Mulakhil rushed out the back door of his house in Afghanistan on Aug. 14, 2021, as his country was on the brink of collapse. He heard his wife sobbing. His two-year-old son called out, “Papa, papa.”

“I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to my son,” Mulakhil said. “It’s a day I will never forget.”

One day later, the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul, marking the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban rule.

He fought the Taliban for years. Now in Wisconsin, he hopes to reunite with his family

Durani spent 12 years in the Afghan Air Force fighting the Taliban. He now lives in Milwaukee, but has been separated from his wife and children for four years.

Mulakhil said his life was at risk, so his supervisor from the Afghan Army helped him get into the Kabul airport to escape on one of t

See Full Page