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Following nearly 20 years of occupation, Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue – the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg, N.C. – is the last American soldier to have set foot in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps posted an image Monday of Donohue boarding a plane at night, marking the completed withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from the war-torn country ahead of the Biden administration’s Aug. 31 deadline.
“In awe of our Sky Dragon Soldiers,” the unit posted on Twitter. “This was an incredibly tough, pressurized mission filled with multiple complexities, with active threats the entire time. Our troops displayed grit, discipline and empathy. Below is a picture of the last Soldier to leave Afghanistan.”
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, left, is shown here Monday being the last American soldier to depart Afghanistan. (U.S. Army/XVIII Airborne Corps)
ARMY POSTS IMAGE OF LAST US SOLDIER TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN
Prior to this moment in American military history, Donahue, the Army says, “deployed 17 times in support of operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.”
“He most recently served as the Commander, Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel,” according to a biography of Donahue posted on the Army’s website.
The Department of Defense described Operation Freedom’s Sentinel as a “coalition mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and to conduct counterterrorism operations against the remnants of Al Qaeda” following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
At the beginning of his military career, Donahue was “commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch in 1992 from the United States Military Academy at West Point,” the Army says, before serving “as a platoon leader in Korea, Fort Polk, Louisiana and the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia.”
Donahue later moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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“Following his time at the Pentagon, he served as assistant operations officer, squadron operations officer, squadron executive officer, troop commander, selection and training detachment commander, operations officer, squadron commander, and deputy brigade commander (support) within US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,” the Army adds.
Donahue also has served as the “Infantry School Commandant and Director of the Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team at Fort Benning, Georgia” and as the “Deputy Director for Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism, J-3, for the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C.,” according to the Army.
Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report.
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