C-17

— During the evacuation operation, as US Air Force C-17s began steadily arriving at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Duncan wrote that airmen from the personnel recovery task force began tracking passengers departing the airport. […] In describing the frenetic scene at the airport, Duncan writes that, moments after a C-17 cargo aircraft took off with Afghans clinging to its side, two of the Wing’s HC-130J combat rescue aircraft took off with barely any runway to spare, skimming 10 feet above the heads of the crowd that had swarmed the airport during the evacuation efforts.