Local veterans say they fear Washington D.C. is unfit to run military
News 11's Cody Lee sits down with vets following the deaths of U.S. service members in Kabul
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Many local veterans not taking the news coming out of Kabul lightly and some even feel like they have lost one of their own. We sat down with a group of veterans Thursday afternoon. All of them agree there was no secure plan in place to safely execute this evacuation mission.
“I'd you haven’t lived it and smelled it and died it. You don’t have a clue,” said Steve Keith, a Vietnam War veteran.
David Marso, another Vietnam War veteran says, “it's like somebody just killed your kids.”
“This only gets sadder. This is the tip of the iceberg I’m afraid,” U.S. Navy veteran, Curtis Clark confessed.
This is just some of the reaction over at the American Veterans of Yuma.
Among the group is Steve Keith. He feels like America is in the same boat as when we left Vietnam more than 40 years ago.
“These are our brothers' and sisters' lives. These are real people. I heard that on tv this morning and it took me back to Vietnam. It was Saigon. We ended up leaving Saigon the same way we are leaving Afghanistan. The terrorists won,” Keith explained.
After his experience fighting for our Country, Keith feels the U.S. will never win wars out of Washington D.C., admitting generals on the ground should be in charge.
The military is an apolitical branch of government but Keith believes both Democratic and Republican politicians are to blame - with no immediate action taken.
David Marso says this may not be the end of the bloodshed.
“It's only going to get worse because they are not afraid of Biden. They’re not. They always do what they want, get away with it. We could stop it in a minute if we had a backbone for a president. But we don’t." Marso added.
Korean War veteran Mike Condon, says the military’s youngest personnel always get the brunt of the destruction.
“They’re all 18, 19, 20, 21-year-olds. Most of the people that are dying were kids." News 11's Cody Lee asked if he thinks thats how it is in Afghanistan right now. "Absolutely," Condon replied.
We have reached out to MCAS Yuma and a spokesperson can confirm that no marines have been deployed over to Afghanistan.
MCAS Yuma adds the service members over there are from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit based out of Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
