HARTFORD, Conn. — After nearly two decades the last U.S. troops have left Afghanistan.
Among the thousands of Americans who served in the United States' longest war, were people from Connecticut. Those veterans have been watching the withdrawal from Afghanistan unfold.
"I've had a lot of emotions the past couple of weeks, and I know that a lot of my fellow Afghanistan veterans have as well," State Representative Matt Blumenthal told FOX61. "And I think we've been very conflicted, feeling many of us, that it is time for the war to come to an end but also dealing with difficulties that putting the end of that war into perspective and our own service within it."
Blumenthal served as a Marine infantry officer in 2011. He said the U.S has a moral duty to help our Afghan allies escape as the Taliban takes over.
"Many of these people had great personal risk... worked as interpreters or contractors or security guards or in other roles where the Taliban was targeting them, and they are at risk today," he added. "And they did that based on the promise in part that we would keep them safe."
Retired Army Sergeant First Class Micah Welintukonis agreed.
"There's a lot of people that put their lives on the line for us to help us out and our allies. I think it's only due turn that we should help them out," he said.
Welintukonis' service in Afghanistan ended in 2012, when he was shot and took a direct hit from a suicide bomber, putting him in a coma.
The war changed his life forever.
"I was so close to it that shrapnel went through my protective vest into my abdomen. So, I had to have an abdominal resection, and some other stuff done. So, I have to get back injections and have other disabilities and constant pain," Welintukonis explained.
He put a call out on social media to others who have served offering a shoulder to lean on, from someone who understands their feelings.
He had a message for them:
"We did a ton of good over there. Something that the Taliban cannot take away or any ISIS anything that pops up, is we taught people literacy you can't take that away. We gave them a taste of freedom, we gave them hope, we gave them love and we showed them true American values," Welintukonis added.
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