The true story of how Army paratroopers traded two cans of dipping tobacco for a Toyota outfitted with an anti-aircraft gun used to secure the Kabul airport ... (Thanks Marc!)

 

On Aug. 17, when the Afghan troops informed Bravo Company that they were moving to another area of the airport, the paratroopers asked if they wouldn’t mind handing over the keys.

“There were two guys standing by the truck, and we asked them if they had the keys,” Al Lami said. “They were like, ‘Yeah we do have the keys.’ And they gave us the keys for two cans of dip.”

That piece of the story from those first few days in Kabul could soon be coming to the 82nd Airborne Division Memorial and Museum at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The truck served as a primary deterrent to Taliban fighters as U.S. troops landed in Kabul to assist with the massive evacuation effort there. 

And the only reason U.S. troops knew how to use it was thanks to an Army paratrooper born in Iraq, who served six months of a mandatory service obligation in the Iraqi military before coming to America.

The truck is currently in Kuwait awaiting approval to be brought to the U.S.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-paratroopers-toyota-technical-kabul-airport/