible to land in the dark. I told my two wingmen we were returning to Termez. As we made our turn, Uzbekistan MiG 29’s fighter jets intercepted us. They circled around behind us, and after about two minutes I felt my plane shudder and a flash of light erupted in my cockpit. The MiG had rammed my plane and I began spiraling towards the ground. I pulled the ejection handle, separated from my plane, and launched into the darkness. When my feet hit the ground, the Uzbekistan Police were already waiting for me. I knew I was seriously injured. I could barely stand and my left eye seared. They searched me and took me to a hospital for treatment.”

After a week in the hospital, Uzbekistan Police loaded Nabi and another pilot (who was also forced down) into the trunk of a Russian military style Jeep and moved them to a humanitarian camp. During this time, the Police kept possession of their phones and wallets. On the night of September 12th, LTC Nabi reunited with American forces where they transferred him to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Doctors x-rayed his back and discovered thoracic and lumbar fractures. In addition, LTC Nabi could not see out of his left eye because of the explosion in his cockpit.

A month later, October 2021, LTC Nabi arrived in the United States and was placed in a refugee camp on a military base along with 15,000 other Afghan refugees. A representative from the Upperwood Foundation facilitated off based specialized treatment for Nabi with a neurosurgeon and a retinal surgeon. Slowly his back healed; the brace removed, and he started physical therapy. Consultation with several eye surgeons resulted in vision returning to his left eye. In January 2022, the Upperwood Foundation arranged for LTC Nabi to meet with an FAA certified medical examiner to discuss a future in commercial aviation in the United States. On February 5, 2022, one hundred and seventy-four days after the fall of Kabul, the Upperwood Foundation picked up LTC Nabi from the refugee camp and transported him to a Residence Inn by Marriott. The LTC has only the uniform he was wearing on August 15th, a set of clothes given to him in the UAE, and clothes provided by a volunteer.

We nicknamed the Residence Inn “FOB Scratch” because FOB stands for “Forward Operating Base” and a term commonly used for outposts in Afghanistan. “Scratch” – well because LTC Nabi is starting from scratch and is one of the pioneers in the Upperwood Foundation’s U Cadet Program – a program that will utilize his thousands of hours of flight experience, and years of training in the United States, to propel (pun fully intended) towards a career in commercial aviation. It’s a time of opportunity and excitement tempered with one harsh reality.

“My family did not make it out of Kabul on the evacuation planes,” laments Nabi. “My wife and children keep changing their location trying to stay ahead of the Taliban. They are being hunted. I can only hope the Taliban won’t find them, and I can bring them to the United States.”  ∎