Summary of Saving Aziz By Chad Robichaux: How the Mission to Help One Became a Calling to Rescue Thousands from the Taliban

By Willie M. Joseph

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Saving Aziz By Chad Robichaux: How the Mission to Help One Became a Calling to Rescue Thousands from the Taliban

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Saving Aziz is the story of two war heroes and friends, Aziz and Chad Robichaux, who were brought together by war and a brotherhood forged through years of battling for freedom. When President Joe Biden announced the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Robichaux and the rescue team began to work to get Aziz and his family out before Taliban forces took over the country. The book highlights the resilience of Afghanistan and its people, the twenty-year war that took place under four presidents, and the work that's still to be done. It is about breaking down prejudice and apathy, and why risking it all is worth it when it comes to loving one another.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Feb 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215408988

Willie M. Joseph

Willie M. Joseph summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

Book preview

Foreword by Glenn Beck

Chad and David Barton met in 2016 and bonded over their shared love of history, dependence on faith, and desire to use their struggles to pay it forward. When the debacle in Afghanistan began, they joined forces to save as many people as possible from the Taliban, including Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs). Aziz was one of these SIVs and was Chad's interpreter on all eight of his deployments to Afghanistan as part of a Special Operations Task Force. He saved Chad's life at least three times and his children still call him Uncle Chad. The two men became brothers willing to die for each other when President Biden announced that all American troops would be out of Afghanistan by the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, putting the lives of thousands of SIVs in danger.

Chad and his team rescued seventeen thousand Afghan refugees from the Taliban, including Aziz and his family, in August 2021. The rescue effort involved business leaders, politicians, and veterans from the special operations community, and was funded by Mercury One and the Nazarene Fund. They were able to raise $15 million in three days, and about $46 million when all was said and done. However, they were not the people who could actually get these refugees and SIVs out of Afghanistan, as they lacked a network on the ground that could go in and get people, shelter them, and get them around Taliban checkpoints. The most important details in this text are that Chad and other honorable Americans achieved a bigger rescue effort than the Berlin Airlift by private citizens, like the 1940 evacuation of British soldiers from Dunkirk by average British citizens with their own boats and yachts.

This was a modern-day Dunkirk, where people from all walks of life, all income levels, and all parties come together and say, This is wrong! This made Chad ashamed of our government, but also made him proud of the American people. Our national honor may have meant nothing to those in Washington, DC, but it meant everything to countless Americans. Chad and his team made it possible to witness the glory of the average citizen at Dunkirk, inspiring me to keep fighting for the sacred honor of our country and its honor. On June 4, 1940, Winston Churchill spoke before the House of Commons and described it as a miracle of deliverance, inspiring the British people to fight on. The American people are fundamentally good and decent, ready and willing to band together in acts of love, mercy, and sacrifice. I hope you come away from Saving Aziz with the same hope it gave me and a renewed conviction that we, too, must never surrender.

Preface

AZIZ OPENED THE DOOR as soon as I knocked, and I noticed tears in his eyes as we reached out to embrace. My heart filled with relief and joy as Aziz's long, thick arms squeezed me tight. I broke the embrace when I noticed his six kids racing toward me, and Mashkorallah, who had pleaded for my help through video messages, buried his face into my hip. I scooped him up to hold him close, and Kahtera, Aziz's wife, remained at the back of the room. I placed my right hand in front of my heart, and she returned the gesture.

We said Salaam Alaikum, and the traditional Afghan greeting seemed appropriate as, finally, after six years of futile wrangling with the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process and four months of increasingly distressed phone conversations and WhatsApp messages, Aziz and his family could look forward instead of over their shoulders. After I returned home, our communications had to be limited for a few years, but through social media, I could check in on how the kids I'd shared meals and kicked soccer balls with were growing up.

On April 14, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that all US troops in Afghanistan would be out of the country in time for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. This sparked a coalition of nonprofits' efforts under the name Save Our Allies to rescue Aziz, a welcomed guest in his country with a shared purpose of securing freedom for his people and making the world a safer place. When Aziz's family attempted to approach the airport, the increasing presence of Afghan resistance fighters, random violence, and the thousands of freedom-seekers gathered there prevented them from making it to the gates. The Taliban was adding checkpoints throughout Kabul, making it progressively difficult to reach the airport's perimeter. The most important details in this text are the story of Aziz and his family, who were rescued by Save Our Allies after their seventh attempt to reach the airport was thwarted by Taliban gunfire.

Sean, a US special operator, contacted a small team of US special operators who drove outside the airport gate, loaded Aziz and family into their armored vehicle, and ushered them through the gate. Aziz's family arrived at the humanitarian center a few days later, where they were part of the more than five thousand vulnerable Afghans there who were rescued. The story illustrates how one man's desire to save another man's life became so much more than just a desire; it was the right thing to do, and someone had to do it.

Perspective

Aziz's invitation to come to his house and watch the 2004 US presidential election caught me off guard. I was on my first deployment to Afghanistan as a Force Recon Marine serving on a Special Operations task force in Afghanistan as part of the special operations forces (SOF) community. Aziz was my interpreter and my trust in him ran so deep that he remained my terp and more so my teammate for all eight of my deployments through 2007. His family was throwing a party to watch the results come in for the election, and Aziz described their election party as we would a Super Bowl party back home. Bink, another Force Recon Marine, accompanied